Data-Driven Innovations in Smart and Safe Transportation Infrastructure
A special issue of Infrastructures (ISSN 2412-3811).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 4
Special Issue Editors
Interests: transportation safety; human factors in transportation; driving behaviors; digital twin
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: intelligent transportation systems; highway geometric design and safety; human factors in transportation; traffic operations and management; engineering education
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: transportation safety; driving behaviors; transportation cyber-security; vehicle–road kinetics
Interests: transportation safety; driving behaviors; human factors in transportation; traffic big data analysis
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The continuous evolution of transportation systems is increasingly shaped by technological advancements, urbanization pressures, and the urgent global imperative to improve safety and sustainability. As urban mobility becomes more complex and multimodal, conventional infrastructure—built for predictable, unidirectional flows—faces limitations in addressing emerging safety challenges, real-time responsiveness, and human-centered adaptability.
In this context, smart transportation infrastructures have emerged as a transformative approach, integrating sensing, communication, data analytics, and adaptive control to improve operational efficiency and safety outcomes. Urbanization, climate pressures, and rapid technological adoption are fundamentally reshaping transportation ecosystems. Conventional infrastructure—designed for static, unimodal flows—struggles to address modern challenges, including (1) safety-critical gaps for vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists), (2) real-time adaptability needs in mixed CAV/human environments, (3) data fragmentation across physical/digital infrastructure layers, and (4) emerging risks from cybersecurity threats and extreme weather
Meanwhile, transportation safety remains a critical concern worldwide, especially for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. While post-crash data analysis has long been the foundation of safety research, there is growing recognition of the need for proactive, real-time, and exposure-sensitive safety modeling. Recent advances in computer vision, deep learning, spatiotemporal analysis, and surrogate safety measures (e.g., time-to-collision, post-encroachment time) are enabling a paradigm shift, allowing infrastructure to serve not only as a passive carrier of mobility but as an active monitor, predictor, and mitigator of risk.
This Special Issue explores how data-driven smart infrastructure can bridge these gaps by integrating sensing (IoT, LiDAR, CV data), analytics (AI, computer vision, digital twins), and adaptive control (V2I, predictive safety interventions).We request papers that offer methodological innovations, empirical insights, simulation frameworks, or policy-relevant findings that advance our understanding of how infrastructure can be designed, operated, and governed to support safe, efficient, and equitable mobility in the era of intelligent transportation systems (ITSs).
Dr. Chenzhu Wang
Prof. Dr. Said M. Easa
Dr. Changjian Zhang
Dr. Zhipeng Peng
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Infrastructures is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- smart transportation infrastructure
- AI-enhanced safety systems
- human-centric infrastructure
- resilient and sustainable mobility
- CAV-infrastructure synergy
- security and trust frameworks
- vulnerable road users (VRUs)
- vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I)
- big data in transportation
- transportation cybersecurity
- digital twins and building information modelling
- predictive maintenance
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
