Thomas Van Laake

I am an urban geographer interested in understanding the production and circulation of policy knowledge and planning practices at multiple scales of urban sustainability transitions. In my doctoral research project, I explore this question by examining how efforts to promote cycling conceptualise and enact infrastructure provision across territorial differences.

Though I am a Dutch citizen, I developed expertise on urban cycling policies in Bogotá, Colombia, where I worked on projects related to cycling infrastructure and sustainable mobility policy in Latin America for four years. Previously, I completed an undergraduate degree in Social Geography at Utrecht University, followed by a master of science in Urbanisation and Development at the London School of Economics.

Since 2021, I have been undertaking doctoral research at the University of Manchester, developing a comparative analysis of cycling infrastructure implementation in Greater Manchester, Mexico City, and Toronto. During this time, I have benefitted from doctoral placements at the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico City Campus), the University of Toronto, and the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá). 

Drawing together geographical approaches to urban policymaking, infrastructure planning, and comparative urbanism, my doctoral research project explores how cycling policies and planning practices are carried out across heterogeneous urban contexts. More broadly, my research interests include:

• Urban cycling and mobility and sustainability transitions
• The politics of infrastructural (re)configuration
• Comparative urbanism and policy mobilities
• Planning practices and urban governance across territorial difference
• The geographically situated production of knowledge