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The General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) is an open source data format public transportation agency use to share information about routes and vehicle arrival and departure times. A variety of trip-planning applications, including Google Maps, rely on GTFS feeds to incorporate public transit information. In April 2020, the California Integrated Travel Project conducted a Feasibility Study that called for the widespread adoption of GTFS-static (GTFS-s) and GTFS-realtime (GTFS-r) to make transit simpler for California residents; however, there is little research on patterns of information sharing across transit agencies. This background paper highlights findings from an analysis of GTFS use among agencies that report to the National Transit Database (NTD) in California. The prevalence of transit service modifications in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were also studied.

A route positioning system is a technology that identifies the current route when driving from one stop to the next, commonly found in public transportation systems such as shuttle buses that follow fixed routes. This is especially useful for smaller-scale services, such as shuttle buses, where using expensive technology and sensors for location tracking might not be feasible. Particularly in urban areas with tall buildings or mountainous regions with lots of trees, relying solely on GPS can lead to many errors. Therefore, this paper suggests a cost-effective solution that uses just one camera sensor to accurately determine the location of small-scale transportation services on fixed routes. For this, this paper uses a single-stage detection network that quickly identifies objects and tracks them using a simple algorithm. These detected features are compiled into a "codebook" using the bag-of-visual-words technique. During actual trips, this pre-created codebook is compared with landmarks that the camera sees. This comparison helps to determine the route currently being traveled. To test the effectiveness of this approach, this paper used the route of a shuttle bus on the Gachon University campus, which is similar to a downtown area with tall buildings or a wooded mountainous area. The results showed that the shuttle bus's route was recognized with an accuracy of 0.60. Areas with distinct features were recognized with an accuracy of 0.99, while stops with simple, nondescript structures were recognized with an accuracy of 0.29. Additionally, applying the SORT algorithm to enhance performance slightly improved the accuracy from 0.60 to 0.61. This demonstrates that our proposed method can effectively perform location recognition using only cameras in small shuttle buses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated vehicles (AVs) hold the potential to reduce road accidents, mitigate traffic congestion, and improve travel experience. However, the possible countervailing impacts from the changes in underserved populations' vehicle travel demand tend to be overlooked. To determine the vehicle travel demand changes that resulted from underserved populations aged between 6 and 80, this paper explores the latent effect of AVs on vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) in a fully AV environment using person trip survey data from the cities of Sanya, Shijiazhuang, and Shenzhen in China. This paper uses the natural decline hypothesis of travel demand and proposes a regression model to investigate the difference among the cities' latent vehicle travel demand. Results show that the average VKT of the overall population in Sanya, Shijiazhuang, and Shenzhen increased by 33.4%, 47.0%, and 46.8%, respectively. The analysis of the regression model confirms that the current travel behavior of individuals can affect the degree of increase in their average VKT. Integrating AVs into public transport, increasing the acceptance of automated shared mobility options, transforming road space use type, and prototyping AV designs with various features and needs are potential methods to cope with the countervailing impacts. The total VKT of the overall population increased by approximately 10%e25% depending on the city. The conclusions of this paper provide informative insights into the evaluation of VKT for underserved populations and contribute to the deployment of AVs to address equity and inclusion issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a multi-objective integrated optimization method for feeder buses of rail transit based on realistic considerations. We propose a bus stop selection method that considers the influence of shared motorcycles, which can score the importance of alternative bus stops and select those with the highest scores as objectives. The objective of the model in this paper is to minimize both the travel costs of passengers and the operating costs of the bus company. This is achieved by optimizing feeder bus routes, the frequency of departures, and interchange discounts to enhance the connectivity between feeder buses and rail transit. In addition, to ensure the feasibility of generated routes in the real road network, a genetic algorithm encoded with priority is used to solve this model. We use the Xingyao Road subway station in Kunming as an example, and the results show that the optimization method is effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can computational tools support the proposition of 15-minute cities? This paper examines the implementation of computer-aided approaches that support the analysis and proposition of urban areas where residents can access all their basic needs within a 15-minute walk, bike ride, or public transportation ride—the ultimate goal of a 15-minute city. Although this concept has gained significant attention as a sustainable and equitable urban development model, more efficient implementations require complex spatial and temporal analysis. At the same time, computational approaches such as those within the generative and parametric logic can utilize algorithms to create and test design solutions quickly and efficiently, allowing designers to address a variety of scenarios and options for producing more walkable, integrated, and resilient urban environments. Exploring a systematic review of the scientific literature (n = 244 peer-reviewed empirical studies) on Scopus and Web of Science databases, this paper synthesizes approaches to support the analysis and design of 15-minute cities, emphasizing the use of computer-aided techniques. The work contributes to developing a knowledge base on computational tools for 15-minute cities, highlighting their strengths, limitations, and potential for further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobility inequality in the Greater Cairo Region (GCR) affects disadvantaged groups of women, children and adolescents, elderly people, and persons with disabilities. These groups require inclusive mobility arrangements or protection on the streets. The research aims to explore the existing mobility inequality in GCR, through reviewing the trips of an introductory sample of disadvantaged groups and their transport choice. The paper reviews the concepts of mobility inequality, disadvantaged groups, and the United Nations standards of adequate urban mobility, which are utilized as a guide for the empirical study. The primary data collection applied two qualitative research methods, which are semi-structured interviews, and on-site trips/investigations of the urban mobility in GCR. Additionally, general figures on the target groups in GCR and Egypt are deployed as the secondary data. Subsequently, the research demonstrates a sample of the existing experiences of mobility inequality, local context realities, and consequential life compromises in GCR. The paper then aligns the priorities of the interviewed sample with their transport choices, which is the focus of the study. The investigated sample demonstrated high interest in car ownership, only to avoid challenges they encounter via walking and public transport, including issues like harassment and the inadequate, unsafe urban mobility experience. Finally, the paper suggests two sets of recommendations, the first set addresses the mobility inequality and proposed solutions as per the investigated sample. The second set incepts further research on mobility inequality, towards integrating the needs of the disadvantaged groups in GCR within the planning and delivering of urban mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with public transport services in sparsely populated areas. The definition of the term transport services and possible approaches to its provision is given in the introduction. The term sparsely populated area is subsequently defined. The problems that arise during the organization of transport