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To address this issue Bert van Wee and I wrote a paper that was reviewed and published in I Transport Reviews i on "How to write a literature review paper",[3] and we trust that this has helped many potential contributors to I Transport Reviews i to write better quality review papers. I Transport Reviews i and many other journals work under a hybrid system, where immediate free access is permitted for a fee paid by the author (or funder), but most of the papers are behind a paywall. The numbers of papers published in 1999 in the 33 journals was 778 (mean 24.3 papers per journal) - note that 4 journals have ceased publication since 1999. By 2018 the 90 journals published 7182 papers (mean 83.5 papers per journal). [Extracted from the article]

The article presents a report on road injury prevention issued jointly by the World Health Organization and the World Bank, and it underscores the concern the two bodies share about the detrimental impact of road traffic injuries on public health development, and the actions that need to be taken to tackle the problem. The main aim of the report is to create a greater level of awareness, commitment and informed decision-making at all levels, to provide a sound justification for the change in thinking that has taken place in recent years about the nature of road traffic injury and to help strengthen institutions and create effective partnerships to deliver safer traffic systems.

Calls for papers on several topics for publication in 'Transport Reviews.' Transportation and the environment; Information technology and telematics in transport; Logistics and transport.

The article discusses the evolution of the journal "Transport Reviews" over the years. Since its launch in 1981, the journal has been offering insights into various developments in the field of transportation. The journal has been covering various policy changes over the years. The first papers on air transport were published in 1995.

Invites readers to submit articles related to information technology and telematics in transport and logistics and transport as the theme for the Transport Reviews journal. Format and content of the articles; Need to highlight human requirements and application; Inclusion of international research programs and demonstration projects.

This paper reviews research in port economics, policy and management during the period 1997-2008. In an increasingly international economy, research interest in ports is gradually emerging. This paper examines the developments, themes and characteristics of this research, by reviewing a comprehensive database consisting of all the 395 relevant journal papers on ports that were published during the period 1997-2008. With the use of quantitative and qualitative bibliometric tools, the paper identifies the characteristics of the port research community (such as the authors' country of affiliation, number of authors involved and international collaboration rates). It also identifies the main characteristics of this emerging scientific research field (such as research approaches, units of analysis, samples of the ports examined and commodities analysed). Finally, the paper develops a content classification that distinguishes the main research subfields, identifies leading papers for these subfields and uses a cross-citation analysis to analyse the coherence of the port research field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wide adoption of location-enabled devices, together with the acceptance of services that leverage (personal) data as payment, allows scientists to push through some of the previous barriers imposed by data insufficiency, ethics and privacy skepticism. The research problems whose study require hard-to-obtain data (e.g. transportation mode detection, service contextualisation, etc.) have now become more accessible to scientists because of the availability of data collecting outlets. One such problem is the detection of a user's transportation mode. Different fields have approached the problem of transportation mode detection with different aims: Location-Based Services (LBS) is a field that focuses on understanding the transportation mode in real-time, Transportation Science is a field that focuses on measuring the daily travel patterns of individuals or groups of individuals, and Human Geography is a field that focuses on enriching a trajectory by adding domain-specific semantics. While different fields providing solutions to the same problem could be viewed as a positive outcome, it is difficult to compare these solutions because the reported performance indicators depend on the type of approach and its aim (e.g. the real-time availability of LBS requires the performance to be computed on each classified location). The contributions of this paper are three fold. First, the paper reviews the critical aspects desired by each research field when providing solutions to the transportation mode detection problem. Second, it proposes three dimensions that separate three branches of science based on their main interest. Finally, it identifies important gaps in research and future directions, that is, proposing: widely accepted error measures meaningful for all disciplines, methods robust to new data sets and a benchmark data set for performance validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The difficulties economists have in conducting laboratory experiments necessitates much of their applied analysis being based on numerous quasi-experiments conducted under a variety of uncontrolled conditions. The result is the need to synthesis these results if any generally useful parameters are to be found for such things as value transfers or policy assessments in transportation. The paper reviews some of the issues involved in using meta-analysis to conduct statistical analysis of such previous quantitative work in transportation economics, examines the success that more recent meta studies have had in overcoming earlier criticisms of the methodology, and sets this in the contexts of on-going developments