Jan Ploeger

Jan Ploeger (1954)  has studied civil engineering at the Delft University of Technology. He is an external PhD candidate, involved in the research on the history of Sustainable Urban Mobility, 1890-present (SUM) of the History Division of the Technology Innovation, Society Group at Eindhoven University of Technology, working on the Connected Histories of Bicycles and Public Transit. Until his retirement in 2019 he was full time program manager at the Transport and Environment Department of the province of Zuid-Holland, charged with the development of a program for the energy transition in public transport and road infrastructure and is involved in the elaboration of strategic mobility studies.

He started his professional career as a consultant on traffic planning and road safety. Between 1990 and 2002 he worked as Team Manager in the Transport and Road Research Division (AVV) of the Netherlands Ministry of Transport. In this period he was an acknowledged expert on cycling facilities and a leading member of the ‘Masterplan Bicycle’ project group.  He was chair of the editorial staff of the CROW Design Manual for a bicycle-friendly infrastructure  (1993, revised in 2006). Led 25 professionals in the field of integral mobility policy research, model studies, social and economic research and land use planning. Around the turn of the millennium he was involved in writing the National Traffic and Transportation Plan as chief editor. After this period in the Ministry he spent ten years as member of the management team of the Interprovincial Association (IPO).  He has contributed to results in the area of financial decentralization and to widening of provincial powers in the field of regional planning and mobility.

Jan Ploeger was Chair of the Department of traffic and transportation of the Dutch Royal Institute of Engineers (2010-2016). He is member of the Supervisory Board of the Netherlands Public Transport Watch. Between 2003 and 2012, he was treasurer of the Stichting Leven met Water. The Foundation was executor of the ICES/KIS-3 knowledge program, part Water.