services in these areas are further defined. These problems lie primarily in the variations in the number of people in the thousands in the area in the off-tourist season and in the summer tourist season. This affects the organization of transport and the organization of transport services. This paper proposes the technological procedure and measures for improving transport services in sparsely populated areas outside and during the summer tourist season. The proposals are applied in a selected sparsely populated area in the territory of the National Park Šumava and the Šumava Protected Landscape Area in the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global aging has brought attention to addressing the elderly mobility dilemma, and a commitment to address inclusive transport in aging. Transport inclusion for older adults aims at establishing an age-friendly transport system. As a direct policy goal and promoting active aging as an indirect social goal, to help older populations gain access to transport and social opportunities. Based on the analysis of scientific knowledge mapping over the past 30 years, this study visualizes the hotspots and trends in elderly mobility research. Through a qualitative analysis of 138 papers, this paper reviews the theoretical foundations for transport inclusion and three themes of elderly mobility research, proposes a framework for public transport (PT) inclusion research as well as future research directions. The study suggests that transport inclusion can help enhance elderly health, social participation, and subjective well-being. It can improve their travel opportunities for active aging in four ways: opportunity accessibility, physical accessibility, age-friendly informationalization, and cost affordability. Future research should pay attention to examining the mechanism of perceived transport inclusion on active aging, expanding the multilevel research space of the capability approach (CA), and exploring the subjectiveobjective integrated research model for PT inclusion. This research contributes to the overall knowledge of the theoretical and empirical researches on PT inclusion for the elderly and promotes the integrated application of interdisciplinary knowledge in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-demand transportation is a mobility service that adapts to the passengers, including the route, location of picking-up and dropping-off, and time. In general, an area with less travel demand is highly suitable for its operation as it moves according to the request only, unlike the typical public transit that operates within a fixed route leading to an inefficient operation and environmental burden. Although the system introduction seems appealing, the operation possibly encounters technical or organizational problems. Therefore, detailed consideration of system operation is mandatory for stakeholders to maintain operation sustainability while simultaneously satisfying the passengers. In this paper, the authors aimed to highlight various challenges of the service and the implemented technologies in the demand-responsive transportation (DRT) system. A systematic literature review with the help of mapping studies was conducted to give broader insights into these research questions: What problems does the already-existing DRT system have and how do researchers propose the solution? What are the main technologies used within the DRT services? What are the possible improvements or innovations for the system? The study will collect and evaluate related papers from the Scopus database to answer the research questions. With the presented information, the paper simultaneously aims to provide insight for other stakeholders on DRT systems for policy consideration and present literature for researchers in this field. In relation to the development opportunities, the study revealed that the integration of DRT systems with micro-mobility services such as bike-sharing and scooters, integration between existing transport services, and autonomous vehicles may elevate the current DRT system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the possibility of transport development as a factor for the rural integration of a population of over 100,000 using the example of the city of Stara Zagora in Bulgaria. The analysis showed that improving the access of the rural population to the agglomeration areas can be done through the combination of inter-urban transport that connects the villages with the nearby city The purpose of developing this process is to increase the access of the rural population to the cities and, accordingly, to bring out the problems that the people of the villages have in terms of urban transport. Based on a proposed methodology, we propose to highlight the main public transport problems of the rural population. On the other hand, to propose different views and models to achieve higher efficiency of urban transport and its implementation in rural areas. In this paper, quantitative and qualitative analysis is used and the results are also used to assess the impact of price fluctuations on vegetable marketing channels including vegetable processing enterprises. Data on vegetable prices were extracted from the tempo on line database and the analysis was also based on interviews with key stakeholders in the vegetable processing chain. The results reveal a high coefficient of variation at the farm gate stage, which is also transmitted to the distribution and commercialization stage. The analysis was also carried out at the processing level and the results also show a rather high coefficient of variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in this special section were presented at the IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC) that was held in Coimbra, Portugal, in October 2014. Advanced traction and propulsion systems are developing in order to ensure better energy performance, reduced operating cost, and higher lifetime of future transportation systems like road vehicles, as well as more electric trains, subways, ships, and airplanes. Such a powertrain integrates several complex subsystems (including power or energy sources, electricmachines, power electronics,mechanical transmission), and it becomesmandatory to consider the whole system in order to reach the best performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Montenegro restored its national independence in 2006, and in the 17 years since then, the country has made significant progress in digital transformation, which is especially important for its accession to the European Union. In this paper, this period of 17 years of Montenegrin digital transformation is reviewed. The work aims to provide comprehensive coverage of the digitization processes across all relevant sectors, including healthcare, education, telecommunications and internet, personal and public transportation, tourism, agriculture, energy and sustainability, and public administration. The human-centric nature of digitization is emphasized where relevant, as well as related future trends. This paper also highlights barriers and limitations, such as the lack of consideration for cooperative intelligent transportation systems in national strategies, and user-related issues in digital public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong is a city with a diversified public transport system. However, the number of private cars has increased abnormally, especially the completion of private housings in the New Territories and North Lantau, due to the daily work of the urban areas or personal needs. The number of citizens of private cars has increased significantly. In recent years, the problem of "frequent and severe congestion" has resulted in the saturation of the more timely railways. The main reason is that the roads in the existing busy areas cannot meet the large number of private cars, and the major roads in the New Territories of Hong Kong and Kowloon have been subject to "frequent and severe congestion". The Government's solution to the problem is to build roads and railways only. In recent years, many new roads and railways, the congestion of old roads and highways have not been improved. Railways cannot change the private car owners to switch to public transport habits, "but increased", what is the main reason? Where roads and railways solve problems, this study agrees that denser areas without rail services are necessary to build or extend existing rail routes. But what is the need to build a new railway to relieve the existing railway saturation? We use the railway but not others? Is railway extension is one of the cause for traffic congestion? In recent years, the government has recognized that private cars are the main source of traffic congestion in Hong Kong. Government indicated that it planned to introduce