in meta-analysis more generally. The paper suggests ways that meta-analytics can address some remaining issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road (B&R) initiative was introduced by the Chinese government to promote the worldwide economic development and multilateral cooperation between China and the associated countries. As a crucial part of global supply chains, transportation plays a key role to ensure the implementation of the B&R. Safety is one of the issues with great importance in transportation research. However, its foci have been expanded from traditional risk through security to resilience and sustainability. Resilience has attracted considerable interests from both researchers and practitioners across different research domains in recent years. Various studies have been conducted on transportation resilience from different perspectives. Consequently, different definitions have been developed to define and describe resilience. This paper presents a systematic review on transportation resilience with emphasis on its definitions, characteristics, and research methods applied in different transportation systems/contexts. It aims to figure out what transportation resilience is and what kind of essential characters it usually has. More importantly, research challenges are analysed and a future research agenda on the resilience of transportation systems is proposed. This paper will provide comprehensive insights into understanding the transportation resilience, as well as establish new horizons for relevant research topics within the context of the B&R. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motorised two-wheeler (MTW) has emerged as the most widely used transportation mode for short distance trips in many Asian and European countries because of its affordable price and flexibility in manoeuvring through traffic. Its small size and aggressive riding patterns can considerably affect the overall traffic flow characteristics and safety. Modelling the characteristic behaviour and complex movement patterns of motorised two-wheelers is essential due to their pronounced role in microscopic traffic simulations, traffic management strategies, safety evaluation, transport planning and intelligent transportation systems. This paper begins with an overview of the determinant factors used for MTW modelling, followed by a critical review of various modelling approaches that have been adopted to depict the movement patterns of MTWs. The review concentrates on (i) identifying the factors mostly studied with respect to MTW-research, (ii) discussing the potential and limitations of each modelling approach and (iii) reporting some of the aspects that need further consideration for modelling MTWs in heterogeneous mixed traffic streams. The findings of the paper suggest that an integrated approach can be more viable to depict the unique riding patterns of motorised two-wheelers and some possible directions for future studies are also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper stresses the lack of attention paid to the geographical definitions of cities in LUTI models as one key detrimental aspect to transferring and generalising LUTI results. First, the argumentation develops from a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed publications about LUTI applications in European cities. We show that most authors do not assess findings against potential geographical biases. Second, theoretical simulations are conducted withUrbanSimapplied to a synthetic urban area. By varying the geographical limits of the system and population endowments, our simulations confirm that the absence of control on city delineation weakens the results. Finally, the paper suggests methodological guidelines to improve the comparability of LUTI applications and push forward their theoretical agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to measure ‘overall’ success of a public private partnership (PPP) transport projects using four case studies. All four case studies are PPP toll roads from four different EU countries (UK, Spain, Portugal and Greece). The case studies have been analysed using a manual Qualitative Comparative Analysis approach. According to the paper, three different perspectives have been used to measure the success of a project, that is, project management perspective, stakeholder perspective and contract management perspective. The ‘overall’ success has then been deduced by bringing these three perspectives together as a holistic approach. The findings are presented in the form of a matrix and the final outcome of the paper shows a simple methodological approach that can be used to measure success of a PPP transport project. Since the study takes more of a qualitative approach, researcher bias and perceptions have a major role to play in the final outcome. However, to reduce ‘biasness’, quantitative measures have also been used to quantify the Key Performance Indicators and performance measures in the case studies. It is hoped that the study makes a valid contribution to the areas of transport PPPs and performance measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper presents a detailed comparative review of price/cost elasticity estimates published in a number of studies on multi-mode freight transport demands. It attempts to determine which factors could explain the wide diversity of estimates: data aggregation, diversity of markets, and methodology. It also presents new estimates for rail, road, and waterway modes, derived from a multimodal freight network model of the Rhine area market. Direct and cross-elasticities are estimated for 11 groups of commodities and per distance category. The results are critically assessed by comparison with the reviewed studies. The paper concludes with a few recommendations about meaningful uses of existing estimates and the need for additional experiments with different methodologies applied on a common data basis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one about the Systems Dynamics Model ESCOT and another one about energy use in transportation.

