A couple of years ago, when I was in Seattle on holiday, I bought a local newspaper. There we were on the far side of America and they're worrying about how to look after the road network, how to pay for it, and how to remodel the city centre so it's not dominated by car traffic! And how to give people places to live that don't create more car dependency. Immediately drawn to the parallels, I was following the interesting debates when across from me in the coffee shop, my wife muttered: “Don't you ever stop?”

Because I've worked in transport, on and off, for 40 years, I find it impossible to do that. Of all the subjects that you can work on, it's the one that touches everybody's life, every day: wherever you go, you're using a transport system.

If you're a transport professional, you can't help but notice things that strike us as a clever idea or a good idea. Or we might wonder how something has been achieved.

Design that adds to the streetscape

Back in the 1980s a transport colleague called Neville Rees used to come back from his holidays with an armful of photographs. When he went to Holland, he came back with a whole documented portfolio of a low traffic neighbourhood!

Personally, I particularly like wandering around Paris, where you can see the beautiful art deco entrances to the Metro. They show how it’s possible to create a cast-iron structure that tells you something very utilitarian – “this way to the underground” – that actually adds to the streetscape. Could the same mindset not have been applied to the gantries we've got across our motorways?

I always find myself on the lookout for examples that are aesthetically pleasing. And, of course, observing that we aren't the only country in the world to have done a fine job of putting up, frankly, hideous things. People think good design is expensive. No: good design is good design.

Always be on the lookout

It's quite common for anyone who is a professional – whether in transport, highways, engineering or whatever – to spot something that's relevant to their profession while on holiday. And if they find it interesting, then it shouldn't really surprise us that they would expect their colleagues in that profession to also find it interesting.

If you're in the business of thinking, “I wonder what the electric car charge points look like?”, when you’re in other cities around the world, you will probably have a look. And if you come across one and think, “that's a clever design”, you would probably take a picture, and come back and tell your colleagues what you discovered.

CIHT members can take part in CIHT Connect’s discussion on “Is it just me?” and share experiences and photos of transport infrastructure taken on holidays.

Professor Steve Gooding was in conversation with Craig Thomas

CIHT members can take part in CIHT Connect’s discussion on “Is it just me?” and share experiences and photos of transport infrastructure taken on holidays.