Tessa Leferink

The natural freedom you get from getting around by one’s own power has been a great source of joy my whole life. I moved to Barcelona for half a year as a student in 2011 and – being Dutch – bought a bicycle on day one. I quickly learned that whilst being a confident cyclist, the streets of Spain are (typically) not designed for people on two wheels. Cycling was the exception. Ever since, I’ve been captured by the concept of active travel. It led me to research a shared bicycle scheme in England in 2015 and graduate on the bicycle-rail combination in Scotland in 2017 for my MSc in Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics at TU Delft. Parallel to this journey that spanned a decade, the climate crisis caught my attention. Dutch summers were getting hotter and drier. Storms and flash flooding were tangible in the cities I lived. Friends from Scandinavia told me their winters were getting longer and darker, as the white, bright snow was arriving later. In a class on climate ethics, using philosophical thought experiments, the realization came that what we cause ‘here’ can be felt ‘there’. This sense of injustice was an extra driver to not just work on active modes for attractive and accessible cities but sustainable mobility in general for a healthier planet and future generations. Yet I found that changing my own behaviour to more sustainable choices only slowly caught up with my convictions. It wasn’t until I actively engaged with some hands-on workshops based on behavioural sciences that my own carbon footprint decreased. Since, I try to always keep the end-user in mind when designing sustainable mobility concepts and designs. We need to understand personal drivers to change – like enjoying the freedom of cycling, having access to great public transport or being triggered by a story of a friend – to really shift. Interdisciplinary science like the NEON program takes that into account. With my PhD project I aim to build a bridge between science and practitioners in urban and transport planning to help people shift to more sustainable travel choices. Not just because we have to, but also because they make for more fun, safe, social and attractive cities.