In support of Transport Planning Day, Mailys Pineau, senior consultant at Momentum tells us about a typical day in the Momentum office.
My typical day at work…
Always starts with coffee and hellos to the team. We’re a small, tightknit team at Momentum and it’s important to me to always start our busy days with a quick catch up.
I got into transport planning…
Because it was what I was destined to do! I’ve always had a love for architecture and design – and particularly how people use public spaces. I completed a Masters in Urban Planning in London and decided to stay here (rather than returning home to France) to start my career working in people and crowd consultancy. I moved to Momentum 18 months ago to work on projects with a wider transport scope.
I’ve always had a love for architecture and design – and particularly how people use public spaces.
As transport planners we have the opportunity to make a real impact on our cities; great public spaces need room to breathe and interesting things to look at. Thinking about how we can influence those spaces by removing cars, adding seating or designing an area that people want to spend time in is a fantastic challenge.
Transport planning hasn’t always been seen as the most glamorous profession. But it’s so important in urban development and is now getting the attention it deserves. We’re in an almost unique position to contribute to improvements on major issues such as the availability of sustainable transport and air quality
I’m responsible for…
Project managing the work that we do for our clients. This will be different on any given day, but could include co-ordinating the delivery of a highway design, visiting clients or working on proposals across the various markets that we service. Recently I’ve been involved in a proposal for the Stadia market, have worked on a healthy streets initiative and have helped on projects for hotels, offices and residential developments. Every project is different and it’s a real joy to learn from one industry and share those learnings across other areas that may not work in the same way.
The best bits of my job are…
The enormous satisfaction I get when I crack the puzzle. Getting to a good outcome for a client – especially when it has involved lots of discussion and different opinions – is easily the best part of my job.
I also belong to the Women in Transport group and have met so many inspiring and supportive women in the industry this year – the networking and seminars have really helped me to learn how the transport industry works.
And the worst…
Is meeting people who think Uber, or any one single idea, is the solution to a city’s transport challenges!
My most memorable moment
Was getting to a big milestone in a long-term project, which I’d been working on for more than a year. During that time I discovered how vital it is to work as a team – you just won’t make it if you go it alone. At Momentum we work as cross-discipline teams and seeing the development journey that myself and others in the team had been on, with the knowledge and technical expertise we’d all accumulated along the way, was incredibly rewarding.
