ABOUT NSA HUB
Your strategic mobility & urban planning BrainHub.
We envision cities, regions, and countries shaped by seamless, multimodal mobility systems that connect people to opportunities and places with speed and efficiency at scale. We partner with cities and national stakeholders to shape high-capacity, integrated mobility—delivering fast, reliable access that boosts productivity, attracts investment, and strengthens long-term, sustainable growth. The result is a superb urban environment: greener streets, vibrant public spaces, and excellent quality of life—alongside stronger safety, resilience, and climate performance.
KEY TEAM MEMBERS & PARTNERS
Dr. Nir Sharav
Founder
Founder and team leader — lead author of government-adopted national and metropolitan transport strategies underpinning $300B+ in investment decisions.
Maayan Nesher
Economics and Management
Finance-side leader shaping program economics, strategic procurement, and O&M contracting for major infrastructure delivery.
Tal Eyal
Architecture and Design
Architectural lead on customer-centric station environments for strategic public transport programs; UNESCO conservation fellow.
Dr. Yoav Lerman
Urban and Transportation Planning
PhD in Urban Geography (TAU) — uses space syntax and GIS to link street morphology to pedestrian flows, walkability, and transit performance.
Dr. Aleksey Ogulenko
Transport Simulations
MATSim simulation specialist co-developing calibrated city-scale traffic models for congestion pricing and autonomous vehicle research.
Gal Sinai
Economics & Finance
Transport economist supporting financial modeling and investment case development across strategic planning programs.
Yoav Grospa
Legal Adviser
Legal counsel on regulatory frameworks, procurement, and institutional arrangements for transport programs.
Eitan Nordmann
Psychology
Behavioral psychology applied to transport — survey design, stated-preference studies, and public-acceptance analysis.
Prof. Yoram Shiftan
Travel Behavior Expert
MIT-trained travel behavior pioneer whose Activity-Based Models informed major U.S. metro regions and metro-area pricing and appraisal worldwide.
Eran Melamud
Mass Transit Planning
Mass transit planning veteran — from four Tel Aviv LRT lines and U.S. rapid transit systems to national strategic programs.
Dr. Itai Van Rijn
Data Science
Builds the geospatial and ML pipelines behind NSA Hub's interactive transit analysis tools — fusing GTFS, smart-card, and cellular data.
Prof. Doron Balasha
Technion | Transportation Engineering
One of Israel's most prominent transportation engineers — former CEO of Netivei Ayalon and Yefe Nof, architect of Haifa's transport transformation, and founding chair of ITS Israel.
Avner Barak
PSN | Transportation Strategy & Policy
AICP-credentialed Director & Co-Founder of PSN (Netherlands) — governance, policy design, and institutional frameworks for metropolitan mobility.
Yonatan Lebendiger
Urban and Transportation Planning
Urban and transportation planner contributing to network design and integrated land-use planning across metropolitan projects.
Elad Mokadi
PSN | Transportation Planning
AICP-credentialed transport planner (University of Cincinnati) and PSN co-founder — 12+ years spanning the U.S., Israel, and Europe in bus network redesign and transit operations.
Prof. Ithzak Benenson
Transport Simulations Expert
Innovator of agent-based urban simulation whose MATSim tools for parking, congestion, and demand management inform policy testing internationally.
Yuval Shiftan
Transport Economics & Modelling
Leads strategic planning and advanced modelling — combining discrete-choice, machine-learning, and cost–benefit methods across major transport programs.
Dr. Robert Ishaq
RobertTP | Public Transportation Planning
Public transport planning specialist who doubled Herzliya's bus ridership through evidence-based network redesign.
Carlos Cristóbal-Pinto
UITP | Mass Transit Operation and Planning
Former senior CRTM official with 30+ years delivering integrated authority structures and 180+ km of new metro and suburban rail in Madrid.
Omer Bor
Transport & Rail Economics
UK-based transport economist leading economic appraisal and business case development for major transit investment programs.
Sharon Malki
Public Transportation Operations
Passenger experience and service design adviser for national and local transport authorities.
Guy Kazakov
GIS Analysis
GIS analyst building spatial tools and accessibility mapping for network evaluation and scenario visualization.
Prof. Amnon Frenkel
Urban Planning Expert
Land use, demography, and spatial planning expert whose national masterplan and scenario methods have shaped strategic planning across Israel and Europe.
Dr. Hend Manasra
EnMotion | Transportation Modelling
Technion-trained transport modeller operating and calibrating Israel's major metropolitan demand models.