another electronic road toll and increase private license plate or registration tax. Hope that this report will help us understand the problems we are facing now and discuss how we can resolve them so as to come up with better solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a method employed in area-based developments to address civic mobility, automation, inequality, community, equality, and climate change in metropolises. This research paper utilizes a comparative analysis of various published papers to create a cohesive analytical study. The main goal is to identify critical parameters that contribute to the success of TOD. It examines highly successful global examples of TOD, including Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Shenzhen, México, and Washington D.C., to understand how the aforementioned parameters impact TOD development and its achievements. Indian cities are making substantial investments in public transportation and transitioning into transit hubs. The success of this progress depends on implementing TOD regulations, such as zoning rules for mixed-land use, density control, limited parking, PPP finance, and fostering collaboration between public and private agencies near transit stations. In conclusion, while planning frameworks have been widely adopted and implemented by various countries, financial frameworks play a more pivotal role in influencing success, making TOD more practically viable worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public transportation systems, including trams and buses, play a crucial role in urban traffic. However, these traditional modes of transport have some well-known drawbacks, such as long distances between stops, lengthy waiting times, and a lack of privacy. In response to these challenges, an innovative mobility concept called "FLAIT-train" offers potential solutions. The FLAIT-train operates on regular roads and aims to provide DOOR-2-DOOR transport, addressing the issues associated with fixed stops and offering increased accessibility and convenience. In its initial phase, the FLAIT-train operates on exclusive lanes, but it is designed to integrate with other traffic eventually. The vehicle technology of FLAIT-trains closely resembles that of battery electric autonomous vehicles. To assess whether FLAIT-trains can be used as a suitable alternative to conventional public transportation systems, this paper employs traffic simulations that consider key performance indicators, including the average waiting time per passenger, maximum waiting time of a single passenger, average in-vehicle time per passenger, and average occupancy rate of the vehicles. Using SUMO software ("Simulation of Urban Mobility", version 1.12.0), a night bus service scenario is meticulously designed and generated. Within this scenario, both FLAIT-trains and conventional buses are simulated under identical conditions and based on statistical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land public transport is an important link within and between cities, and how to control the transmission of COVID-19 in land public transport is a critical issue in our daily lives. However, there are still many inconsistent opinions and views about the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in land public transport, which limits our ability to implement effective interventions. The purpose of this review is to overview the literature on transmission characteristics and routes of the epidemic in land public transport, as well as to investigate factors affecting its spread and provide feasible measures to mitigate the infection risk of passengers. We obtained 898 papers by searching the Web of Science, Pubmed, and WHO global COVID database by keywords, and finally selected 45 papers that can address the purpose of this review. Land public transport is a high outbreak area for COVID-19 due to characteristics like crowding, inadequate ventilation, long exposure time, and environmental closure. Different from surface touch transmission and drop spray transmission, aerosol inhalation transmission can occur not only in short distances but also in long distances. Insufficient ventilation is the most important factor influencing long-distance aerosol transmission. Other transmission factors (e.g., interpersonal distance, relative orientation, and ambient conditions) should be noticed as well, which have been summarized in this paper. To address various influencing factors, it is essential to suggest practical and efficient preventive measures. Among these, increased ventilation, particularly the fresh air (i.e., natural ventilation), has proven to effectively reduce indoor infection risk. Many preventive measures are also effective, such as enlarging social distance, avoiding faceto-face orientation, setting up physical partitions, disinfection, avoiding talking, and so on. As research on the epidemic has intensified, people have broken down many perceived barriers, but more comprehensive studies on monitoring systems and prevention measures in land public transport are still needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate passenger flow forecasting is crucial in urban areas with growing transit demand. In this paper, we propose a method that combines advanced machine learning with rigorous time series analysis to improve prediction accuracy by integrating different datasets, providing a prescriptive example for passenger flow prediction in urban rail transit systems. The study employs advanced machine learning algorithms and proposes a novel prediction model that combines two-stage decomposition (seasonal and trend decomposition using LOESS–ensemble empirical mode decomposition (STL-EEMD)) and gated recurrent units. First, the STL decomposition algorithm is applied to break down the preprocessed data into trend terms, periodic terms, and irregular fluctuation terms. Then, the EEMD decomposition algorithm is employed to further decompose the irregular fluctuation terms, yielding multiple IMF components and residual residuals. Subsequently, the decomposed data from STL and EEMD are partitioned into training and test sets and normalized. The training set is utilized to train the model for optimal performance in predicting subway short-time passenger flow. The synthesis of these sophisticated methodologies serves to substantially enhance both the predictive precision and the broad applicability of the forecasting models. The efficacy of the proposed approach is rigorously evaluated through its application to empirical metro passenger flow datasets from diverse urban centers, demonstrating marked superiority in predictive performance over traditional forecasting methods. The insights gleaned from this study bear significant ramifications for the strategic planning and administration of public transportation infrastructures, potentially leading to more strategic resource allocation and an enhanced commuter experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The participation of women in criminal activity in Kosovo has not received ample attention in research, despite existing studies focusing on women as victims. This paper aims to address this gap and lay the groundwork for further investigation. The study examines the phenomenon of women convicted with final verdicts, covering the period from 2003 to 2009 regarding volume and dynamics, and from 2010 to 2019 regarding the structure of criminal acts. It delves into the etiology of these crimes, analyzing the factors contributing to the increasing dynamics and the types of offenses committed during these years. Special attention is given to electricity theft, offenses against public transport safety, and offenses against life and bodily integrity. The paper uses the quantitative method, statistical analysis, and comparative analysis with other countries, such as Slovenia, Croatia, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Serbia in the same period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of information is higher and higher in the modern society. It is the same in transportation, especially in urban environments. An increasing share of the world's population is living in urban environments, and the understanding of transport processes in this field is essential. To be able to produce a better public transport system, the decision-making process of the individual users must be understood. By helping them to make the right decision from the viewpoint of the whole urban society, a more sustainable system can be built up (through a more attractive public transport service, with fewer cars) with highly reduced chemical pollution. This paper deals with the issue of the helping force of collected information at the special decision of route choice. Five different scenarios will be described to show the power of information in