The collection of big data, as an alternative to traditional resource-intensive manual data collection approaches, has become significantly more feasible over the past decade. The availability of such data, coupled with more sophisticated predictive statistical techniques, has contributed to an increase in attention towards the application of these data, particularly for transportation analysis. Within the transportation literature, there is a growing emphasis on developing sources of commonly collected public transportation data into more powerful analytical tools. A commonly held belief is that application of big data to transportation problems will yield new insights previously unattainable through traditional transportation data sets. However, there exist many ambiguities related to what constitutes big data, the ethical implications of big data collection and application, and how to best utilize the emerging data sets. The existing literature exploring big data provides no clear and consistent definition. While the collection of big data has grown and its application in both research and practice continues to expand, there is a significant disparity between methods of analysis applied to such data. This paper summarizes the recent literature on sources of big data and commonly applied methods used in its application to public transportation problems. We assess predominant big data sources, most frequently studied topics, and methodologies employed. The literature suggests smart card and automated data are the two big data sources most frequently used by researchers to conduct public transit analyses. The studies reviewed indicate that big data has largely been used to understand transit users' travel behavior and to assess public transit service quality. The techniques reported in the literature largely mirror those used with smaller data sets. The application of more advanced statistical methods, commonly associated with big data, has been limited to a small number of studies. In order to fully capture the value of big data, new approaches to analysis will be necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic research on port competitiveness has so far focused on the identification of the drivers of port competitiveness and their measurement. This paper argues that the port competitiveness and its drivers are significantly affected by major changes in maritime industry, which scholars have not sufficiently addressed. Therefore, the manuscript explores the multidimensional nature of “port competitiveness” by conducting a systematic literature review of leading peer-reviewed international journals, between the 1983 and 2014 time frame. The analysis allows a profound understanding and a categorisation of the main drivers of port competitiveness. Main findings present a hierarchy of key drivers and suggest that major industry transformations moderate the influential role of traditional drivers and reshuffle their relative salience. The study also identifies some unexplored research areas for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Understanding the role of transportation in urban and regional economy is a persistent analytical topic within the transportation research community. Multi-sectoral input-output (IO) modelling, as a standard economic analysis tool, has great advantages in reflecting industrial interdependencies in an economy. The simplicity of IO and the well-known concept of multiplier effect also make it broadly used in both academia and practice. This paper provides an introduction of IO models and reviews the past IO studies from 2000 onward on modelling transportation-economic linkages. The following types of models are included: single-region, multi-region and random utility-based multi-region IO models, with central methodological features described. An evaluation of modelling issues brought to light by reviewing the literature is then presented. For future research, more critical attention should be directed towards IO’s modelling assumptions, spatial linkages and the static representation of the economy. In addition, there are needs for more attention in the following areas: sectoral aggregation, specification of household sector and the integration with transportation forecasting models. The paper concludes with brief recommendations on future IO applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, concern has grown over good practices in the procurement process in public-private partnerships (PPPs). The consensus view is that PPPs are prone to higher transaction costs than traditional public provision. In this paper, we contrast the hypothesis that transaction costs in transport PPPs depend, to a large extent, on the procurement mechanism used in each case, comparing the Negotiated and the Open procedures. Given that PPPs may offer considerable benefits and significant savings over the entire life cycle of the project, it is essential for PPPs to minimize those costs that undermine efficiency gains and that deter private involvement. The quantitative analysis undertaken in this paper highlights that there is room for important savings in the tendering of PPP transport infrastructure projects, using an Open procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses benefit of public private partnerships (PPP) in transport infrastructure in various countries including Sub-Saharan Africa, Spain, and Portugal.

The paper discusses how the experimental design methods discussed in the preceding chapters, along with other methodological advances, can be used to address areas where SP techniques most need to be improved to deal with particular transportation contexts that are most prevalent in policy applications. Portfolio designs may be useful when people may make a series of choices in a repeating context, such as the mode used to go to work on different days of the week. The paper encourages the use of split sample approaches, where a certain experimental design variation is used for one randomly selected subsample, and one or more other design approaches are tested for other subsamples, allowing the effect of the experimental design on the responses to be tested. This approach can be used for different instructions about how respondents should think about the options, such as in the 'cheap talk' method to avoid non-commitment bias. The split sample approach has also been used to compare different experimental design approaches, such as d-optimal designs versus blocked orthogonal designs. Also encouraged are the use of experimental designs that accommodate more complete model specifications, such as error distributions around parameters, or interaction terms between choice attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The average worker in Britain spends 139 h/year commuting - the equivalent of 19 standard working days. While the average distance and time taken for journeys to work has been steadily increasing, the average number of journeys has been decreasing at a similar rate. The aggregate picture inevitably masks an array of underlying trends. This paper offers a multi-perspective examination of commuting drawing upon the literature in transport, planning, geography, economics, psychology, sociology