Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series: Transport, Environment and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

(1) Introduction

Sustainable mobility is one of the main topics of the current sustainability debate, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Resource consumption and emissions increased in the transportation sector much faster than in other sectors, with no proven decoupling of economic and mobility growth. At the same time, the number of cars has been increasing much faster than population growth, seriously damaging the quality of life in cities. This trend has recently been reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw travelers abandoning sustainable public transport modes in favor of cars or forsaking travel altogether by working from home. There is therefore an urgent need to find alternatives both in technology and in the management of mobility. 

Nonetheless, there has never been a time with so many alternatives, particularly concerning electrification and digitalization, which go hand in hand. Electrification allows a smoother and cleaner supply of urban mobility, while digitalization allows better management and interoperability. Digitalization is also revolutionizing how we design, plan, and operate transportation systems, given that each entity, be it a vehicle or a person, leaves a time and location stamp in the background. While respecting people’s privacy, these traces provide the foreground for massive data-driven research and development (R&D). However, there can be, and have been, investments in the wrong direction. Appropriate new methodological approaches and detailed scientific data on both mobility supply and demand are required for sustainable design, planning, management, and operations that are the preconditions for the transformation of transportation systems.

The sustainability of transport systems is at the heart of public debate and policy. It is also an increasingly complex research area that now interfaces with several other sectors, including but not limited to the electrical infrastructure, education, land use and planning, the economy, and education. New technologies also imply different needs for better understanding and modeling policy impacts, assessment and business model feasibility, the effectiveness of regulations, and behavioral research (e.g., travel habits).

(2) Aim of the Special issue

This Special Issue aims to publish a wide array of feasibility studies, technology impact assessments, business models, and public policies that contribute to transport system sustainability. The Special Issue welcomes research focusing on the impacts of electrification and digitalization on the supply and demand of sustainable urban mobility in a post-COVID world.

(3) Suggest themes (non-exhaustive)

• Full life-cycle assessment (LCA) of electrification or digitalization technologies;
• Supply or demand case studies on sustainable electrified and digitalized urban transportation modes (e.g., public transport, carsharing, ridesharing, microtransit, bikesharing, and micromobility);
• Sustainable policies for the comprehensive carbon footprinting of electrification and digitalization technologies;
• Electrification or digitalization impacts on sustainable mobility management or their business models;
• Transformation research;
• Impacts of electrification or digitalization on quality of life, well-being, and travel satisfaction.

Please feel free to contact any of the guest editors for questions or clarifications.

Prof. Dr. Eran Ben-Elia
Prof. Dr. Eckard Helmers
Dr. Dimitris Potoglou
Guest Editors

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• electric vehicles
• transport decarbonization
• transport digitalization
• impact assessment
• carbon footprinting
• sustainable mobility management