individual decisions. As a basis, there is static information only (like a timetable). In the second case, there are only limited dynamic information sources (real-time user information at the bus stop), while in the third case, the possibilities of permanent dynamic information are considered on the real timetable with the help of IoT. In the final two cases, there is the assumption of a critical mass of IoT in the transportation system, like the passengers' mobile phones and the vehicles themselves. This paper describes a novel theoretical framework. Quantitative and qualitative results are the subject of future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The prediction of the bus passenger flow is crucial for efficient resource allocation, frequency setting, and route optimization in bus transit systems. However, it remains challenging for a single model to simultaneously capture the time-series data of the bus passenger flow with periodicity, correlation, and nonlinearity. Aiming at the complex volatility possessed by the time-series data of the bus passenger flow, a new hybrid-strategy bus-passenger-flow prediction model based on wavelet packet decomposition, an attention mechanism, and bidirectional long–short-term memory is proposed to improve the accuracy of bus-passenger-flow prediction. The differences between this study and the existing studies are as follows: Firstly, this model combines decomposition strategies and deep learning. Wavelet packet decomposition can decompose the original data into a series of smoother data components, allowing the model to be more adequate in capturing the temporal characteristics of passenger-flow data. And the model can consider the information after the predicted moment via backward computation. In addition, the model is equipped with the ability to focus on important features by incorporating an attention mechanism to minimize the interference of irrelevant information. Bus-passenger-flow prediction experiments are conducted using the Harbin bus-passenger-flow dataset as an example. The experimental results show that the model proposed in this paper can obtain more accurate bus-passenger-flow prediction results than the five baseline models can obtain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, Carlos Moreno proposed the concept of "15-minute cities" based on the principles of proximity, diversity, density, and ubiquity. In fact, he re-formulated ("re-invented") some of the already existing planning principles, making them recognized and desired by non-professionals. Moreno, however, paid little attention to the external connectivity of neighborhoods, assuming that most needs would be satisfied locally. This paper aims to discuss the concept of "15-minute cities" from the transport planning point of view and investigate how the concept can contribute to such planning. The research review conducted in this paper suggests that similar actions in the past caused a modal shift from the use of cars to public transport, rather than a radical limitation of total transport needs. To simplify, if a neighborhood is well designed, people are more likely to walk, ride a bike, and use public transport, but the majority will still commute outside of the neighborhood for work. In the metropolis of the ideal "15-minute city", Barcelona, the majority of the inhabitants travel to work either by car or public transport, which proves that they need to move outside the neighborhood. This leads us to the conclusions that (1) "15-minute cities" should incorporate the transit-oriented development concept and include public transport nodes, such as railways or underground stations, as the central point of walkable, multifunctional neighborhoods, and (2) railway/underground station planners should pay more attention to the creation of a proper mix of services at and around the stations according to "15-minute cities" principles. In the future, there should also be more emphasis on re-allocating workplaces to neighborhoods, as well as on researching the actual impact of the (improved and current) "15-minute cities" design on transport volumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electric bus is an extremely important part of urban public transportation and has a huge impact on the ecosystem. However, the battery capacity is still a tough problem, and electric buses often face a booming demand for charging during peak periods. This paper focuses on the problem of electric bus battery swapping station (BSS) location. Based on the traffic flow assignment theory, this paper proposes a hybrid traffic assignment method based on GA and Frank–Wolfe algorithm, which has proved to be closer to the global optimum than the traditional method. This paper proposes a BSS selection model considering service quality as an evaluating indicator and a simulation is made based on a virtual road network. Compared with the traditional method, the result from the hybrid method is more suitable for electric buses when considering the situation at peak hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has surpassed China as the world's third largest importer of crude oil, surpassing it in mid-2020, and imports more than 84% of its oil requirements. India, as one of the world's largest and fastest-growing energy importers, has relied significantly on crude oil for both energy production and consumption. Historically, rising fuel costs and rising demand for gasoline have been difficult for the general people. This explores activities to discover the sources and effects of escalating charges these days, which are harming the entire financial system, and to provide ways to deal with this externality. This paper attempts to find out the assertive analysis of the effect on fuel price rising in consumption Belagavi city of Karnataka state. The data for the study is collected through Questionnaire with 154 sample sizes of Belagavi people and SPSS is used for analysing the collected data. Finally this research paper which helps to analyse the impact on Rising Fuel Price in Belagavi City proves so and it gives the further researcher to analyse or study over comparison of fuel prices and electrical Vehicles or even public transport system. The analysis found that the increasing fuel price would have a devastating impact on the transportation sector. The government should preserve those sectors which exposed the largest impact from the increasing of the fuel price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the present background, optimizing the existing urban rail transit network is the focus of urban rail transit construction at present. Based on DL, this paper constructs the optimization algorithm of urban rail transit network route planning. According to the current urban layout and urban planning, build a suitable rail transit network line form; according to the function, the types of urban rail transit stations are divided, and the optimization of urban rail transit network lines is realized. In addition, according to the K short path algorithm, this paper calculates the effective path between any stations of rail transit and, according to the model, allocates the passenger flow to each path. Experimental results show that the accuracy of real-time traffic flow prediction by this algorithm can reach 94.98%, which is about 9% higher than other methods. This algorithm can effectively optimize the route planning of urban rail transit network. This verifies the effectiveness of the route planning optimization algorithm proposed in this paper. Using the algorithm in this paper for line planning can get good real time, rationality, and optimality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic revealed societal challenges, with passenger transport rapidly experiencing the impacts of the virus and the evolution of the concept of safety in transport. Evaluating the likelihood of viral transmission within transportation systems may be a substantial challenge, considering the complex processes that influence the incidence of random transmission events. This paper introduces a method for determining the probability of pathogen transmission in public transport, focusing on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The study draws on scenarios from the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland, a period that was devastatingly marked by the lack of available vaccines. This study aims to add value to the scientific community by offering an estimation of the likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in public transport and a preliminary risk assessment for COVID-19 infection, considering the number of active, non-isolated COVID-19 cases in the Polish population. The potential of this approach was demonstrated through a comparison between two different categories of passenger transport