Transport planning & engineering is about preparing, assessing and implementing policies, plans, strategies and projects. These are designed to improve and to manage our transport systems.

There is a need for transport planning on a local, regional and national level. It can involve understanding the linkages between transport and the future shape of our towns and cities (land use). It is also about changing people's attitudes towards travel to encouraging use of alternatives to the private car.  

Since the implementation of the New Zealand Transport Strategy (NZTS) and Land Transport Management Act (LTMA) the role of the transport planner in New Zealand has changed to the point that planners not engineers are often leading projects, not due to the lack of important of the technical and design detail, but more due to the multi-modal perspective placed on many projects, the need to evaluate these project(s) against others, and the requirements to meet the objectives of the LTMA and NZTS.