Karel Martens

Prof., Transport Planning, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

Karel Martens is Professor of Transport Planning at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, where he also chairs the Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning. He also heads the Technion’s Fair Transport Lab. Martens is an international expert on transport and justice. He has authored numerous publications on the topic, culminating in his recent book Transport Justice: Designing Fair Transportation Systems, which has been described by colleagues as “ground-breaking”, a “landmark”, and a “revolution”. Martens was one of the initiators of the COST Action on Transport Equity Appraisal (TEA), which brought together European experts to develop a novel approach to the integration of equity in the assessment of transport projects. The key result of this project is the recent volume Measuring Transport Equity, which Martens co-edited with Karen Lucas. Martens is currently WG co-leader and core group member of WISE-ACT, another COST Action, on the wider social impacts of autonomous and connected transport. Martens’ work has resonated in the academy as well as in practice, as evidenced by numerous invitations for keynote lectures and masterclasses, among others in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, South-Africa, Canada, Israel, France, Sweden, and Germany. In 2014, Martens was elected Transport Professional of the Year in the Netherlands, in part because of his inspiring work on transport and justice.