in a city bus. Based on the presented case study and the calculated probability of pathogen transmission, it is estimated that the probability of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland through the use of public transport was approximately 0.05%. Probability estimations based on elementary events, which can vary depending on the service category (for instance, the form of ticket purchase, availability of seating or standing places, or ticket inspection), can reveal even the smallest differences in the total likelihood of pathogen transmission. However, these minute individual variations significantly impact the total metrics calculated for daily users of public transport. For effective monitoring of potential epidemic threats and for designing suitable interventions and restrictions to lower the risk of future pandemics, it may be necessary to understand the role that transportation systems, particularly public transport systems, play in the spread of pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise in usage of digital twins in the field of urban planning, the integration of data sources such as sensor data in 3D city models is a challenge that is often brought up. This is even more so with movement data, as they contain a geographical or geometrical aspect that is often overlooked. This paper looks at existing methods to integrate sensor data with 3D city models, and especially at the Dynamizer module in CityGML that supports the integration of dynamic data into the models directly. We look at how the Dynamizer module works with movement data and compare it with another method, SensorThings API. The comprehensive investigation we conduct involved different types of movement data, at different spatial and temporal scales, e.g. origin-destination public transport data in Singapore and London, migration routes in the USA, and highly detailed customer movement in a supermarket in China. While the Dynamizer is more flexible in representing data, it has less support and it is more restrictive when accessing the data. On the other hand, the FROST-Server implementation of the SensorThings API is more restrictive in representing data, however, accessing the data is more flexible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creating new multimodal infrastructure in an existing transport network of an urban city is a challenging process. The responsible transport authorities have to pay special attention to the details regarding the accessibility and effectiveness of the new development, to avoid travelers' confusion and network congestion. The subject of this paper is the assessment and optimization of the traffic network in the surroundings of the new multimodal depot of Thessaloniki's future metro system with the use of the microsimulation software PTV VISSIM (version 2022). Five different scenarios were developed in collaboration with the city's transport authority and evaluated into two stages, beginning with the whole traffic network, and then continuing with the analyzed intersections separately. The evaluation is based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which were extracted by the software. According to the results of the base case scenario, the network functions satisfactorily, with slight delays. Regarding the future network, the operation of the new hub will strongly increase the traffic demand, while the proposed traffic network adjustments by the local authorities seem to cause significant delay problems. This paper aims to highlight the importance of using modeling tools during the design phase of a new infrastructure to create efficient, accessible, and sustainable infrastructures that enhance the public transport system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, the analysis of mode choice preferences has become a vital aspect of enhancing the quality of public transport services. Most papers aim to derive conclusions from large-scale surveys. However, for specific homogenous patterns, such as university students, a smaller group of evaluators might also be sufficient. Such a survey can rather be considered as an expert survey, in which few representatives might express the preference of a larger community, thus, a different methodology can be more effective than the traditional statistical techniques. This paper aims to introduce a new approach that combines two multi-criteria decision-making methods, the analytic hierarchy process and the preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation, for a hybrid consensual model by aggregating the individual priorities defined by each decision-maker. The introduced model presents advantages in terms of reducing time, cost, and effort compared to statistical methods and requires solely necessary information from the users via objective and subjective evaluations. The model's effectiveness is tested with real-world data from the city of Budapest; highlighting the significant impact of the underground mode on users' behavior toward public transport. In addition, the outcomes are compared to other existing results of student preference surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant political, cultural, and socioeconomic differences, the U.S. and China share some common development issues, including, but not limited to, an aging population, deficient age-friendly transportation systems, and insufficient government funding support to address the issues faced by their transportation-disadvantaged populations (TDP). Through an extensive literature review, this paper first evaluates and compares the major TDP-related laws, regulations, transportation service delivery procedures, and existing age-friendly transportation improvements made in the U.S. and China. Next, it highlights the differences between the U.S. and China in their socioeconomic characteristics and the implications these have on transportation modal shares and age-friendly transportation planning priorities. In the concluding section, it summarizes the research findings and makes preliminary recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the development of public transport (PT) in rural areas in the context of the implementation of the Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) concept. This paper aimed to indicate whether and how rural areas can use the MaaS concept to develop PT and improve transport accessibility. The financing model for the operation of collective PT in the example of Poland was analysed. The case study Pomeranian Voivodeship was selected due to the strong influence of the Tri-City agglomeration, which does not directly include western parts of the region such as Słupsk County. Several research methods were used: desktop research, case study and GIS analysis. The results highlight that the MaaS concept has the potential to be implemented in rural areas; however, this will be a longterm process and will require advanced cooperation between local authorities, private operators and service providers. This process is dependent on measures being taken to support the use of MaaS at a national level. From the inhabitants' perspective, such changes are a positive direction for PT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing importance of subways in urban public transportation systems, pedestrian flow simulation for supporting station management and risk analysis becomes more necessary. There is a need to calibrate the simulation model parameters with real-world pedestrian flow data to achieve a simulation closer to the real situation. This study presents a calibration approach based on YOLOv5 for calibrating the simulation model parameters in the social force model inserted in Anylogic. This study compared the simulation results after model calibration with real data. The results show that (1) the parameters calibrated in this paper can reproduce the characteristics of pedestrian flow in the station; (2) the calibration model not only decreases global errors but also overcomes the common phenomenon of large differences between simulation and reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with dynamic and increasingly diversified public transport requirements, bus operators are urged to propose operational innovations to sustain their competitiveness. In particular, ordinary bus operations are heavily constrained by well-established route options, and it is challenging to accommodate dynamic passenger flows effectively and with a good level of resource utilization performance. Inspired by the philosophy of sharing economy, many of the available transport resources on the road, such as minibuses and private vehicles, can offer opportunities for improvement if they can be effectively incorporated and exploited. In this regard, this paper proposes a metric learning-based prediction algorithm which can effectively