Transport Policy in Post COVID-19 World

The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest disaster that human beings have experienced in the recent history with its impact reaching almost every country in the world. To contain the novel Coronavirus spread, many regions and countries have taken unprecedented steps of partial or full lockdowns and are advising people to maintain social distancing, which has totally disrupted the normal life of people, as well as industrial production and supply chain, and has made the transport system virtually coming to a halt across the globe. Offices, institutions, universities, etc. which are under non-essential categories, are increasingly adopting work from home using online options. This is also making people experiencing different lifestyle, giving more time to spend with family, and more time to focus on other interests and hobbies. While the world will definitely see an end of the COVID-19 pandemic sometime or the other, the scale of disruption caused and the experiences during this pandemic will surely have both short term and long terms impacts on travel behaviour, choices, and preferences for both passenger and goods movement at different levels. This will also have huge implications on transport policy in post COVID-19 world, at urban, national, or regional level, for example, one-day work from home in a week may become a regular policy instrument to reduce traffic congestion and related externalities in urban areas. The objective of this virtual special issue (VSI) is to capture scientific understanding of these impacts and transport policy implications through collection of accepted peer-reviewed papers.

More information available here

IDR AWARD

Supporting researchers with IDR that makes an impact

Emerald is proud to offer a research grant for an interdisciplinary research project in the Social Sciences that has demonstrable real world impact.

Along with ‘impact’, ‘interdisciplinarity’ remains one of the most pressing concerns of the academy. We acknowledge that global problems cannot be solved by the work of a single discipline and require an interdisciplinary approach.

This grant aims to find an innovative research project that promotes action on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)/global challenges, through collaboration of disciplines, methodology and research. We invite submissions that are interdisciplinary in approach, develop the advancement of theory and have practical relevance to benefit society in support of the SDGs.

The Prize

We are pleased to offer a monetary grant of £10,000 – specifically to help with the dissemination of this research and to help it achieve real impact.

In addition, the winning research will be published, subject to open peer review, through our most appropriate publishing channel – for example, one of our Emerald Open Research Gateways or as an Emerald Point.

More information available here

NECTAR - CALL OF PAPERS: Social and Health implications of Active Travel Policies

Cluster 2 of NECTAR (Network of European Communications and Transport Activities Research) focuses on policy and environmental issues and is planning to organize a joint meeting in 2020 with Cluster 7 dealing with Social and Health Issues. The meeting will be held at the Università Iuav di Venezia in Venice, Italy between the 26th and 27th March 2020. The Conference will bring together leading researchers from Europe and elsewhere.

Topics of Interest

Growing concerns over the sustainability of transport systems and a lack of physical activity in western societies have sparked policies aiming to promote active forms of transportation in many cities. While the evidence is growing that these policies indeed contribute to increased levels of cycling, questions remain with respect to the impact of active transport policies on inequalities in health, accessibility and social interaction and the functioning of communities. In addition, while much research has focused on cycling policies, much less emphasis has been devoted to the effect of policies aimed at increasing walkability. Finally, the role of walking and cycling for health and inclusion in cities in the Global South is heavily under researched, while being of key importance to numerous city dwellers. We therefore invite abstracts for presentations on the following (non-exhaustive) list of topics:

• - The role of active mobility in the sustainability of public transport systems
• - Walking and walkability in cities
• - Sustainable cities of tomorrow – the role of active travel and intermodality
• - Economic, environment, social and health considerations in the development of transport systems for active travel
• - Disadvantaged groups and active travel in urban mobility systems
• - Equity of bicycle sharing systems
• - Walking, cycling and inequalities in health and accessibility
• - Impact of walking and cycling on social exclusion
• - Walking and cycling in the Global South

More information available here

PhD Scholarship at University of Oregon

PhD in Planning and Public Affairs

The University of Oregon is pleased announce that we are offering full research and teaching fellowships for new students admitted to our PhD in Planning and Public Affairs. Students pursuing the PhD enroll in one of three disciplinary tracks: Community and Regional Planning, Public Administration / Public Policy Nonprofit Management.

We expect to admit at least three students, who will be fully supported through research and/or teaching fellowships. Applicants must have a Masters degree in a related field. Fellowship support includes fully paid tuition, health insurance, and a monthly stipend.

