Road Transportation Carbon Emissions and Decarbonization Pathways

Dear Colleagues,

In pursuing climate goals, transportation has been regarded as one of the primary responsible sectors for carbon emissions mitigation due to its reliance on fossil fuels. Road transport, mainly highway transportation and urban transport, constitutes a major carbon emission source related to vehicle operation during the usage phase and consumption of higher carbon-intensity materials, diesel-powered machinery during infrastructure initial construction, and the maintenance and rehabilitation phase. Given the significant growth of the automobile population and road mileage in the future, up-to-date abatements for decarbonization have been proposed, including hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, photovoltaic highway, green road infrastructure, eco-driving, and Maas travel services. In addition, for urban low-carbon transportation systems, there are complex inter-relationships between internal factors, such as population, economy, transportation, and environment. For road infrastructure, complicated processes and large sources are notable factors due to the diversity of topography, layout and other factors. Recently, advanced simulation methods of complex systems have been shown to be an effective method of managing such interactions and exploring the key feedback mechanisms in complex systems, such as agent-based models (ABM), system dynamics (SD) model, and building information modeling (BIM). For these advanced technologies and methods, their effect on the reduction in road transport emissions still needs to be further clarified. It is critical to understand the level of carbon emissions, clarify emission sources, and map emission mitigation pathways for road transportation carbon emission mitigation. This Special Issue aims to capture the latest research in the fields of road transportation carbon emissions with advanced low-carbon technologies coexisting. Topics of interest for the Special Issue include but are not limited to:

• Calculation and simulation methods for carbon emissions analysis;
• Life cycle assessment on highway or urban road infrastructure;
• Green travel behavior or goods transportation;
• Public transportation emissions;
• Comparison analysis of multi-modal transportation;
• Performance analysis of traffic emission reduction policy;
• Integrated simulation of environment economic policy for urban transport carbon emission reduction;
• Zero carbon technology and carbon negative technology in road transportation;
• Advanced technologies experimental, numerical, or analytical studies.

Dr. Yuanyuan Liu
Dr. Yuanqing Wang
Dr. Huihui Wang
Guest Editors

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