capture the demand pattern and designs a route planning optimizer to help bus operators effectively deploy fixed routing and cooperative buses with traffic dynamics. Through extensive numerical studies, the performance of our proposed metric learning-based Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) prediction model outperforms existing ways. The effectiveness and robustness of the prediction-supported routing planner are well demonstrated for a real-time case. Further, managerial insights with regard to travel time, bus fleet size, and customer service levels are revealed by various sensitivity analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With trends of urbanisation on the rise, providing adequate housing to individuals remains a complex issue to be addressed. Often, the slow output of relevant housing policies, coupled with quickly increasing housing costs, leaves individuals with the burden of finding housing that is affordable and in a safe location. In this paper, we unveil how transit service to employment hubs, not just housing policies, can prevent individuals from improving their housing conditions. We approach this question in three steps, applying the workflow to 20 cities in the United States of America. First, we propose a comprehensive framework to quantify housing insecurity and assign a housing demographic to each neighbourhood. Second, we use transit-pedestrian networks and public transit timetables (GTFS feeds) to estimate the time it takes to travel between two neighbourhoods using public transportation. Third, we apply geospatial autocorrelation to identify employment hotspots for each housing demographic. Finally, we use stochastic modelling to highlight how commuting to areas associated with better housing conditions results in transit commute times of over an hour in 15 cities. Ultimately, we consider the compounded burdens that come with housing insecurity, by having poor transit access to employment areas. In doing so, we highlight the importance of understanding how negative outcomes of housing insecurity coincide with various urban mechanisms, particularly emphasising the role that public transportation plays in locking vulnerable demographics into a cycle of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an efficient, environmentally friendly, and economical urban public transportation tool, the subway has significant advantages compared to other urban public transportation tools and plays an irreplaceable role in the urban rail transit system. While the subway brings many conveniences to people, its operation has also brought a series of problems to urban development and residents’ lives, especially the vibration and noise problems generated by the subway have become unavoidable and urgent problems to be solved. The traditional wave barriers have a certain effect on attenuating and suppressing the vibration generated by the subway, but it has shortcomings in terms of the width and quantity of elastic wave bandgap (BG), so its application in low-frequency vibration reduction and isolation of subway systems is greatly limited. In order to broaden the elastic BG width and quantity of the wave barrier, this paper designs a novel phononic-like crystal subway wave barrier (PLCSWB) for subway vibration isolation based on locally resonant theory. Firstly, the dispersion curves of the novel PLCSWB are calculated using the improved plane wave expansion method and finite element method (FEM), and compared with the dispersion curves of traditional phononic crystal (PC) wave barriers. Secondly, the frequency response function of the novel PLCSWB is calculated using FEM to evaluate its attenuation effect on vibration, and the energy distribution characteristics at its BG boundary are analyzed. Then, the main factors affecting the BG of the novel PLCSWB are analyzed, and a spring–mass system equivalent model of the novel PLCSWB is established to theoretically estimate its BG range. Finally, the vibration data of the tunnel wall monitored on site are used to analyze and verify the vibration isolation effect of the novel PLCSWB. The results show that the novel PLCSWB opens five low-frequency BGs in the 200Hz frequency band, which increased the total width of the opened BGs by 49% compared to traditional PC wave barriers. In the frequency range of the BG, the attenuation value of the novel PLCSWB to vibration is mostly above 30dB, and the energy distribution inside the structure is mainly concentrated in the primitive cell that controls the BG, indicating good attenuation and control effects on vibration. The main factors affecting the BG of the novel PLCSWB are the density of the scatterer material, the elastic modulus, and the thickness of the wrapping layer material. Moreover, during subway operation, the novel PLCSWB has a good attenuation effect on the vibration transmitted from the tunnel wall to the soil. Among them, the maximum vibration acceleration amplitude of the novel PLCSWB with nine rows is reduced by 47%, and the vibration isolation performance is remarkable. The relevant research results of this paper provide a novel approach and method for the study of subway vibration reduction and isolation, and can also provide specific references for the design and development of wave barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Logistic regression has been a widely used prediction technique to analyze categorical variables. However, if the assumptions are violated the results may be biased. The study in this paper applied an analytical technique namely generalized ordered logit model. A case study of using urban light rail under pandemic conditions was applied for the analysis. The results suggested that logistic regression should not be applied before exploring the multicollinearity and applying the test of parallel lines. If the assumptions are violated, generalized ordered logit model should be considered. Regarding the predictive variables, sociodemographic, socioeconomic and travel pattern, related variables were found to have a statistically significant impact on the perception of safety and infrastructure of urban light rail. The outcomes of the study would provide a deeper understanding of developing regression models for categorical variables for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction and operation of China's rail transit system have entered a high-speed development stage, and the rapid increase of train speed and mileage has brought greater challenges to the safety and reliability of the rail transit system. Network planning evaluation is the key to the early decision-making of urban rail transit project, which directly determines the success or failure of the whole project. How to scientifically and reasonably evaluate the urban rail transit information resource network planning has become a difficult problem for many urban planners to solve. Therefore, this paper studies the optimization of the communication resource allocation algorithm and the comprehensive evaluation of its application for urban rail transit planning. In this paper, based on CVNN structure, the network prototype is an extension of RVNN structure. In the abstract, its processing unit is composed of a pair of real-number processors that can realize certain operations. HNN is a fully connected recurrent neural network based on the idea of the energy function, which is helpful to understand the calculation mode of HNN, and the research shows that HNN can solve many combinatorial optimization problems. In addition, the combination of neural network and genetic algorithm with simulated annealing mechanism can also bring new directions for research. On the basis of experimental analysis, it can be concluded that in general, the error reduction rate of the optimization scheme designed in this paper can reach 58.6% on average. In practical application, the accuracy of the optimal bit error rate is 52.