Prospective students can also learn more about the program here

Bob Choquette, Graduate Program Coordinator: choquett@uoregon.edu

Rich Margerum, PhD Program Director: rdm@uoregon.edu

Call for papers from the Journal of Transport and Health

Special Issue: Health equity, social inclusion and mobility

Transportation is an important social determinant, enabling access to school, work, services, and other important activities in daily life. These activities have political, economic, and social implications. Transport exclusion can manifest as physical barriers, rural or other geographical exclusion, longer travel times, higher travel costs, and decreased comfort and personal safety when using transport systems and public spaces. A growing international evidence base has identified the importance of accessibility and the impact of limited mobility on social inclusion and well-being. The reduction of social exclusion is an important policy goal, which has given an added emphasis to groups who are most impacted by these issues and to health inequities.

Health inequities concern disparities that are avoidable and caused by systematic factors. Socioeconomic status, mobility, and health inequities are tightly linked as the organisation of transport systems and household factors are tied to history, politics, and socioeconomic conditions. Internationally, transport disadvantage exists by gender, age, and socioeconomic status. These inequities are further shaped by environmental exposures (e.g. traffic) that are more common in lower income communities. Over the past several decades, there have been a number of efforts to improve mobility and to reduce the transport systems consequences for disadvantaged populations. An ongoing challenge for communities is balancing population and economic growth, service needs, population dynamics, and liveability. In addition, policies, communities, and technologies continue to evolve. Emerging travel options (and indeed service withdrawal), gentrification and displacement, telecommuting, and policies may support or disrupt efforts to address mobility and health inequities.

More information available here

DPhil/PhD Scholarship at Oxford University

Transport Studies Unit

The Transport Studies Unit (TSU) at the School of Geography and the Environment of the University of Oxford will have one fully funded, three-year Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil/PhD) scholarship available for a citizen from a country in Africa, South and South-East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean or small island states in the Pacific or Indian Ocean.

Applications are open to all but this year preference will be given to a candidate who self-identifies as female. Women are under-represented in this area of research and the TSU is strongly committed to equality and diversity. This studentship will cover three years of University tuition fees along with a maintenance allowance (at UKRI rates). The scholarship will also provide a research allowance, a UK visa (tier 4), and one economy return flight from the country of origin to the UK.

More information available here

Postdoctoral Research Position

BRT+ Centre of Excellence

The Department of Transport Engineering and Logistics (DTEL) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, host of the BRT+ Centre of Excellence (www.brt.cl) is currently looking for a post doctorate or experienced researcher to join our research group starting around March 2020. We have a number of ongoing projects on different Public Transport issues in which the successful applicant could participate, leading some and/or collaborating with other researchers at the DTEL on others. We are looking for applicants with interests in any area regarding public transport, ranging from its most strategic to its most operational aspects (i.e. planning, design, financing, economics, social issues, environmental impacts, demand modelling, operations and control). We welcome applicants with the ability to carry out interdisciplinary and collaborative research and an interest in the role transportation plays in urban sustainability.

Job Description: We offer an attractive opportunity of a job in the field of urban mobility within an international and interdisciplinary academic setting. Candidates need not be fluent in Spanish at the moment of applying as we welcome applications from within and outside Chile. They must exhibit excellent oral and written communication skills and an aptitude for teamwork. While industrial experience is desirable, a strong commitment to rigorous and relevant research is essential.

More information available here

Call for papers for the Special Issue

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour - Call of Papers

The cost of road traffic crashes is disproportionately borne by countries, with a greater percentage occurring in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Fatality rates in these countries are more than twice that in the high-income countries (HICs). Baseline information is needed to have an idea of the problem but this is very scarce in most developing countries. According to WHO (2013), data pertaining to road safety in the LMICs is still grossly inadequate for planning, implementing and evaluating road safety interventions and without data, it is difficult to improve safety. Data do exist but there is concern over the reliability resulting especially from data collection methods. Success could be achieved by laying emphasis on the importance of research and improving data collection methods. This will help in the diagnoses of problems and development of evidence-based road safety measures to address specific problems. Much research into driver behavior in LMICs is based mainly on subjective and self-report data. This is in contrast to much of the research published on the subject in HICs which uses empirical research methods. Qualitative and quantitative empirical data are vital in road safety research and encompass data and related collection methods ranging from verbal data, on-site surveys, in-depth interviews and focus group interviews, driving simulator and naturalistic driving studies to analyses based on the observation of vehicle data, road environment and road user behavior. Empirical data is therefore needed to assess the safety performance of currently existing traffic systems and to evaluate possible interventions in LMICs. We believe that due to differences in traffic culture, attitudes to safety measures and differences in modal share and vehicle types, not all research performed in HICs is directly relevant to LMICs.

