John Lieswyn

John Lieswyn, MET Cantuar, BSc UF, is a former US national road cycling champion who now plans and designs streets for all transport modes, ages and abilities. Starting as the transport planner for Palmerston North City Council, he joined ViaStrada in 2009 and obtained his masters from the University of Canterbury in 2011. John worked on transport projects across the USA and Canada as a project manager for Alta Planning and Design between 2012 and 2015, before returning to ViaStrada. John manages transport master plans, plans and designs street infrastructure and undertakes transportation research and traffic studies. He is an innovator in the areas of automatic data collection, demand estimation, and demand modelling. 

John is also a leading specialist in school and workplace travel planning. Based on his experience with school travel plans in the US, in 2016 John set up the New Zealand Travel Planners group with 24 members representing 14 local authorities. The group’s listserv collates resources and provides a forum for the exchange of best practices in school and workplace travel planning. 

John's NZ experience includes walking and cycling projects in Whangārei, Auckland, Whakatāne, Hamilton, Hastings, New Plymouth, Taupo, Palmerston North, Wellington, Blenheim, Nelson, Christchurch, Greymouth and Queenstown. On behalf of various clients, John frequently presents to elected members. He is an Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) certified Professional Transport Planner (PTP) and chaired the Engineering New Zealand Transportation Group national committee from 2022 to 2024.

John's service areas include:

• Land-use development transport assessments
• Business case writing and economics
• Strategy and policy development
• Transport research
• Safety audits and crash scene investigation
• Data frameworks, monitoring and evaluation strategies and plans
• Public transport planning and design
• School and workplace travel planning / travel behaviour change initiatives / travel demand management (TDM)

Outside of work, John dotes on his Doberman. He is also a member of the Alfa Romeo Club of New Zealand and tinkers with his two fifty year old classic cars on many weekends.