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connection trips is often an important part of long-distance travel, especially for air travel. Models of long-distance travel would therefore benefit from a more detailed representation of the connection part. In this paper it is however shown that most models of connection trips are stand-alone models not integrated with the model for main mode. Only a handful models that integrate connection trip modelling into a large-scale transport model for long-distance travel are found. The connection trip models are classified into different types using a typology developed within the paper. The typology identifies nine model types that differ in how access/egress mode choice and terminal choice are handled. The scarce literature on connection trip modelling within large-scale transport modelling systems call for more research regarding detailed representation of access/egress mode choice and terminal choice, especially regarding the trade-off between model complexity and detailed representation, as well as whether the detailed representation of connection trips should primarily be conducted within the public transport network assignment or on the demand modelling side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects the research aim and starting points of the APVV-18- 0115 project entitled Language in the City – Documenting the Multimodal Semiosphere of Linguistic Landscapes in Slovakia and in a Comparative Perspective. As formulated by its main author, Wolfgang Schulze (2018), the presented interdisciplinary project is focused on “the general research paradigms of the so-called cultural linguistics, sociolinguistics, multimodal linguistics, and cultural semiotics.” Within this context, the paper addresses the means used to express appeal in the linguistic landscape (order, ban, instruction, warning, request, or plea). The author draws on the characteristics and functions of imperative and its competitive forms in the German language, and observes their manifestations in the linguistic landscape. The analysis of the grammatical structures used for expressing the appeal deals with the material collected during the field research performed in the specifically selected parts of Erlangen, Germany. For the purpose of this analysis, the research material was complemented by the signs collected in the more frequented parts of Erlangen as well, i.e., places with increased movement and concentration of people such as the railway station, public transportation vehicles, malls, university, university library. The goal of this paper is to outline the means used in the German linguistic landscape to express an appeal and guide the behaviour of the intended recipients. The comparative perspective is applied not only in the examination and analysis of the research sample, but it also extends to the Slovak language. The results of the analysis are compared with the way an appeal is expressed in the Slovak linguistic landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major transformation in contemporary cities is the evolution of the urban core. This paper investigated the issues associated with the surge of shopping malls as an alternative public space and how they may be classified as an "urban core" of contemporary cities. This paper aimed to interpret a new form of urban core and its set of spatial indicators relative to its socio-spatial network with its surroundings. This paper also aimed to introduce spatial indicators of urban core for the practical use of institutional units on how to create equally attractive public place alternatives to shopping malls. The paper argued that shopping malls with significant floor areas, accumulated over the years, substantially influence their surrounding area by increasing lot density and linkages. While these shopping mall complexes do not meet the threshold population to be considered "urban core", the case studies have demonstrated that shopping malls can establish social hubs that centralize urban activities, and construct a "place" or "destination" with congregated urban services such as public plazas and public transport network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of fare integration on the demand for public transport and the role of IT technologies and cash-free payments in this process. The paper presents the results of a critical literature review of studies conducted in this area so far. This approach enables the integration of theoretical and empirical findings, and perspectives of fragmented and interdisciplinary studies. Fare integration in cities is one of the factors that increase the demand for urban public transport services. This results from an improved image of public transport, easier promotion of services, more eligible passenger information, and easier use of services due to the uniform regulations and fares. In addition, for travelers, fare integration means cheaper services because they do not need to buy separate tickets corresponding to various organizers or carriers. The implementation of solutions from the field of fare integration is also related to costs; one can primarily mention the transaction costs and those related to the introduction of new solutions into the sales systems. The increase in the demand for public transport services due to the implementation of fare integration, results in external benefits that affect the sustainability of city transport systems and, thereby, justifies the funding of it by the public sector, which is accountable for ensuring efficient public transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern urban transportation service network could be split into unrestricted and restricted networks depending on whether travelers face limitations in route selection. Along with the continuous expansion of the city, it is difficult for travelers to find a more reasonable travel solution when confronted with such a complex transportation service network, which combines both unrestricted and restricted networks, especially for the park-and-ride (P&R) travel mode. This paper addresses the issue of route analysis in modern urban transportation service systems to provide travelers with reasonable travel solutions based on multiple types of transportation services. An improved A* algorithm is proposed to address the optimal path analysis for restricted networks to provide reasonable travel solutions for public transportation trips. Furthermore, by establishing the topological relationship between restricted and unrestricted networks, this paper presented an improved A* algorithm based on hybrid networks that solves the optimal path analysis problem for P&R trips, bringing convenience to many urban travelers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the sustainability of railways. A comprehensive international literature review was conducted on railway vehicles, traction, and railway permanent way. The main goal was to find the factors and parameters that affect railway sustainability the most. CO2 emissions from transportation, mining, raw material production, manufacturing, use, operation and maintenance, and demolition and restoration must be significantly reduced. Naturally, the attention will be on the considerable energy and financial savings. This article's main topics are sustainability, affordable and clean energy, industry, innovation, infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, and life on land. Building materials come from quarries and gravel pits, but availability is decreasing. Future pavement construction and maintenance require recycling demolition and industrial waste. Engineers must choose materials and technology that extend track lifetimes to ensure reliability, availability, maintainability, safety, sustainability, and economy in permanent railroad ways. Life-cycle costs can be reduced, e.g., by Building Information Modeling. Electric machinery is preferred for construction equipment, materials, and management. Sustainability, like grassed tracks and recyclable plastics, has improved urban life. Sheet metal forming using recycled materials and sustainability shows how important environmental protection is in car and train design. Electric road and rail propulsion are driven by environmental concerns, while supercapacitors and batteries are studied. In conclusion, by preferring rail for freight and passenger transport, both for private and public transport, energy savings and CO2 emissions can be up to 2-10 times higher than for other modes of transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper analyzes urban travel mode preference in Addis Ababa using a survey distributed to 457 public transit users. The article highlights the details of individual travel and then discusses the implications of the travel patterns for transport policy in the city. The study employed percentages and run multinomial logistic regression to analyze the relationship between mode choice, travel characteristics and socio-economic features of individuals. In terms of mode choice and the influential factors, the analysis shows that income, age, travel expenditure and distance are the determining factors that affect mode choice. It was also found that the privately owned public transport, Taxi (mini-bus) and Higer (midi-bus) form the dominant mode of transport used by closely half percent (41.3%) of the survey respondents. On the basis of our analysis, we suggest that policies have to be devised to make government owned public transport service better in order to support a shift from using low occupancy vehicles to high occupancy vehicles which ultimately solve the problem of congestion and environmental pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is