and medicine. It examines statistical evidence on trends in commuting travel behaviour and finds that one in 25 commuters now travels to work in excess of 100 km (both ways) and one in ten commuters now spends over 2 h/day travelling to and from work. It explores the different impacts (economic, health and social) that commuting has on the individuals who conduct it and seeks to understand better the role of commuting for individuals in today's society. The paper finishes its examination by reviewing the commute experience itself, including attitudes towards it and the use of time during the journey. It concludes by highlighting a dilemma facing transport planning and policy. There are social, economic and financial benefits from an improved travel experience for people with long commute journeys, yet improving the travel experience may itself contribute to the trend towards long-distance commuting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge in this paper is to examine to what extent increased barge transport offers an alternative for road transport. To increase barge transport, innovations are needed. The central issue is as follows. Which barge innovations can be implemented successfully? The paper reviews the most important academic literature (some of which is scarce) on barge transport. The literature has been used as input to evaluate the potential of barge innovations for broad market‐based introduction. Furthermore, the innovations have been evaluated on their potential to enlarge the barge market. The analysis leads to a number of conclusions. The most promising innovations for a successful broad‐based market introduction are the catalyst and filter systems Z‐drive, Tempomaat, air‐lubricated barges, model shift scans, Distrivaart, dedicated barges and sea–river transport. Besides the innovation having a success potential in terms of broad‐based market introduction, it is important that the innovation enlarges the market for barge transport. Only three of the potential successful innovations (Distrivaart, dedicated barges and sea–river transport) also show the potential to enlarge the market for barge transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to integrate sustainability in the decision-making process for transport infrastructure projects continue to gain momentum. A number of tools and methodological frameworks are available — such as rating systems, traditional decision-making techniques, checklists, and different evaluation frameworks and models. While these tools are highly valuable, some practical issues remain unsolved. There is also a need for more standardized tools to appraise the sustainability of transport projects. This paper is a presentation of a review on the current assessment tools of sustainability applied to transport infrastructure projects. The preliminary part of the paper is an explanatory and comparative analysis of the tools and methods in terms of their effectiveness to appraise sustainability. The analysis is a critical evaluation of the current state of the art to identify the limitations of existing approaches, point out new areas of research, and propose a sustainability appraisal agenda for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the fourth time that Transport Reviews has published a summary of the workshop sessions from the Thredbo Conference. The intention is to disseminate more widely the main findings and conclusions from these sessions at this important international conference. Interested readers are also encouraged to view the full papers presented at the Institute of Transport Studies, University of Sydney website. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traveller information provision has become a key government priority in the UK following the publication of its Transport White Paper in July 1998. Developments are already underway for the integration of information systems across different public transport modes and between public transport information systems covering different regions. The Highways Agency (which is responsible for managing the strategic road network in the UK) is also advancing in its development of information databases and systems for the motorist. This paper considers the prospect of providing travellers with multimodal information with integration of driver information with public transport information. If such integration can be achieved then travellers, and in particular drivers, have the prospect of being presented with comparable information on travel options across modes. An integrated information service has a great potential to inform and influence travel choices. The paper considers the issue of travel choices and the role that information can play particularly in the context of mode choice. The political (UK) and technological climate for information provision is outlined. The paper identifies issues that will need to be addressed to identify the requirements from, and potential benefits of, integrated information, and the obstacles and challenges likely to be faced in moving towards it. Driver reactions, in particular, to the prospect of integrated information provision are fundamental to the assessment of its potential importance and value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport accounts for around a quarter of CO2emissions globally. Transport modelling provides a useful means to explore the dynamics, scale and magnitude of transport-related emissions. This paper explores the modelling tools available for analysing the emissions of CO2from transport. Covering a range of techniques from transport microsimulation to global techno-economic models, this review provides insights into the various advantages and shortcomings of these tools. The paper also examines the value of having a broad range of perspectives for analysing emissions from transport. The paper concludes by suggesting that the broad range of models creates a rich environment for exploring a spectrum of policy questions around the emissions from transport, and the potential for combining modelling approaches further enhances the understanding that can be attained. