Postdoc position Modelling travel behaviour

For the European cooperation project ENHANCE we are looking for a postdoc to model travel behaviour in (sub)urban areas. The project aims to enhance sustainable travel in small cities and outer metropolitan areas and takes a closer look at the 15-minute city concept. This planning concept promotes that residents have their most important services locally accessible through short walking, cycling and public transport trips and is aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions, reducing air pollution, and creating more healthy living environments. The ENHANCE project is designed to understand the barriers for the application of 15mC principles in outer metropolitan areas and small cities and provide evidence to improve local planning decision-making.

Together with researchers in London and Lisbon you will concentrate on developing a modelling environment that allows the development of future scenarios that enhance accessibility by the provision of transport infrastructure, adapting travel behaviour or (re)developing the city. More specifically you will help develop integrated high-resolution land-use transport interaction models that allow the testing of different scenarios to achieve 15mC-objectives, and support planning practice at the participating municipalities. You will cooperate closely with other researchers in the project that focus on: developing new GIS-based multi-modal composite accessibility indicators designed to measure progress towards 15-minute city goals; and analysing travel behaviour of different societal groups using travel survey and travel app data and applying machine learning and state-of-the art statistical methods. Your modelling work builds on their empirical work and allows the testing of evidence-based solution strategies. Together you will answer questions such as: how much do daily travel needs differ between societal groups? How important is proximity in the choice for facilities? How much does this importance differ between type of facility and societal groups? Can travel behaviour be influenced by adapting urban land-use patterns, or infrastructure provision? Can other incentives be introduced to adapt behaviour?

The project will be carried out at the Department of Spatial Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. You will work as part of the Spatial Information Laboratory (SPINlab), the university’s centre for research and education in Geo-Information Science. During the project you are expected to temporarily work at our partner universities in London and Lisbon (3-month secondments) and engage with local municipal partners. The remaining time you are based in Amsterdam.

Your tasks

• conducting research (0.9 fte) and teaching in fields of spatial data analysis (0.1 fte);
• initiate the development and application of modelling tools that address land use and transport interactions at a high resolution;
• work jointly with researchers at other universities in the UK and Portugal from different disciplinary backgrounds;
• write high quality research papers;
• present research-in-progress at e.g. workshops/conferences;
• initiate meetings and share results with the project’s societal partners;
• contribute to spatial analysis and GIS-related courses of the department.

Requirements:

Requirements
The ideal candidate has recently completed (finalized and submitted) a university PhD in Spatial data science, Land-use and transport modelling, Travel behaviour analysis, or a similar field that is relevant to the project objectives;

• proven experience with spatial modelling of land use and transport interactions;
• strong quantitative methodological skills in handling detailed spatial data;
• a thorough understanding of empirical (behavioural) research;
• a strong interest in supporting spatial planning practice;
• ability to establish own role within the project objectives as independent and creative scholar;
• willingness to collaborate in a group as well as work individually;
• demonstrable flexibility and strong communication skills required to collaborate with international and local societal partner(s);
• proficiency in written and spoken English, preferably also able to communicate in Dutch;
• academic writing skills

Salary Benefits:

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of minimum € 3.345,- (Scale 10) and maximum € 4.492 ,- (Scale 10) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile Researcher 4. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• a position for at least 0.8 FTE. The initial employment contract will affect a period of 1 year. After a satisfactory evaluation of the initial appointment, the contract will be extended for the duration of the ENHANCE project until January 1, 2027.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package
• contribution to commuting expenses

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