Aging infrastructures
Our civil infrastructures – road, bridges, sluices, railways, harbours – represent a tremendous value and is in many countries by far the largest public asset. Because the peak in infrastructure building in Western Europe occurred around the 1960 and 1970s, large shares approach retirement. Maintenance and preservation of existing structures require increasing budgets, but have in many cases insufficient political priority. However, preserving existing networks deserves economic priority over building new roads and railways.
Innovation is needed to determine the right moment of refurbishment or replacement of aging structures. Too early is costly and too late creates the risk of unforeseen closures. New monitoring systems and predictive models, can reduce the future bill for preserving our infrastructures by tens of percentages.
Publications
Does the Dutch court case against Shell have consequences for National Road Authorities?
Last year the Dutch court in the Hague ordered Shell to reduce its CO2 emissions by at least 45% by the end of 2030[1]. The ruling includes emissions from the… Read More
End of car growth?
Official projections from the Dutch government for the growth in car traffic are too high. The government recognized that car mobility grew slower than expected. Therefore, they almost halved the… Read More
Renewal of aging infrastructures
Many countries face aging bridges, tunnels, sluices, quays and other structures. The costs for renovations and replacements of this vital infrastructure, will rise sharply over the coming years and decades.… Read More
The Future of Mobility
Which forces lie behind the development of our mobility in the past centuries and will most likely shape the future as well? The desire for speed is important, and so… Read More
Car mobility decreases in the Netherlands
Official data show that the average Dutch inhabitant rides now 4% less in cars, than in 2005. See the solid red line in the graph. This reflects the sum of… Read More
The Social Impacts of Road Pricing
The International Transport Forum organized a Round Table, in which I participated as one of the experts. International best practices and new scientific insights have been combined to identify ways… Read More
End of growth in car travel?
Why has the growth in car travel stopped in Western Europe? Read my contribution to the Automotive Megatrends Magazine 2017 Q2. Speed - it's what drives mobility
How can we keep European civil structures safe?
European infrastructure is ageing fast. Many bridges and viaducts were built in the 1960s and 1970s and they are approaching the end of their (design) service life. What is their… Read More
New Mobility
My book ´New Mobility – Beyond the car era’ has been published recently. The coming decades will show surprising changes in our mobility. These result from the driving forces behind… Read More
Asset management of civil structures
Aging structures require a strongly improved management. In a guest lecture at the TU Delft, I sketched the main challenges and the future of asset management. Download the slides of… Read More
Delhi 2050 – Infrastructure and Urbanisation
Together with partners from India and the Netherlands, I have been involved in making a spatial vision for the future of this Indian metropolis. Delhi is expected to have 35… Read More
The Power of Images
In 2011 I presented my preliminary insights into the gap between facts and images during an OECD seminar. My case was the development of transport policy, as I have been… Read More