TRICS and Vision-Led Transport Planning – A New Era of Innovation and Development

October 2024

Ever since TRICS was first launched in 1989, it has been a project of vision and has been continuously evolving, adapting and improving, to meet the changing needs of its users and our industry. In this article, TRICS Managing Director Ian Coles explains the important role that TRICS will continue to have as the methods of undertaking Transport Assessments change, at the same time as TRICS is moving through its own exciting new era of innovation and development with the TRICS 8 system upgrade and redesign. Some preconceptions and misconceptions about the purposes and functions of TRICS are addressed, putting the record straight and emphasising the importance of its correct use by practitioners to maximise the system’s full potential. The article goes on to provide examples within the functions and structure of TRICS that show the system is ideally placed to remain the much-needed evidence base for vision-led Transport Planning, and also discusses the work already undertaken by TRICS as an independent source of evidence informing the Decide & Provide method for TA’s. It concludes with looking further ahead and welcoming the input of all stakeholders in Transport Planning, as TRICS evolves, adapts and develops, to further integrate with a vision-led future, and to cement its place as the solid, real-world evidence base of survey data necessary for vision-led Transport Planning to become practical reality.