Team

Karel Martens is Professor of Transport Planning at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa, Israel) and the head of the Fair Transport Lab. He holds a bachelor and master degree in Spatial Planning (1986; 1991) and a PhD in Policy Sciences (2000), all from Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands). He is an international expert on transport and justice. He has authored numerous publications on the topic, culminating in his book Transport Justice: Designing Fair Transportation Systems, which has been described by colleagues as “ground-breaking”, “a landmark” and “a revolution”. His work has resonated in the research community as well as in practice, as evidenced by numerous invitations for keynote and public lectures, among others in Belgium, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, South-Africa, and Sweden. In 2014, Martens was elected Transport Professional of the Year in the Netherlands, in part because of his inspiring work on transport and justice. Continue Reading Karel Martens

Ian Trivers is a Zuckerman Foundation fellowship recipient within the Joint North American-Israeli Postdoc Track. He will be working jointly with the Fair Transport Lab and The Sam Fox School at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. Ian will take on a neglected topic in transport research: bus stops. He aims to rethink bus stops not only as a vital element of public transport but as part of a fair transport system. He will also study their design as an anchor in the urban environment, as well as their potential in light of new technologies. Continue Reading Ian Trivers

Diana Saadi is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Fair Transport Lab, partially supported by the Fine Fellowship Trust. Diana earned her doctorate from the Porter School of Environment and Earth Sciences at Tel Aviv University. In her PhD, she studied how Jewish and Muslim women benefit from green open spaces in their direct environment. She combined a range of innovative methods, including body sensors, to analyze how different urban environments trigger psychological, physiological and cognitive responses. In her subsequent post-doc research at Tel Aviv University, she analyzed how social, demographic and spatial variables impacted the coronavirus spread in Israel. In the Fair Transport Lab, Diana will be studying the potential links between travel behavior and subjective wellbeing, with a particular focus on generational and group-specific differences. Continue Reading Diana Saadi

Alessandro Piazza is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Fair Transport Lab. Alessandro has a diploma in architecture and urban planning from the Politecnico di Torino and has earned his PhD from the Politecnico di Milano as a member of “META – Social Sciences and Humanities for Science and Technology”. His dissertation focused on better understanding the sociotechnical dynamics of sustainable transitions. By leveraging the insights of ethnographic research, he argued that achieving a sustainable transition depends upon establishing governance systems that are responsive to the evolving moral perceptions around technological innovation. Within the Fair Transport Lab, Alessandro will undertake an investigation into the conceptualization of transportation justice through the lens of relational equality. From this perspective, justice extends beyond a focus on equitable outcomes, to encompass just processes, relationships, and power structures. Continue Reading Alessandro Piazza

Zhengrong Li holds a Bachelor's degree in Traffic Engineering from Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huaian, China, and a Master's degree in Traffic Engineering from Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou, China. He has a background in using data-driven models to address traffic flow problems and optimize signal control systems, including predicting OD demand, detecting traffic congestion, and predicting traffic flow. His experience helped him with adept coding skills in Python and MATLAB and the ability to extract valuable information from different traffic data. He is pursuing his Ph.D. research, which aims to identify people's mobility problems from their travel behavior and establish a method to measure the risk of mobility problems through GPS data. Continue Reading Zhengrong Li

Ya’ara holds a BA in International Relations and Education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (magna cum laude) and an MA in Environmental Studies from Tel Aviv University (summa cum laude). Her master's thesis addressed the issue of vehicle reimbursement as a perverse incentive among Israeli civil servants. She also worked as public relations and data management coordinator at the NGO “15 Minutes – Public Transport Consumer Alliance", where she assisted public transport users to improve the level of services. Her PhD research focuses on justice and equity in employer policies towards worker transport. Continue Reading Ya’ara Tsairi

Wambui holds a BA in Political Science and Sociology from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi Kenya and a Master of Public Policy and Management from Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya. Wambui also holds a Diploma in Public Management from the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile. She has previously worked at Strathmore University as a teaching fellow and is now a doctoral candidate at the Fair Transport Lab at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion. Her Phd research explores financing models of transport services and infrastructure, as well as pricing implications of these models for users of distinct socio-economic backgrounds. Continue Reading Wambui Kariuki

Chebe Polycap is a PhD student at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Chebe holds a Bsc. and Msc. in Geography from the University of Yaounde I and a Professional Master’s Degree in International Cooperation, Humanitarian Action and Sustainable Development from the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC). Chebe has taught Geography in many secondary schools in Yaounde (Cameroon) at the secondary and high school levels for over nine years. He has assisted many candidates to succeed their GCE Ordinary and Advanced levels in flying colours over the years. As a PhD fellow in the Fair Transport Lab, Chebe’s research is on ‘Road designs and walking patterns in urban areas of the Global South’. His critical focus is on how different road designs in urban areas influence walking patterns. Continue Reading Chebe Polycap

Avital holds a BA (Cum Laude) and MA in Applied Geography from Haifa university. Her master’s thesis focused on detection and mapping of temporal changes in land use and land cover in the north of Israel by methods of remote sensing and GIS. Over the years, she has been involved in various social campaigns, the most recent of which was the (unsuccessful) campaign to overturn the decision to delay (and effectively cancel) the construction of Achituv train station along the new Eastern Railway currently being constructed, thus denying a potential 100,000 users of improved public transportation. Her Phd research explores the ways in which rural teenagers in Israel cope with mobility challenges. Continue Reading Avital Arbel

Omer holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the Open University of Israel (with honors) and a B.Sc. in Medicine from the Technion IIT. He joined the lab as part of the Technion MD-PhD program. He obtained his first research experience when working in the lab of Maayan Agmon at the University of Haifa, where he studied the relationship between aging and posture. In his PhD, Omer will explore the links between older adults' mobility, transport modalities and health, with an emphasis on cessation behaviors – when, how and why older adults stop using public transport. Continue Reading Omer Dilian

Einav holds a BS in sustainability from Arizona State University and is now completing her master’s degree in urban and regional planning at the Technion. Her thesis topic focuses on reintegrating children with nature to foster pro-environmental behaviors while at the same time improving children’s health and wellbeing. As a research associate at the Fair Transport Lab, Einav assists Professor Martens with different research activities. Among those is coordinating and writing a report on the social challenges presented by autonomous vehicles, written by researchers cooperating with the framework of WISE-ACT, an EU COST-Action on the Wider Impacts and Scenario Evaluation of Autonomous and Connected Transport. Einav is also the webmaster for the Lab’s website. Continue Reading Einav Henenson

Ebtihal holds a B.Sc. in Architecture from the Technion and is presently pursuing her M.Arch at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. As the recently appointed research assistant at the lab, Ebtihal takes on the responsibility of website maintenance and communicating the team's research results to the Israeli audience through writing short articles in Hebrew (and potentially Arabic). Continue Reading Ebtihal Ragheb

Ben is a master student in the Urban and Regional Planning Program at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He has a M.Sc. in transport engineering from the Civil Engineering department at the Technion. His master thesis research focuses on examining new approaches to street classification and street networks designs based on the urban context and different modes of transport. In the past eight years Ben has been working in the private sector as a transport engineer and transport planner. Continue Reading Ben Erdman