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper deals with the topic of risk management in Public Private Partnership (PPP). The analysis of the related literature reveals that risks must be analyzed and managed on a context-specific approach, and that there is a lack of a comprehensive study on the appropriate risk mitigation strategies for each risk embedded in PPP projects. Focusing on the transport sector, based on the results of a Delphi survey, the paper provides guidelines for both public and private parties in defining a list of significant risks in PPP motorway projects, and identifying for them both the effective allocation and the suitable mitigation strategies. Results of the Delphi survey have been compared with the common practices on risk management applied in eight real motorway PPP projects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses the Fertagus renegotiation results as a reference and explores the features that made it such a widely commended case, aiming to identify the best practice to be followed in other cases. The two main questions that this paper aimed to respond were: Was the success of the renegotiation process in the Fertagus contract due to mode-specific factors? Are those factors (mode specific or not) transferable to other modes under public private partnership (PPP) contracts and if so, to what extent? Regarding the mode specificity and transferability analysis, it can be noticed that much of the features were not mode specific in theory, however for the successful transferability to other transport modes, some changes should be made to the PPP model taking into account modal specificities and national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite a concentration of container traffic in the southeast of the UK over the last few decades, regional ports are attempting new development strategies to capture or retain specific traffic segments. These include intra-European short-sea traffic and a potentially increasing feeder market. These trends are reflected in the movement of different container types, which result in a number of planning challenges related to changing infrastructural and operational requirements. This paper uses highly disaggregated data on container type movements to address three issues that can inform these planning challenges. First, the imbalance of trade resulting in empty container repositioning; second, the requirement for gauge-cleared rail routes to cater for the increasing proportion of high-cube containers; and third, the specialisation of European short-sea traffic at secondary UK ports. The results reveal the disproportionate repositioning of empty containers at Scottish ports and the importance of 45 ft, high-cube and pallet-wide containers at regional ports, highlighting their focus on intra-European short-sea traffic and raising difficulties relating to their lower quality of landside infrastructure (particularly rail) in comparison to the large south-eastern ports. The potential repercussions on hinterland infrastructure development raise questions about both public and private sector responses to regional port development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public transport ridership retention is a challenge for many cities. To develop comprehensive strategies aimed at retaining riders, it is necessary to understand the aspects of public transport that influence users to become loyal to the system. This paper analyses relevant literature regarding the causes of satisfaction and loyalty in public transport. We find that the service factors most associated with satisfaction are on-board cleanliness and comfort, courteous and helpful behaviour from operators, safety, as well as punctuality and frequency of service. On the other hand, loyalty is associated with users’ perceptions of value-for-money, on-board safety and cleanliness, interactions with personnel and the image and commitment to public transport that users feels. Furthermore, the results elucidate that the concept of loyalty is best defined based on users’ intentions to continue using the service, their willingness to recommend it to others, their overall satisfaction, but also and most importantly, their image of and involvement with public transport. Public transport users who have a positive image of the agency and consider public transport an integral component of city life are more likely to demonstrate loyalty and act like ambassadors for public transport agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vehicle routing problems (VRPs) whose typical objective is to minimise total travel costs over a tour have evolved over the years with objectives ranging from minimising travel times and distances to minimising pollution and fuel consumption. However, driver behaviour continues to be neglected while planning for vehicle routes. Factors such as traffic congestion levels, monotonous drives and fatigue have an impact on the behaviour of drivers, which in turn might affect their speed-choice and route-choice behaviours. The behaviour of drivers and their subsequent decision-making owing to these factors impact the revenue of transport companies and could lead to huge losses in extreme cases. There have been studies on the behaviour of drivers in isolation, without inclusion of the objectives and constraints of the traditional routing problem. This paper presents a review of existing models of VRP, planner behaviour models in the VRP context and driver behaviour models and provides a motivation to integrate these models in a stochastic traffic environment to produce practical, economic and driver-friendly logistics solutions. The paper provides valuable insights on the relevance of behavioural issues in logistics and highlights the modelling implications of incorporating planner and driver behaviour in the framework of routing problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides a unifying framework to analyze whether a monopoly transit provider will under or over-supply frequency. To this end we couch the problem in term of Spence [(1975). Monopoly, quality and regulation.The Bell Journal of Economics, 6,417–429] who analyzed the incentives to provide quality by a monopolist. We show that all of the results of a recent academic exchange discussing this topic are special cases of Spence [(1975). Monopoly, quality and regulation.The Bell Journal of Economics, 6,417–429], albeit with an adjustment in order to take into account the cost structure of frequency provision in the case of public transport. In theory then, there are cases when a monopolist may offer optimal or above optimal levels of frequency without requiring subsidies. However, public transport is rarely provided by an unregulated monopolist. Rather, these services are usually provided either by an exclusive operator under regulated fares or by a group of competing operators, with or without fare regulation. We show that in the first case frequency will always be below the social optimal level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews the incentive structure of concession contracts in several Latin American transit reforms. It also presents a conceptual analysis of the optimal design of concession contracts. The conceptual discussion and case studies reviewed indicate that payment to operators should be linked to operational variables and that some demand risk should optimally be transferred to operators. Performance standards linked to fines and penalties are not sufficient to guarantee good quality of service, particularly in citywide reforms and where institutional capacity ― in terms of size, experience and expertise of staff ― is lacking and regulatory processes are slow, bureaucratic and cumbersome. This review may be useful for policy-makers designing transit reforms in other countries. The policy lessons of the paper are particularly relevant to cities in the developing world but they are also important for reforms in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides an update of the survey focusing on estimating the contribution of transport infrastructure to productivity and economic growth. The central questions addressed are possible reasons behind the conflicting results reported in the