Sustainable Transportation Systems Towards a Low Carbon Transition: Energy, Environmental and Behavioral Aspects

Dear colleagues,

The transition towards a low-carbon society directly involves the transport sector, which is currently responsible for nearly 30% of the total final energy consumption, mostly utilizing fossil fuels and/or their derivatives. Hence, it is of paramount importance to reduce the dependence of the transport sector on such energy sources.

Clearly, this can be achieved by acting on the current means of transport technology (both public and private) and on the transport infrastructures, which must become safer and more resilient, and whose management can be conducted with a vision more suited to sustainability (roundabouts, traffic light time intervals, and so on).

On the other hand, new evidence concerning the modal change from private to the public means of transportation must be considered, since it can provide a strong contribution to the reduction of energy consumption and relative pollutant emissions.

Additionally, the path leading to the creation of smart cities tends to establish a strong link between urban transportation and buildings. The latter are, in fact, increasingly seen as nodes of electricity generation that can partially feed some urban electrical systems (subway, PV-shelters, charging columns, and so on).

Furthermore, users’ behaviour should be traced back to more sustainable transport systems, especially in urban areas.

Naturally, the pursuit of more efficient transportation systems has a direct influence on their environmental performances, making them less impactful in terms of pollutant emissions and levels of noise release and, therefore, more sustainable. For this reason, the applicability of the methods of analysis of the environmental performance of transportation systems (including their LCA and ecological footprint) needs to be deeply investigated.

In conclusion, all the above-cited issues should constitute the foundation for sustainable transport modelling.

High-quality papers addressing the above-mentioned issues (though not just limited to these) are solicited, with a particular interest in theoretical and experimental analyses with the aim to provide new methods, new indicators, or new data that is useful for the evaluation and the achievement of sustainable transportation systems.

Prof. Dr. Gianluca Scaccianoce
Prof. Dr. Maria La Gennusa
Guest Editors

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