“Implementation of sustainable and smart mobility needs magnitude and changes in lifestyles and not technofixed hypes and uncoordinated and far too many pilots!”

Hans Jeekel is a Full Professor in the section of Technology, Innovation & Society of the School of Innovation Sciences at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), and holds the Chair for Societal Aspects of Smart Mobility. His key areas of expertise are urban and rural planning, vehicle technology and transport technology, and traffic and transport studies.

Hans’ main focus areas are the social and societal aspects of smart mobility technologies and solutions (at vehicle level and journey level), multimodality in transport, new and advanced urban mobility systems in the developed and the developing world, and equity in transport. Hans believes that designing and developing technological applications should be more strongly linked to the major societal issues relating to mobility. In his opinion, researchers should adopt a different approach to mobility, taking into account the whole range of issues relating to implementation. 

Hans Jeekel holds an MSc (with honor) in Human Geography from the University of Utrecht and an MSc in Spatial Planning from the University of Amsterdam. His thesis was on car dependency in modern western societies, De Autoafhankelijke Samenleving (2011). Hans worked as a civil servant in senior positions at the Dutch Ministries of Agriculture and Nature Conservation, and Rijkswaterstaat. Between 1999 and 2007 he was Director for Transport and Society at AVV, Dutch Transport Research Centre. 

Hans held board positions in several international organizations and chaired an OECD /ITF working party on the Resilience of Surface Transport Systems (2010). At the moment he also works at Rijkswaterstaat , the Dutch Roads and Water Authority, as the corporate strategist for research, knowledge and innovation. He was chairman of the Board of the Association of European Transport (AET), a networking organization for European transport professionals.