Summer school on Cycling in cities
The TRAIL International Summer School for PhD-candidates, was held for the second time in September 2019. The theme changes annually and this year was about Cycling in Cities. Kees Maat and Serge Hoogendoorn acted as course leaders. From the department of Transport and Planning, also Winnie Daamen, Danique Ton and Alexandra Gavriilidou were involved. Lectures were mainly given by teaching staff from the participating TRAIL universities. We were hosted by the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) and for one day at the Municipality of Rotterdam, in the futuristic Timmerhuis.
The course aimed to provide theoretical guidance and methods to better evaluate and understand changing travel behaviour, in particular cycling, from a multidisciplinary perspective. PhD students can build on the knowledge and research approaches provided. The course consisted of interactive lectures, discussion and practical training. On top of that, two field trips were made, one in Amsterdam with its sometimes hectic bicycle traffic, and the other in Rotterdam, a city that wants to become more bicycle-friendly.
With an average evaluation score of 9.2, we can clearly assume that we have met the expectations of the participants. In the words of one of the participants, Vincent Gong: We spend 4 days in Amsterdam and 1 day in Rotterdam, where we have lectures and cycling practice in both two cities. The lectures given by multiple experts covering various interesting topics, such as, theory, modelling, data, safety, environment and policy. We also presented our own research topics and revised the presentation after 5 days lectures. As a participant of this summer school, I not only obtained wonderful knowledge about cycling in cities, I also extended my network in this research field. It is a fantastic experience during my PhD.
