Thomas Straatemeier

But urban planners and spatial designers sometimes view the world differently to traffic specialists. My own strength is that I can connect up those two worlds and look for integrated solutions that help develop attractive and sustainable cities for everyone. 

I have a PhD from the University of Amsterdam and a sharp analytical mind. I enjoy making complex matters accessible to policy-makers without distorting the analysis. But I don’t just follow a standard approach: I’m constantly on the look-out for new perspectives, methods, and data to create added value for clients. 

I’m good at combining interests: working from a shared substantive objective and understanding of the problem, I join with the client in finding solutions and measures that work for everybody. I think it’s important to look not only at how we can organise actual traffic more effectively but above all to determine how mobility policy can contribute to the broad prosperity of an area. 

I also think that in our profession we should pay greater attention to the social side of our work and to the unequal opportunities that our mobility system involves. Together with colleagues within Goudappel and elsewhere, I’m attempting to raise awareness of this topic.