About three months ago, Leon Lurvink, one of the Netherlands’ most innovative traffic designers called me. His message: he’s hanging up his pencil, and he sees me as the successor to his ideas.

Over the past two decades we regularly crossed paths, and time and again we surprised each other with projects we approached in the same way: an integrated vision of traffic and space, a participatory approach, and the courage not to opt for the standard design. That gave us both successful public spaces where people and traffic are nicely in balance.

And now Leon is moving to France, and I’m taking over the baton.

Over the past months we’ve handed over all the knowledge, digitally but also through good old-fashioned books and reports, and talked endlessly about projects and how they were approached. The Living Streets programme is especially relevant right now; more on that later. We’re also going through our network together: Leon to say goodbye, me to get acquainted. Though that goodbye is less final than it sounds. For new projects I can always fall back on Leon, so a warm handover is guaranteed.

The first new projects are already planned. And my door is open for new questions and projects.

Leon, thank you for your trust. We’ll be in touch!