This special issue aims to provide a forum in which to better understand empirical research being carried out in the area of driving behaviour and road safety in LMICs and to stimulate new research for the next decade. It is dedicated to examples of empirical studies carried out in LMICs that provide their own unique contribution to road safety and traffic psychology these countries. Submissions from Africa and South East Asia are particularly encouraged.

More information available here

Job Opportunity - Research Associate in Urban Mobility at University of Oxford

School of Geography and the Environment, South Parks Road, Oxford

The Transport Studies Unit (TSU) is looking to make a strategic appointment to strengthen its reputation of international excellence in social science research on urban transport and mobility. The postholder is expected to extend and complement the TSU’s existing research capacity in GIS, data science and quantitative analysis to address questions on one or more of the following themes: health, wellbeing and justice; energy, climate and environment; everyday mobilities and inequality. We particularly welcome applications of researchers with the capability to develop models of dynamic exposure to urban environments (including built environments, distributions of wealth, pollution and crime).

The successful applicant will be expected to develop an independent programme of research and work to acquire research grants to fund their research activities. You will develop research questions informed by thinking in geography and the themes mentioned above and dynamic exposure to the urban environment; assemble and analyse data to address those questions; and generate original ideas by building on existing concepts. You will prepare academic papers for publication in high-quality, internationally focused, and peer-reviewed journals.

More information available here

Call for papers on Themed Volume: Making Equity Work: implementing socially-targeted urban transport policies

Lower-income and other socially vulnerable groups are more prone to be negatively affected by urban transport decision making. Recent initiatives from governments and international development agencies at different scales have attempted to redress social inequalities associated with urban transport. Despite this being a recurrent phenomenon in most parts of the global north and south there is a gap in the literature regarding the management, finance and policy considerations in making progressive transport policies a reality. Although there is a wide range of literature documenting emerging socially-targeted urban transport plans, policies and projects, there is little debate and reflection in academic circles around the administrative, governance and financial considerations for the implementation and sustainability of such policies. This themed volume is directly aligned with the journal’s theme of transport management as it contributes to the body of knowledge and evidence base about how the management of transport systems and policies can lead to a more progressive urban development.

More information available here

Daniel Oviedo Hernandez and Maria Attard
Guest Editors

Special Issue "Transitions to Sustainable Urban Mobility in Global South Cities: Challenges, Innovations and Opportunities"

This Special Issue intends to bring together new and emerging interdisciplinary research that explores current trajectories, practices and drivers of sustainable and inclusive transport and land use development in growing cities in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and South-East Asia. In a context of rapid urbanisation and economic growth, increasing access to new technologies, and shifts in paradigms of individual and collective mobility, new challenges and opportunities are emerging for global south cities in relation to how to plan, govern and regulate urban transport systems. Such challenges represent a new area of research on sustainable mobility, requiring new conceptual and methodological developments, as well as yielding new empirical evidence of new travel behaviours, perceptions and priorities of increasingly connected citizens and the potential social consequences of inequalities in terms of access to new transport alternatives and technologies. This Special Issue invites contributions from all disciplines related to sustainable mobility exploring aspects of governance, regulation, travel behaviour and distributional effects of new forms of urban mobility in global south cities, as well as challenges and opportunities for more sustainable development. Topics might include but are not limited to the intersection between sustainable urban mobility in global south cities and micromobility, MAAS, informal transport and technology, innovations in integration between collective and mass transit, governance and regulation of disruptions, shared mobility, smart cities, accessibility and social inclusion effects of disruptions.

This special issue is aligned with efforts by the Transitions to Sustainable Urban Mobility (T-SUM) project and the New Urban Mobility (NUMO) Alliance.
More information available here

Dr. Daniel Oviedo Hernandez and Mr. Sebastian Castellanos
Guest Editors

CODATU XVIII Conference

CODATU is an association with international vocation whose objective is to promote sustainable mobility policies through conferences, seminars, training and scientific exchanges on urban and interurban mobility. Since 1980, CODATU has organized every two years International Conferences on urban transport aiming at promoting sustainable urban mobility in developing countries. The objective is to design and propose specific innovative solutions or research paths adapted to the various contexts of these countries. Each time this event takes place alternatively in a different city localized in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Indeed, cities of developing and emerging countries face specific challenges and need solutions, meeting local needs and conditions.
By organizing this Conference in cooperation with local and international partners, CODATU intends to gather academics, researchers, practitioners, local authorities, policy circles, private sector and civil society to discuss persisting challenges and future opportunities, and to share experiences in order to boost international cooperation.

