Transportation Planners

Check out the American Planning Association's blog (https://www.planning.org/blog) and podcast (https://www.planning.org/podcast) to learn more about the field. You can also learn about news and developments in the transportation planning field by reading publications on the Web site of the association's Transportation Planning Division, https://transportation.planning.org/knowledge-center/publications.

Take classes in transportation planning that are offered by professional associations. For example, the National Highway Institute offers various classes, including Basics of Transportation Planning. Search for classes at https://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/course-search. Another great way to gain experience in the field while seeing if this is a good fit for you is through a part-time or summer job in a company that offers transportation planning services. Search for jobs on Web sites such as Glassdoor, Indeed, and LinkedIn, among others. Your school's career services office can help you with the job search. Ask them to also help you set up an information interview with a transportation planner, so you can learn how they got started in this field. Other ways to learn more about this career include participating in job-shadowing experiences with planners and getting involved in summer exploration programs in urban and regional planning that are offered by colleges and universities.