In the fields of transport planning and transport policy centered on urban transport, the Transport Policy and Planning Research Division, together with the Transport Research Division, is proceeding rational and democratic planning and its achievement, including the development and dissemination of the essential technology that can bring about the accountability, necessary to the society today.
Transport Policy Research Division is a new research division which became independent from the Transport Research Division in 2001. It aims at further upgrading research through the introduction of policy viewpoints such as the investigation of policy development strategies and policy priorities whose objectives and bases have been clarified by the transport planning expertise of the IBS, securing the consensus building of relevant people with diverse values and the systems improvement to cope with present day issues.

• Research for preferable transport planning methods and activities for dissemination: urban transport planning guidance, large-scale development-zone-related transport planning manuals, investigation of the mutually effective use of person-trip (PT) surveys and road traffic censuses, investigation of new traffic survey systems including nation-wide PT and new urban origin-destination (OD) surveys, etc.
• Planning and implementation of transport plans in metropolitan and urban areas
• Comprehensive urban transport planning such as the 4th Tokyo Metropolitan Person Trip Survey, planning for an urban planning and implementation program that targets the cities, consensus-forming surveys of city people, transport pilot program, etc.