literature on the elasticity of economic output with respect to transport infrastructure investment. After providing a systematic review of recent empirical studies on the effects of transport infrastructure on productivity and economic growth, the paper notes that controversial results can be attributed to ten causes (grouped into three categories for distinguishing): (1) related to different contexts: research period, geographical scales, and country's capability in enabling economic development; (2) related to different phenomena that are being measured: different economic sectors, different types of transport infrastructure, and different quality levels of transport infrastructure; and (3) related to distinct ways of measuring a similar phenomenon: measures used to describe the dependent variable and explanatory variable, functional specification, and estimation method of the econometric model. Strong network externalities of transport infrastructure may result in nonlinearity of the relationship between transport infrastructure and economic growth. Moreover, the absence of spatial concerns in infrastructure's impacts is another important source of inconclusive results. Finally, building on recent literature, the paper has discussed policy implications and identified several research avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine how 23 industrialised countries treat wider economic impacts (WEIs) in transport appraisals. We identify 12 different types of impacts based on these countries’ appraisal guidelines.Agglomeration impactsandProduction changes in imperfect marketsare the most widely accepted, being recognised by 14 and 10 countries, respectively. However, about half of the impacts are mentioned by only one country, and few recommend including the impacts directly in cost–benefit analyses. Several countries provide provisos or criteria that must be met before WEIs can be assessed in the first place. We found method recommendations for quantifying WEIs in 10 countries. However, with the exception of the UK Department for Transport’s (DfT) methodological framework, there is very little international consensus on the choice of appropriate methods. Our findings thus supplement and reinforce the conclusions from the Norwegian Official Report of the Hagen Committee [NOU 2012:16. (2012).Samfunnsøkonomiske analyser. Oslo: Departementenes servicesenter] that there is currently no established consensus on the magnitude and relevance of WEIs, or on how and which of these impacts should be taken into account in transport appraisals. Recommendations for further research and appraisal practices are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Improving freight connectivity is increasingly a topic at the centre of the international trade and transport policy agendas. An examination of available documents and studies in both the policy-making and the academic fields shows that the concept of freight connectivity has often been defined in different ways, and thus has taken a variety of meanings. This poses the question on what connectivity is and what are its determinants in the context of international trade. We are not aware of any studies that have analysed, in a systematic way, the different perspectives and determinants of freight connectivity so as to increase access to international markets. This paper seeks to fill this gap by performing a systematic literature review that spans disciplines such as Transport Engineering, Transport and International Economics, and Supply Chain Management. The outcome of this examination is a multidisciplinary framework that hopefully will help stakeholders to understand freight connectivity to international markets better, as well as guide future research and analysis in policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent theoretical and empirical studies show that there is a growing interest in considering wider social and economic impacts of transport. Since transport has an important role in distributing socio-economic benefits or losses created by different means or by transport itself, it has a crucial role in the discussion of social justice. This importance occurs from transport's different effects depending on the levels or the types of equity in the distribution: transport can help develop socially just societies or cause disparities between different or within same geographies. Therefore, for the system to be efficient, the distribution needs to be socially just. This paper provides a synthesis of social justice and transport literature in terms of equal rights and shares, freedom, capabilities, opportunities and choices by making use of contemporary approaches in the social justice theory and considering the varieties in different geographies, individuals and markets. Using the Capability Approach (CA), this paper first highlights the areas which need to be discussed in transport studies in terms of social justice, and second suggests a methodology which considers social justice norms in transport research by engaging the CA with existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online retailing is growing fast and claims are being made about its positive environmental impact relative to traditional shopping, particularly by the retailers themselves. There is, however, little concrete evidence to support the claims. Whilst there exists some research into the passenger travel implications of e-shopping, this paper seeks to analyse the issues involved in online shopping from both a passenger and freight transport perspective. The objectives of the paper are first, to set out the complex transport relationships involved in online shopping and in particular the interaction between the passenger and freight aspects and second, to shed some light on the environmental impact of online shopping. It concludes that as things currently stand, it cannot be stated with any degree of certainty that clicks are any more environmentally responsible than bricks. The paper is conceptual in nature and is the pre-cursor to an empirical study of the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional transport infrastructure assessment methodologies rarely include the full range of strategic benefits for the transportation system. One of these benefits is the contribution to cross-border integration, critical for the European integration process. However, this is a key issue in strategic planning and decision-making processes, as its inclusion may increase the probability of large-scale transport infrastructure projects being funded. This paper presents a methodology for the measurement of the contribution of transport infrastructure plans to European integration. The methodology is based on the measurement of the improvement in network efficiency in cross-border regions of neighbouring countries, via accessibility calculations in a Geographical Information System support. The methodology was tested by applying it to the ambitious road and rail network extensions included in the Spanish Strategic Transport and Infrastructure Plan (PEIT) 2005-2020. The results show significant and important network efficiency improvements of the PEIT outside the Spanish border. For the road