Anan Maalouf
Urban & Transportation Planning
The New School-educated planner and former Ministry of Transport director — leading regional transit strategies across the Middle East and globally.
Lior Steinberg
Urban Planning
Rotterdam-based urban planner and co-founder of Humankind — leading cycling strategies, tactical urbanism, and street transformations across Europe and Israel.
Shachar Bar
Economics & Government
Economist with Ministry of Finance background — government-side perspective on transport investment and public finance.
Shira Steinberg
Graphic Design
Visual communication of NSA Hub's strategic plans, reports, and stakeholder-facing materials.
Yehuda Elbaz
Public Transportation Operations
Former Director of Public Transport at Israel's Ministry of Transport — led national public transportation operations and policy.
COLLABORATIONS
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS OF TEAM MEMBERS
Preferences for shared automated vehicles: A hybrid latent class modeling approach
Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 125, 103013
2021
Optimal Urban Transit Investment Model and Its Application
Sustainability
2021
What do we (not) know about our future with automated vehicles?
Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 123 102948
2021
Shade maps for prioritizing municipal microclimatic action in hot climates: Learning from Tel Aviv-Yafo
Sustainable Cities and Society 53, 101931
2020
Applying space syntax for surface rapid transit planning
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 128, 59-72
2019
Social justice and spatial inequality: Toward a conceptual framework
Progress in Human Geography 42 (5), 647-665
2018
Network analysis of the Tel Aviv mass transit plan
Urban Rail Transit (Springer)
2018
Does your city need a metro?–A Tel Aviv case study
Case Studies on Transport Policy
2018
User preferences regarding autonomous vehicles
Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 78, 37-49
2017
Transport equity analysis
Transport Reviews 37 (2), 139-151
2017
Mapping national innovation ecosystems: Foundations for policy consensus
Mapping National Innovation Ecosystems
2014
Using space syntax to model pedestrian movement in urban transportation planning
Geographical Analysis 46 (4), 392-410
2014
The impact of travel information’s accuracy on route-choice
Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 26, 146-159
2013
Exploring cruising using agent-based and analytical models of parking
Transportmetrica A: Transport Science 9 (9), 773-797
2013
Residential location choice of knowledge-workers: The role of amenities, workplace and lifestyle
Cities 35, 33-41
2013
The impact of fare integration on travel behavior and transit ridership
Transport Policy 21, 63-70
2012
The influence of individual’s risk perception and attitudes on travel behavior
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 46 (8), 1241-1251
2012
The actual impact of comprehensive land-use plans: Insights from high resolution observations
Land use policy 29 (4), 862-877
2012
The Schelling model of ethnic residential dynamics: Beyond the integrated-segregated dichotomy of patterns
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 15 (1), 6
2012
Public transport versus private car GIS-based estimation of accessibility applied to the Tel Aviv metropolitan area
The Annals of Regional Science 47 (3), 499-515
2011
Which road do I take? A learning-based model of route-choice behavior with real-time information
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 44 (4), 249-264
2010
The combined effect of information and experience on drivers’ route-choice behavior
Transportation 35 (2), 165-177
2008
Transit market research using structural equation modeling and attitudinal market segmentation
Transport Policy 15 (3), 186-195
2008
PARKAGENT: An agent-based model of parking in the city
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 32 (6), 431-439
2008
Measuring urban sprawl: how can we deal with it?
Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 35 (1), 56-79
2008
Geographic automata systems
International Journal of Geographical Information Science 19 (4), 385-412
2005
R&D, firm size and innovation: an empirical analysis
Technovation 25 (1), 25-32
2005
Geosimulation: Automata-based modeling of urban phenomena
Wiley
2004
Geosimulation: object-based modeling of urban phenomena
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 28 (1-2), 1-8
2004
The potential effect of national growth-management policy on urban sprawl and the depletion of open spaces and farmland
Land use policy 21 (4), 357-369
2004
Scenario building as a tool for planning a sustainable transportation system
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 8 (5), 323-342
2003
Barriers and Limitations in the Development of Industrial Innovation in the Region
European planning studies 11 (2), 115-137
2003
Modeling response to parking policy
Transportation Research Record 1765 (1), 27-34
2001
Why high-technology firms choose to locate in or near metropolitan areas
Urban Studies 38 (7), 1083-1101
2001
Demonstration of an activity-based model for Portland
World Transport Research: Selected Proceedings of the 8th World Conference
1999