My Â鶹´«Ã½ Story: Building a career in transport planning with Ruby Stringer
June 24, 2024
Ruby, a principal transport planner, shares her passion for working within Â鶹´«Ã½¡¯s Active Travel team in Scotland
In the My Â鶹´«Ã½ Story series, our designers, engineers, marketers, project managers, and leaders come together to share how their career journeys at Â鶹´«Ã½ have shaped their lives and moved them closer to their goals.
Tell us about your role¡
I¡¯m a principal transport planner with Â鶹´«Ã½¡¯s Active Travel team in Scotland, which sits within the wider Transport team. I mostly manage projects with one or two other people working for me¡ªmy previous experience isn¡¯t really in the actual design of roads, so I work quite closely with other colleagues who know more about it. Our projects range across the whole of Scotland, so the work I¡¯ve done since I joined Â鶹´«Ã½ has covered Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Argyll, and even Shetland!
What attracted you to a career at Â鶹´«Ã½?
I joined Â鶹´«Ã½ about two and a half years ago when I moved to Glasgow. I used to live in London and during the pandemic I left my job and walked from John o¡¯ Groats to Land¡¯s End¡ªfrom one end of Britain to the other. I walked about 1,200 miles over four months! After that, I wanted to find somewhere new to live. Glasgow was on my shortlist because it¡¯s such a cool city and an amazing base for exploring the rest of Scotland. When this job with Â鶹´«Ã½¡¯s Active Travel team came up, it was pretty much my dream job, so I jumped at the chance to apply. At the time, we were one of the only dedicated active travel focused teams in the UK. I joined the team at the beginning of a period of real growth both within Â鶹´«Ã½ and in Scotland in general, so it was a great time to step into this role.?
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What do you enjoy most about your role?
I love the variety! I work on a really wide range of active travel projects across different geographical contexts, client objectives, problems to solve, and people to work with. One of my recent projects has been shortlisted for a Scottish Transport Award, and I¡¯m really excited to see where my work takes me in the next couple of years!
How has your personal and professional development been supported at Â鶹´«Ã½?
Recently, I attended a workshop at our internal development centre aimed at supporting people at around my level to grow into leadership roles. I received some targeted career coaching, and explored what my goals are in terms of my career (and life really!). I¡¯d never done that before, and I don¡¯t think I would have sought it out myself¡ªit was quite affirming to be selected and offered that support.
I¡¯ve also been a board director for the Transport Planning Society during my time at Â鶹´«Ã½. This involves helping facilitate events, which has been really positive for my professional development and for initiating project opportunities for Â鶹´«Ã½. I¡¯ve been grateful to be supported in that role as it¡¯s been really impactful for me.
What has been the standout project for you during your time at Â鶹´«Ã½?
I¡¯ve worked recently on a project in Dundee City Centre where we created concept designs for a city centre network linking to a proposed mobility hub that¡¯s a converted multi-storey car park. This was supported by Levelling Up Fund (LUF) funding. We worked on the LUF bid, the concept design project, and we¡¯ve been asked to support on the detailed designs. It¡¯s a dream project in a way that brings together many elements of urban regeneration and city centre connectivity, together with a fantastic and really ambitious client. We¡¯ve recently found out this project has also been shortlisted for a Scottish Transport Award so we¡¯re now also looking forward to attending that awards ceremony!?
I work on a really wide range of active travel projects across different geographical contexts, client objectives, problems to solve, and people to work with.
What are your ambitions for your future at Â鶹´«Ã½?
I genuinely love the role I¡¯m currently in. In thinking about where I¡¯d like to head in the future, I¡¯d like to develop my technical skills a bit more and get more urban regeneration and small network design projects under my belt. I also have quite a bit of experience from my previous job in gender and wider equalities in relation to transport¡ªI would like to bring this more directly into my day-to-day work and learn more about child-friendly design.
What are your passions outside of work?
I love being outside! I love walking, particularly multi-day walking and wild camping¡ªit feels amazing to be so self-sufficient. I also love cycling and have done various cycle tours and long bike rides. Coming up soon is a Ride to the Sun which is an overnight 100-mile bike ride from coast to coast on one of the shortest nights of the year, which I¡¯m hoping to do for the second time.
Why should others join the Â鶹´«Ã½ team?
In my role I¡¯ve always had great levels of autonomy¡ªI¡¯m trusted to do a good job. I¡¯ve been supported in everything I¡¯ve wanted to pursue, and I feel really proud of the team that I work in.
For me, working at Â鶹´«Ã½ has been whatever I¡¯ve wanted it to be, and I think that¡¯s a fantastic thing to have at such a large and complex company.
At Â鶹´«Ã½, we put people first. For Ruby, that means growing a career she loves in transport planning with a supportive team behind her.?