An analysis of sustainable urban mobility plans in approximately 40 European cities including Paris, Milan, Dublin and London to see which investments in the areas of bicycle sharing, car sharing, road safety and digital innovation are effective and provide opportunities for both municipalities and companies. In this project, I partner up with EIT Urban Mobility, a European initiative for the future of urban mobility, co-funded by the European Union.

For a period of over 2.5 years, I advised the cities of Rotterdam and the Hague, the province of Zuid Holland and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management through the Move programme. This programme focused on ways to use the existing ring roads in a different way, combining them with a new hub system and using the current asphalt network of the A4/A13 motorways in a different way.

Would it be possible to extend the North-South metro line of Amsterdam to Schiphol Airport, using the existing 4 train tracks and thus having both metro and normal trains on the same track? This research is still very topical and an option in 2024.

Over the past 5 years, Prof. Rob van der Bijl and I have studied the development of the various transport networks in Metropolitan Area’s like Paris, Randstad (Holland), Rotterdam Harbour, Istanbul, ringroads of Amsterdam/Utrecht/Rotterdam, with special emphasis on network development in the suburbs, both tangentially and radially.

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The 2019 report of the Dutch government on the future of public transport in 2040 barely discussed the opportunities and possibilities to use the asphalt in a structurally different way, that is, as a network. This resulted in the founding of the Bus Rapid Transit working group, for which I extensively analysed, calculated and visualised best practices from all over the world in the field of Bus Rapid Transit.

What is the potential if we extend the current national train networks in Europe to just across the border? And what if the ticketing system for European train travel is improved? After very extensive research for the European Commission, I wrote this research report and made 2 films and 2 podcasts.

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I am the founder of the Metropolitan Mobility podcast, which has over 150.000 listeners. During these podcasts, I have interviewed over 150 different experts from all over the world, who give new insights into the world of mobility.

I started making podcasts 5 years ago, and have since become a professional podcaster, assisted by a production and editing team consisting of Andy Clark and Richard den Haring (Studio Lijn 14 and ex- BBC).

I invested in Tim Kreukniet’s company Energy Transition New York, as a way of stimulating Dutch Cleantech companies in the United States. Some of its most notable successes is EV-BOX USA, a company selling Dutch charging poles (https://www.evbox.us/).

In 2014, FastNed founder Bart Lubbers approached me with the idea of exploiting fast-charging stations in the Netherlands. Fastned extended its network to England and Germany and has been listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange since 2019.

Proud? Definitely!
After a discussion regarding new policies, I proposed the idea to let people experience an alternative form of transport to and from work. So that they could experience what worked for them, rather than just talk about it.
Over a period of five years, 200 corporate companies, such as Unilever, EY, and Microsoft made their approximately 10,000 employees leave their car at home for a month. They let them experience what it was to ride a bike to work, use public transport or try another form of transport. The result: after five years, 30% of the employees had structurally changed their means of transport.
And more importantly: following this experiment I gave over 50 workshops at companies such as Unilever and Eneco, in order to change their mobility policies.

In 2008, when electric means of transport started emerging, I was involved in the introduction of these means of transport (electric bicycles, cars, buses and, as a long-term project, lorries) in the Netherlands, founding a branch association called DOET (Dutch Organisation for Electric Transport, www.doetdoet.nl).
Furthermore, I was a member of the Formule E-team, a public-private partnership aimed at stimulating the development of electric transport in the Netherlands, and helped 50 corporate companies change their fleet management regime as well as their company policy regarding transport.

In 2004, I started the process of importing traditional Thai tuk-tuks from Bangkok to Europe, founding the Tuk Tuk Company together with a friend. A couple of years later, we were the first company in Europe allowed to drive a commercial tuk-tuk taxi.
In 2009, we founded the first factory to produce electric tuk-tuks, which were even exported to the USA.
I had been walking around with the idea of writing a book about my first steps as an entrepreneur for quite a while before I actually put pen to paper.
Eventually, I published my book ‘De Tuk Tuk Company’ in 2019. It tells the tale of all the mistakes I made and the adventures I came across when starting my first company.
Order the book and find out a lot more about me (only in Dutch!).

Order the book ‘De Tuk Tuk Company’ here for free

I published 3 books:
1) De Gulden Snelweg; My vision on a future on-demand public transport system, illustrated through an imaginary journey. 10,000 copies sold until the end of April 2024, the 5th edition is now being printed.
2) De Meent Amsterdam; An insight in shared mobility for the city of Amsterdam.
3) The Tuk Tuk Company; The tale of my first steps as an entrepreneur, opening up a new taxi system in different European cities and creating an electric version of the polluting Thai tuk-tuk, a first in Europe!
For now only available in Dutch, but an English version will hopefully be available by the end of 2024.