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

David is a Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and he earned his doctorate in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on the impact that governance and financial structures can have on accessibility to jobs and essential services, particularly for disadvantaged populations. In previous work, David has collected nationwide data on transit governance methods across the United States, and conducted qualitative research on how and why certain areas are left without public transit, as well as ways that some regions have overcome institutional limitations, and provided service to locations that have not opted to participate in the transit system. David is currently examining structural safeguards that helped transit agencies continue to provide service during the pandemic. He has published work developing an internationally applicable measure for fragmentation of transit services in a single metro region. He is also developing a framework for transit governance institutions based on differing examples in Israel, Germany and the United States. Continue Reading David Weinreich

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

Rasha is a master student in urban and regional planning at the Technion. Her master thesis research is about using big data for analyzing and identifying transportation problems. She graduated from the Technion with a B.Arch at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, with a final project that discusses the integration of autonomous vehicles in the urban environment. She is interested in exploring technological approaches in city planning with emphasis on transportation systems. She previously worked at Shaga Studio in Urban Parametric Design, and currently works as a transportation planner at Hend Manasra transportation planning office. Continue Reading Rasha Bowirrat

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

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