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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Urban Transportation Planner

💰 $62,000 - $115,000

Urban PlanningTransportationCivil EngineeringGISPublic Sector

🎯 Role Definition

The Urban Transportation Planner develops, evaluates and implements multimodal transportation plans and projects that improve safety, mobility and equity in cities, suburbs and regions. This role leads corridor and neighborhood studies, prepares technical reports and grant applications, performs traffic and travel demand modeling, creates GIS-based visualizations, coordinates with municipalities, transit agencies and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), and conducts public engagement to turn data-driven recommendations into funded, constructible projects. Ideal candidates combine strong technical skills (traffic modeling, GIS, data analysis) with proven stakeholder facilitation, regulatory knowledge (NEPA, ADA, FTA, FHWA) and experience delivering transportation plans from concept through implementation.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Transportation Technician / Traffic Data Collector
  • Planner I / Junior Transportation Planner
  • GIS Analyst or Civil Engineer (entry-level)

Advancement To:

  • Senior Transportation Planner / Lead Planner
  • Transportation Program Manager or Project Manager
  • Principal Planner or Director of Transportation Planning

Lateral Moves:

  • Transit Planner / Transit Operations Analyst
  • Bicycle & Pedestrian Planner / Active Transportation Specialist
  • MPO or Regional Planning Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead the development of multimodal transportation plans, corridor studies, and comprehensive mobility strategies that integrate walking, biking, transit, freight, and vehicle operations to support equitable land use and climate goals.
  • Conduct detailed traffic analysis and operational studies using Synchro/SimTraffic, VISSIM, or similar microsimulation tools to evaluate intersection performance, signal timing strategies, and queueing impacts for proposed improvements.
  • Perform travel demand modeling and scenario analysis with TransCAD, VISUM, or regional travel demand models to forecast future travel patterns and assess the transportation impacts of growth, land-use changes and major projects.
  • Prepare Complete Streets designs and concept cross-sections that balance safety, accessibility, parking, stormwater and urban design principles in coordination with engineering, public works and planning teams.
  • Design and oversee data collection programs—traffic counts, turning movement counts (TMCs), pedestrian and bike counts, transit ridership surveys and parking utilization studies—ensuring QA/QC and defensible datasets.
  • Develop safety analyses including collision data mining, GIS crash mapping, High Injury Network identification and countermeasure recommendations to support Vision Zero and similar safety initiatives.
  • Create high-quality technical memos, environmental documentation (NEPA/CEQA support), planning reports, grant proposals and executive-level briefings that translate complex analysis into clear recommendations.
  • Manage consultant contracts and scopes of work for specialized modeling, environmental or design services; review deliverables and ensure timely, on-budget completion aligned with project goals.
  • Coordinate with MPOs, state DOTs, transit agencies, utility companies and adjacent jurisdictions to align projects with regional plans, funding programs, and regulatory requirements (FTA, FHWA).
  • Prepare and submit competitive federal, state and local grant applications (FTA 5307/5310/5311, CMAQ, STBG, RAISE) including budgets, schedules, and performance measures to secure capital and planning funds.
  • Lead public engagement programs—workshops, open houses, virtual meetings and stakeholder interviews—developing materials, collecting feedback, and incorporating community priorities into plan recommendations.
  • Evaluate transit service planning and operations, including route design, headways, stop placement, bus stop accessibility and first/last-mile solutions to improve ridership, reliability and equity.
  • Produce GIS maps, spatial analyses and data visualizations (ArcGIS Pro/Online) to communicate project needs, performance metrics and proposed alignments to technical audiences and the public.
  • Conduct parking management and curbspace studies, recommend pricing, policy and operational changes to optimize curb use for deliveries, micromobility, loading zones and passenger drop-off.
  • Develop and monitor performance measures and monitoring frameworks for implemented projects, tracking metrics such as delay, throughput, mode share, safety outcomes and greenhouse gas reductions.
  • Review private development proposals and traffic impact studies for conformance with local policies and mitigation requirements; negotiate and draft traffic mitigation language and conditions of approval.
  • Provide technical support for transportation demand management (TDM) strategies—carpool/vanpool programs, employer outreach, microtransit pilots and incentives—to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips.
  • Integrate accessibility and ADA compliance into design recommendations, ensuring accessible pedestrian routes, curb ramps, transit stops and signage meet regulatory standards.
  • Coordinate multimodal corridor design and capital project development with engineering teams to translate planning-level recommendations into project-level plans, cost estimates and bid-ready documents.
  • Conduct cost-benefit analyses, life-cycle cost estimates and prioritization of capital investments using cost-effectiveness and equity-weighted scoring to guide funding decisions.
  • Present findings, recommendations and project updates to elected bodies, advisory committees, community groups and technical steering committees to obtain approvals, funding and community buy-in.
  • Develop RFPs, scope documents and evaluation criteria for consultant procurement and manage procurement processes in compliance with municipal or agency purchasing policies.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc project requests and exploratory analyses, producing short-turnaround memos, quick-build concept sketches and data-driven briefing materials for leadership.
  • Maintain and update transportation datasets, dashboards and open-data portals to support transparency and cross-departmental access to analytics and baseline conditions.
  • Contribute to the organization’s transportation planning strategy and long-range planning roadmap by identifying emerging trends (micromobility, TNCs, electrification) and proposing pilot projects.
  • Collaborate across departments—public works, economic development, parks and public safety—to integrate transportation solutions with broader municipal objectives.
  • Participate in project programming and budgeting, tracking grant deliverables, invoicing schedules and ensuring compliance with funder reporting requirements.
  • Mentor junior staff and interns by providing technical training on traffic modeling, GIS mapping, public engagement techniques and professional best practices.
  • Assist in the development and maintenance of policy documents, Complete Streets ordinances, parking management plans and municipal code updates that reflect contemporary transportation best practices.
  • Represent the agency or consulting team at interagency meetings, regional technical working groups and professional conferences to maintain partnerships and share lessons learned.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Travel demand modeling: TransCAD, VISUM, CUBE or regional model experience for forecasting and scenario analysis.
  • Traffic operations & microsimulation: Synchro/SimTraffic, VISSIM, Aimsun for intersection and corridor performance evaluation.
  • GIS mapping & spatial analysis: ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, QGIS for crash analysis, corridor mapping and public-facing visualizations.
  • Traffic engineering fundamentals: signal timing, intersection analysis (HCM), capacity analysis, LOS and delay metrics.
  • Data collection & processing: automated and manual counts, video analytics, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi data, and open-source data ingestion.
  • Programming & data analysis: proficiency with Excel (advanced), SQL, Python or R to clean, analyze and visualize transportation datasets.
  • CAD and plan production: AutoCAD, MicroStation or Civil 3D for translating planning recommendations into plan sets and design sketches.
  • Grant writing & fund management: experience preparing CMAQ, STBG, RAISE, FTA and state/local grant applications and managing grant compliance.
  • Regulatory and policy knowledge: NEPA/CEQA processes, ADA accessibility standards, FTA and FHWA guidance and MPO planning rules.
  • Public engagement tools: virtual meeting platforms, survey tools (SurveyMonkey, MetroQuest), visualization software and clear technical-to-public translation.
  • GIS story maps, data dashboards and public-facing map creation to improve stakeholder understanding and transparency.
  • Project management tools & methodologies: MS Project, Primavera, or agile practices for multi-stakeholder project delivery.