an innovative urban mobility concept that aims to provide a competitive alternative to the use of private cars, by integrating various transportation services. Until today, limited MaaS schemes have been implemented and, in most cases, without succeeding to justify the hype. For achieving the goals of MaaS it is essential to capture holistically the expectations and barriers, as perceived by both the end-users and the various involved stakeholders. This paper aims to bridge this gap, by conducting two surveys in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece; the first survey targeted local authorities, organizations and mobility providers, while the second survey focused on (potential) end-users. The responses of stakeholders were analyzed through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, in order to identify the importance of barriers and expectations. On the other hand, the responses of end-users were analyzed statistically and two ordered logit models were developed for identifying the characteristics of those that are more likely to adopt MaaS. The results of the analyses indicate that there is a loop between MaaS and private car usage; on the one hand, the dominance of private cars hinders the adoption of MaaS, but on the other hand, MaaS can be a "tool" for encountering car domination. The results also enhance the idea that public transport is an essential component of MaaS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issues of housing and traffic in China's mega cities have become increasingly pressing problems, particularly for middle/low-income tenant workers. These tenants are from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, which has resulted in a significant geographical separation between their workplace and their residence. Although a large number of studies have confirmed that built environment factors have a solid impact on residents' commuting distance, few studies have investigated the mechanism underlying the nonlinear influence on middle/low-income tenants. This paper aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the key factors and nonlinear influencing mechanism of the built environment on middle/low-income tenant workers' commuting distance by establishing a gradient-boosting decision tree model, using Beijing as an empirical case. The paper reveals three primary findings: (1) An important nonlinear relationship between the surrounding built environment and peoples' jobs–housing spatial proximity can be observed for those middle/low-income tenant workers who use slow and public modes of commuting. Specifically, the density of public transport stations, road networks, and workplaces, and the land use mix play a dominant role. (2) A limited effect of built environment factors can be found for the same group of tenant workers who choose cars as their mode of commuting. (3) The differences in self-selected commuting modes have a significant mediating effect on the relationship between the built environment and jobs–housing situation among middle/low-income tenant workers. Given this, effective policy guidance for residents' travel modes is necessary to optimize the built environment indicators to achieve the best effect. In addition, we should consider giving priority to the matching indicators such as land use mix and resident population density. Another possibility is to strengthen the connection to the public transport stations, which in turn can optimize the walkability in residential environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the transport system of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, taking factors such as the number of vehicles, roadway width, speed of vehicles, longitudinal grade, and proportion of both fuel and electrical vehicles by dividing vehicles into seven classes, namely, car, minibus, small bus, coach, small truck, heavy truck, and truck trailer, to determine CO2 emission, CO emission fuel consumption, and electric consumption in addition to the percent to replace ICE vehicles. After selecting eight representative road sections in Addis Ababa city, input data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Simulation of urban mobility (SUMO) is used to model the existing road transport system and two other scenarios, cases being 20% and 40% replacement of internal combustion engine vehicles by electric vehicles. Among the vehicle types studied under this paper, the SUMO results show that coaches are with the highest CO2 emission, releasing an average amount of 28.442 grams of CO2 every time step, while cars are with the lowest CO2 emission value of 6.542 grams. Minibuses are the top CO emitters, releasing an average of 0.420 grams of CO every time step, and truck trailers emit the smallest CO emission, 0.025 grams. Regarding electric consumption, the truck trailer is the vehicle type with the highest electric consumption, with a value of 2.282 kwh (watthour) consumption every time step, and cars are the least electricity-consuming vehicles, with a value of 0.151 kwh. The fourth point is fuel consumption; besides the high CO2 emission, coaches' consumption of fuel is leading by 8.946 grams, and cars use 2.087 grams of fuel every time step. Totally, public transport vehicles are responsible for higher emissions and huge fuel consumption. Therefore, if our transport system encourages the penetration of electric vehicles into the road transport system, a healthy and energy-efficient environment is reserved. Again, from a financial and environmental standpoint, the replacement of 40% of ICE vehicles by EVs enhances us with reduced costs and a green environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban mass transit systems generate large volumes of data via automated systems established for ticketing, signalling, and other operational processes. This study is motivated by the observation that despite the availability of sophisticated quantitative methods, most public transport operators are constrained in exploiting the information their datasets contain. This paper intends to address this gap in the context of real-time demand and travel time prediction with smart card data. We comparatively benchmark the predictive performance of four quantitative prediction methods: multivariate linear regression (MVLR) and semiparametric regression (SPR) widely used in the econometric literature, and random forest regression (RFR) and support vector machine regression (SVMR) from machine learning. We find that the SVMR and RFR methods are the most accurate in travel flow and travel time prediction, respectively. However, we also find that the SPR technique offers lower computation time at the expense of minor inefficiency in predictive power in comparison with the two machine learning methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The design, management and operation of transport systems is a complex activity and this has only been exacerbated since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Concern has been raised over the likelihood of the public transport sector surviving in some locations given the significant drops in patronage; this is especially so in rural environments where the existing provision was already limited. Furthermore, within the growing literature on the impact of COVID-19 on travel behaviour most of the focus is on urban areas with little documented experience of how rural travel behaviour has been impacted. Purpose: This paper investigates the impact of COVID-19 on the transport sector and travel behaviour in the rural periphery. Methods: Drawing on the work of the International Transport Forum (ITF) Working Group on Innovative Mobility for the Periphery, augmented by additional evidence and findings from the literature, this paper addresses three specific questions: Firstly, how COVID-19 has affected rural mobility. Secondly, how we can plan for sustainable rural transport solutions in the post-COVID world. Thirdly, the longer-term impacts of COVID-19 with implications for mobility. Results: There will be substantial impacts from COVID-19 on rural societies and while the short-term impacts have been negative, in the longer-term there may be opportunity for changed mobility behaviours (including in response to modified work and activity patterns). Evidence suggests that it would seem likely that there are opportunities to foster new rural mobility solutions to support sustainable mobility (including Mobility-as-a-Service) and counter the traditionally fragmented transport base; this will be important as we learn to live with COVID-19. Conclusions: While recognising the impact of changing funding priorities and the possible shift in economic activity as a result of the pandemic we conclude with suggestions for future rural transport policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]