mode, while the Spanish average accessibility improvement accounts for 2.6%, average improvements in cross-border regions of France and Portugal are of 1.8%. And for the rail mode, the corresponding Spanish value is 34.5%, whereas in neighbouring regions it accounts for 20.2%. These results stress the significant importance of this strategic benefit and the consequent need for its inclusion in strategic planning processes. Finally, the paper identifies the potential of the methodology when applied at different administrative levels, such as the local or state levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the economics of ridesourcing (or app-based ride-hailing) with a particular focus on the US. It brings together the rather dispersed literature on the subject focusing on the economic characteristics of the underlying industry and sets this within the broader context of transportation economics. In particular, it sorts out the realities of ridesourcing from some of myths that were perpetrated in its early days and, in many cases, still persist. It considers some of the empirical evidence that has emerged regarding the key parameters that determine the way Uber and the like operate, and the welfare implications of this, together with comments on some of the regulatory reactions to the new transportation platform. It concludes by suggesting some ways in which recent developments in economic could move forward our understanding of the industry as technologies and markets change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six principles for the design of transport systems are described, including direct link, corridor, hub-and-spoke, connected hubs, static routes, and dynamic routes. The designs are theoretically discussed, defining the operational character of each design and their application in passenger, freight and rail freight transport. The theory is then applied to intermodal freight transport by comparing the terminology used in the paper with that in the scientific literature. The advantages of using a generic terminology over contextual ones are identified from the perspectives of researchers, commercial operators and policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to analyse and compare synthetic indices of accessibility in order to measure the impact of high-speed trains on European cities. In particular, it considers the data and results concerning two previous articles by Gutiérrez et al. and Martín et al. that analyse the accessibility gains produced by the construction of Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-Ts). In these two papers, accessibility is studied using, first, a partial approach with three different indicators: location, potential market, and daily accessibility; and, second, data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate a synthetic index of global accessibility. The present paper extends these studies by applying principal component analysis (PCA) to obtain a new synthetic accessibility index. DEA and PCA are two good candidates to synthesize the partial information provided by different methods that have been employed in the previous literature that studies accessibility. It is shown that DEA and PCA methodologies yield a consistent ranking for the global accessibility of the European cities for three different scenarios: 1996, 2005 and 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents some thoughts on the reform agenda in public transit that is occurring throughout the world. The specific focus is on a growing commitment to competitive regulation through competitive tendering, and the efforts by a few governments (notably in Australia) to take control of the tangible assets used by private operators as a mechanism to exercise the opportunity, if so taken, to put services out to competitive tender. The paper reviews the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence on contracting regimes and asset ownership, and the role that government and the operator might play in a setting in which building trusting and collaborative partnerships has merit in delivering services that are in the main funded from the public purse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing concerns over environmental issues and the increasing role of the transport sector in creating environmental pollution have had a significant impact on transport policies and investments worldwide. There is increasing emphasis on the importance of transporting people and goods in the most sustainable ways, and the role that environmentally friendly modes, and particularly railways, should play in transport. It appears that in Turkey too a policy shift has taken place in favour of rail transport as a consequence of both environmental concerns and the will to integrate into international transport networks, and consequently international markets. This paper summarizes research that looks into the policy documents, annual investment programmes, and actual investments in the transport field in Turkey within the past two decades. While a policy shift in favour of railway development can be observed in policy documents, the study shows that actual investment has been extremely limited for the improvement and expansion of the railways in Turkey. The paper focuses on this gap between policy and practice in national transport network development, and aims to discuss why it currently is, and may continue to be, difficult for Turkey to deliver successfully a pro-rail policy. The discussion helps one understand how a country's transport history, past policies and mobility traditions affect the delivery of new policies, particularly when they represent a significant policy shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rail freight has been generally in decline in many European Union countries in recent years, contrary to European transport policy. State support for railway operations is commonplace in most countries, and this paper establishes the background to targeted rail freight grant funding in Britain. Through desk-based analysis of Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) awards, together with a survey of recipient companies, the paper assesses the extent to which the planned flows expected from these awards have materialized and it evaluates the role of the grants in influencing rail freight volumes. The evidence suggests that FFG funding has been largely successful, attracting considerable private sector investment. Overall, FFGs have played an important role in developing or retaining rail freight flows, although the processes could be made more transparent and consistent. As other European countries liberalize their rail freight markets as a result of European Union legislation, such targeted funding may be an appropriate alternative to more general government subsidy of freight operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1997 and 2004, gross domestic product increased in real terms in the UK by one‐fifth, while the volume of road freight movement remained stable. This suggests that the long‐awaited decoupling of economic and freight transport growth has begun, possibly leading to a new era of sustainable logistics. This paper