The 18th CODATU Conference will take place in Dakar, Senegal from 9 to 11 November 2020.

This is a special event since the 1st CODATU conference was held in Dakar, Senegal in 1980. It will be a unique opportunity to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of CODATU and to point out the improvements realized since then, as well as the progresses still to be implemented in order to achieve a sustainable development.
The host organization in Senegal is CETUD (Conseil Exécutif des Transports Urbains de Dakar), the local authority for urban transport in Dakar. As a framework for consultation between the State, the local authorities and the private sector, CETUD was created in 1997, with the goal to organize and regulate urban transport supply in Dakar. As it is one of the few local authorities for urban transport in Africa, it also serves as a model to other cities.

More information available here

Call for papers - Learning from the Global South: Mobility, environmental, and health opportunities and challenges to urban bicycling”

As the global population continues to urbanize it is essential to understand the role of sustainable mobility options in decreasing environmental impacts and increasing personal and population health. Bicycles can mitigate the emissions associated with urban population growth, which can be particularly important for the late urbanizing areas of the world like Africa, Asia and Latin America. This call for papers aims to enhance our knowledge of urban bicycling, the ways to encourage and support it, its consequences, and the challenges and opportunities that arise in the Global South.
The landscape of urban bicycling in the Global South is diverse. In some cities, a significant percentage of travelers use bicycles for daily travel, while in others only a brave few do so. For example, in Delhi (India), although decreasing over time, bicycles continue to account for 30-40% of all trips (Tiwari, Jain, & Rao, 2016). In other cities such as Quito (Ecuador) and La Paz/El Alto (Bolivia) less than 1% of the population uses a bicycle (Encuesta CAF). In many cases, income is a dominant determinant of bicycle demand, whereas in others lifestyle factors are becoming increasingly relevant. Differences in bicycle use by gender, age, and purpose are also considerable across cities.
Some cities have institutionalized policies to support bicycling by prioritizing investments and actions in infrastructure, policy, programming, and promotions. Cities like Rosario (Argentina) and Bogotá (Colombia) have built significant bicycle networks over the past two decades and bicycle use is increasing (Ríos et al. 2015), whereas others like Cape Town (Africa) have expanded infrastructure but changes in bicycle demand have been limited (Jennigs, Petzer and Goldman, 2017). For other cities, bicycling remains a peripheral and unimportant travel mode in transportation planning and policy circles. At the same time, and relative to many cities in the Global North, cities in the Global South are relatively more compact, have a high mixture of land uses, have high income and gender inequalities, differing institutional capacities, can have high levels of air pollution, and are laden with vehicular congestion. Furthermore, data are unreliable, conflate electric scooters and pedestrians with bicycles, or are simply non-existent. Given this variegated and changing physical and social landscape, it is timely to examine how bicycling and the policies and approaches used to encourage it are contributing to the sustainability of cities in the Global South.

More information available here

Daniel A. Rodriguez and Olga Lucia Sarmiento
Guest Editors

Call for Papers on Special Issue: Emerging Issues in Sustainable Urban Transport: Behavioral Models and Experiments

Urban sustainable transport research is multi-disciplinary and highly complex, involving the interplay between technology and psychological factors. This special issue offers readers an understanding of the key emerging issues within sustainable transport with special focus on human factors associated with the uptake and usage pattern associated with the new mobility solutions. Key topics include psychological and behavioural research on sustainable transport, experimental study of traffic behaviour, attitudes and behavioural responses to new transport technologies and shared economies and individual behaviour responses. Research published in the special issue will demonstrate a wide range of methods used to conduct research into these increasingly important challenges.

More information available here

Call for papers for the special issue: Planning for No-notice and Short-notice Emergency Evacuation

Despite advances in evacuation planning for disasters, there is still much research and program development needed for no-notice and short-notice events. These can result from man-made threats and hazards such as terrorism, social unrest, or industrial accidents, or from natural hazards such as earthquakes, storms, and other events which provide little or no time for detection, warning dissemination, and alert as well as to communicate with the public and at-risk populations and implement effective plans for evacuation or other types of protective actions. One of the major challenges is to determine whether or not to evacuate from hazard zones (or to shelter-in-place). Another challenge involves sending emergency responders into “red zones” to assess damage, conduct search and rescue, and restore damaged systems.

More information available here