Soft Skills

  • Strong written and verbal communication with the ability to craft persuasive grant narratives, technical memos and presentations for both technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Stakeholder facilitation and consensus-building skills to manage public meetings, advisory committees and interagency coordination effectively.
  • Strategic thinking and problem solving to develop implementable, equity-centered transportation solutions aligned with organizational goals.
  • Attention to detail and quality control in technical analyses, report production and grant compliance.
  • Time management and prioritization to deliver multiple projects and meet strict funding and permitting deadlines.
  • Collaborative mindset with experience working in cross-disciplinary teams including engineers, planners, community outreach specialists and elected officials.
  • Customer-service orientation and political acumen to navigate public concerns and elected leadership priorities.
  • Adaptability and learning agility to adopt new modeling tools, data sources and planning paradigms (micromobility, electrification, AVs).
  • Ethical decision-making and cultural competency to equitably serve diverse communities and historically underserved populations.
  • Presentation and public speaking confidence to represent projects at council meetings, MPO boards and community forums.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning, Transportation Planning, Civil Engineering, Geography, Public Policy or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Urban/Transportation Planning, Transportation Engineering, or related graduate degree (MUP, MCP, MEng).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Urban and Regional Planning
  • Transportation Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Geography / GIS
  • Public Policy / Public Administration

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 2–7 years for mid-level Urban Transportation Planner roles; 0–2 years for entry-level; 7+ years for senior/planning manager roles.

Preferred:

  • 3–5+ years of experience in municipal, regional planning agency (MPO), or transportation consulting environments.
  • Demonstrated experience with traffic modeling tools (Synchro/VISSIM), GIS mapping (ArcGIS), and preparing successful grant applications.
  • Professional certifications such as AICP (American Institute of Certified Planners) preferred; PE (Professional Engineer) or equivalent a plus for engineering-heavy roles.
  • Experience leading public engagement processes, presenting to elected bodies, and coordinating multi-agency planning efforts.
  • Familiarity with federal and state funding programs and compliance reporting (FTA, FHWA, CMAQ, STBG).
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