reviews previous research on the decoupling issue and recent trends in gross domestic product/freight tonne‐km elasticities in Europe and the USA. It then examines 12 possible causes of the observed decoupling in the UK using published statistics from a wide range of British and European sources. This analysis indicates that around two‐thirds of the decoupling is due to three factors whose impact can be quantified: the increased penetration of the British road haulage market by foreign operators, a decline in road transport’s share of the freight market, and real increases in road freight rates. Several other factors, most notably the relative growth of the service sector, the diminishing rate of centralization, and the off‐shoring of manufacturing, appear to be having a significant effect, though this finding cannot be measured on the basis of available statistics. The paper concludes that, while the decoupling is in the right direction from a public policy standpoint, the net environmental benefits are likely to be quite modest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results from the first statistically significant study of traffic forecasts in transportation infrastructure projects. The sample used is the largest of its kind, covering 210 projects in 14 nations worth US$58 billion. The study shows with very high statistical significance that forecasters generally do a poor job of estimating the demand for transportation infrastructure projects. The result is substantial downside financial and economic risk. Forecasts have not become more accurate over the 30‐year period studied. If techniques and skills for arriving at accurate demand forecasts have improved over time, as often claimed by forecasters, this does not show in the data. For nine out of ten rail projects, passenger forecasts are overestimated; average overestimation is 106%. For 72% of rail projects, forecasts are overestimated by more than two‐thirds. For 50% of road projects, the difference between actual and forecasted traffic is more than ±20%; for 25% of road projects, the difference is larger than ±40%. Forecasts for roads are more accurate and more balanced than for rail, with no significant difference between the frequency of inflated versus deflated forecasts. But for both rail and road projects, the risk is substantial that demand forecasts are incorrect by a large margin. The causes of inaccuracy in forecasts are different for rail and road projects, with political causes playing a larger role for rail than for road. The cure is more accountability and reference class forecasting. Highly inaccurate traffic forecasts combined with large standard deviations translate into large financial and economic risks. But such risks are typically ignored or downplayed by planners and decision‐makers, to the detriment of social and economic welfare. The paper presents the data and approach with which planners may begin valid and reliable risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benchmarking is a widely used method of comparing performances and practices in order to learn from the best. In 2000, the so‐called ‘BEST network’ was set up to explore benchmarking as a tool to promote policies for ‘sustainable transport’. This paper reports the findings and recommendations from the BEST experience on how to address this challenge. The findings suggest that benchmarking is a valuable tool that may indeed help to move forward the transport policy agenda. However, there are major conditions and limitations. First, it is often not straightforward to measure and compare transport services in order to establish a clear benchmark. Second, ‘sustainable transport’ evokes a broad range of sometimes conflicting concerns that are hard to address fully at the level of specific organizational practices. Third, policies are not directly comparable across contexts. Attempting to benchmark ‘sustainable transport policies’ against one another would therefore be a highly complex task, which is not advised. Several other ways in which benchmarking and policy can support one another are identified in the analysis. This leads to a range of recommended initiatives to exploit the benefits of benchmarking for sustainable transport policy while avoiding some of the lurking pitfalls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1963, the Buchanan Report in the UK advocated a combination of new road capacity, improved public transport and traffic restraint as a means to tackle congestion. Forty years on, and the advice from many transport experts remains the same. However, the scale and complexity of the problems associated with a mobility-dependent society have grown. The need for politicians to make tough but realistic policy decisions on transport is now becoming unavoidable. They must confront the realities of living with the car as must the general public. Policymakers now also have social well-being and sustainable development moving higher on their agendas alongside transport. Against such a backdrop, the paper makes the case for transport research, policy and practice to acknowledge more fully the inherent links between transport and society. It argues that greater recognition and understanding of such links is crucial to confronting the present realities. Transport does not merely serve society: it shapes society, as in turn society shapes transport. The future of each is dependent on the other, and this fact must be recognized. The paper advocates in turn that the transport profession must move from its heartlands in engineering and economics also to embrace more fully such disciplines as sociology and psychology. A factual picture of the many facets of present-day society is presented and the implications for travel demand are discussed. Through considering phenomena such as social norms and habitual behaviour, it is then argued that the travel choices and behaviour of individuals are not simply a matter of economic optimization. This points to the need for decision-makers to be furnished with better evidence about the transport problems faced and the potential efficacy of measures that might be taken. Discussion of public attitudes and the role of the media are included in the context of assessing how politicians can be encouraged and supported in their implementation of realistic but unpopular policies. Evidence and experience within the paper are UK based, although many of the issues and arguments apply world wide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a synopsis of rural transport issues in developing countries and the way in which rural transport can contribute to poverty reduction and the Millennium Development Goals. It begins with an historical overview of the transport sector in the context of rural development, and continues with a summary of the transport needs and constraints of different stakeholders and vulnerable groups. Key transport interventions that address access problems through the development of road infrastructure, transport services and intermediate means of transport are also described, and the paper concludes with a dialogue on the implications for poverty reduction, and recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]