On 8th June 2021, 20 members of Women in Transport gathered for a lunchtime audience with Joan Aitken. The session, organised by the Scotland Hub, was chaired by Fiona Brown from Transport Scotland, and facilitated by Kattalin Atorrasagasti from Atkins. It was the first event since the Scotland Hub launch in March 2021 and the first installment of a series of ’an audience with…’ that the Scotland hub wants to initiate and pursue over the coming years.
Joan’s professional journey
Joan Aitken was Scotland Traffic Commissioner between 2003 and 2019, the first woman to hold that appointment. Now retired, she continues to contribute to the industry as chair of the Glasgow Bus Partnership Steering Group and as a Trustee of Transaid. A solicitor by profession, Joan shared with the group that she actually holds a politics and history degree – and it was through studying economics that she first understood the power of transport to help communities thrive and develop.
Joan’s career and professional development journey is diverse: she trained as a law apprentice, worked for public sector as well as being partner in a law firm, stood in the first Scottish parliament elections in 1999 and became Scotland’s prison ombudsman between 1999 and 2003, an experience she was able to promote as she applied for the Scotland’s traffic commissioner role, emphasising on the importance of people, rather than vehicles or ‘files’, in the transport industry.
Tips and challenges for transport professionals
Joan’s career mirrors her aspiration to constantly seek to re-invent herself and put herself outside of her comfort zone. Whilst she held more and more senior positions through her career, she continued to believe that kindness is what makes a difference in the long term. Her evident passion for developing others goes hand in hand with sometimes doing things without permission and taking risks. What shines through is an incredible authenticity and frankness which helped her building relationships across the industry and showcase her values and motivation to serve communities and lead teams.
In terms of the challenges Joan sees for the years to come, Joan reflected on the evolving narratives around car ownership and inequalities, linked to climate change but also regeneration and access to opportunities and how generations ago some transport modes like the car were seen as the ‘enabler’ and less so today. Funding for congestion relief and air quality improvement will be key to ensure that people can get around and form successful communities.
One particular piece of advice which stuck with me at the end of the session was Joan sharing one tip she learnt through doing mediation training: in times of conflicts where resolution seems impossible, language is paramount. It can help re-framing issues and looking at options and solutions through a different length, as well as reaching compromises, rather than getting stuck.
The Q&A was followed by a short networking session where attendees discussed their main take away points from the audience with Joan Aitken and shared some further thoughts about career development.
Our special thanks to Joan for sharing her thoughts as well as our outstanding volunteers who organised, facilitated and chaired the session.
These are a few comments we received after the event:
‘Joan was an incredibly inspiring speaker with so many interesting parts to her career. It's so good to hear from senior role models on how they developed their careers and her advice was really great about getting out of your comfort zone.’
‘"An Audience with...." format really works well and I'd like to see more of them as well as discussions about how we inspire more females into the transport sector.’
‘I was welcomed and enjoyed the breakout chat’
If you weren’t able to join us on the day, we hope this blog gave you a glimpse of what our events are about. We have a Scotland hub LinkedIn group where you can engage with other members, in addition to our dedicated webpage.
We are always delighted to welcome new Women in Transport members, volunteers and partners. If you’d like to become a member, you can sign up to the network via the website here or contact us at scotland@womenintransport.com.
