Rate My Professor Eva Heinen

Prof. Dr. Eva Heinen is Full Professor of Transportation and Mobility Planning in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich. She heads the Transportation and Mobility Planning research group within the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems, a position she assumed on 1 July 2024. Additionally, she serves as Deputy Head of the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems and Deputy Director of the Network City and Landscape (NSL). Born in 1981, Heinen completed her doctoral thesis titled Sustainable Urban Areas at Delft University of Technology, published by Delft University Press in 2011. Her prior career includes a full professorship at the Technical University of Dortmund, as well as research and teaching appointments at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Leeds.

Heinen's interdisciplinary research investigates mobility and transportation at the nexus of sustainable development, transport planning, spatial planning, and health. Her group examines how built and social environments shape mobility behaviors, influencing health outcomes, emissions, and urban liveability. Focal areas encompass cycling and walking, built environment effects on travel behavior, behavioral stability and variability, psychological constructs such as identity and norms, livability, air and noise pollution, traffic safety, and crime or personal security. Her contributions to non-motorised traffic research prompted the creation of a dedicated interest group at the World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS). Heinen brings extensive teaching experience to ETH Zurich, fostering synergies across departments and institutes. Key publications include her PhD thesis Sustainable Urban Areas (2011), 'The role of attitudes toward characteristics of bicycle commuting on the choice to cycle to work over various distances' (Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2010), 'Variability in baseline travel behaviour as a predictor of change in commuting by bike or car' (Journal of Transport & Health, 2016), and 'Impact of New Transport Infrastructure on Walking, Cycling, and Car Travel in Three English Cities' (Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 2016). Her work informs policy for sustainable, healthy, inclusive transport systems.