Dear Colleagues,

With the rapid development of the transportation industry across all the major modes (including road, rail, sea, and air), the number of accidents has significantly increased. Many of these accidents are caused by human factors (e.g., lack of driver attention that causes collisions of roadway vehicles at busy intersections; insufficient experience of ship crew members that causes accidents for the cruise industry; inexperienced pilots taking risky maneuvers during flights). A lack of proper maintenance activities and up-to-date equipment could increase the risk of accidents as well. Some causes of accidents are rather difficult to control (e.g., accidents caused by hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, wildfire, earthquakes, etc.). Scientists and industry representatives are now seeking advanced methods and technologies that could be used to improve the safety of transportation systems. These methods and technologies include, but are not solely limited to, big data analytics, real-time collision warnings, soft computing methods, artificial intelligence, new types of algorithms, new types of materials for safer transportation, and autonomous agents. Furthermore, increasing attention is now being dedicated to enhancing the resilience of transportation systems. Resilient transportation systems are able to quickly recover from the effects of disruptions and prevent the occurrence of additional accidents.

This Special Issue focuses on the latest research outcomes related to safety improvements for different types of transportation systems. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• Accident data analysis and multifaceted feature extraction;
• Injury bio-mechanism analysis of passengers under different accident conditions;
• High-performance materials and structural design for safer transportation systems;
• Multidisciplinary optimization methods to improve the crashworthiness of structures;
• Safety protection for vulnerable transportation users;
• Advanced safety devices and support systems for passengers;
• Safety management and organizational behavior;
• Optimization algorithms (e.g., heuristics and metaheuristics) and artificial intelligence (e.g., machine learning methods, neural computing models) for accident analysis and prevention;
• Innovative approaches for improving sustainability and resilience of transportation systems;
• Human errors and autonomous transportation systems;
• Multi-disciplinary studies addressing safety issues associated with transportation systems.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Sustainability.

Dr. Maxim A. Dulebenets
Dr. Amir M. Fathollahi-Fard
Dr. Yui-yip Lau
Dr. Guangdong Tian
Dr. Danqi Wang
Guest Editors

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• transportation
• road safety
• technology