Editorial: Special issue of the Transport Research Days (TRDs) of BIVEC-GIBET 2019

Moving towards more sustainable mobility and transport through smart systems

Abstract

On May 23-24 2019 the Transport Research Days (TRDs) of BIVEC-GIBET, the Benelux Interuniversity Association of Transport Researchers, took place in Ghent (Belgium). What then was common practice -- going to a conference, present your paper, and interact with people face-to-face on campus – is now, due to COVID-19, something we all again look very much forward to.

The TRDs are organized biannually and offer young and established scholars from the three Benelux Countries an opportunity to present their research findings to an informed audience of transport, mobility, and logistics researchers. It is already the 8th time that the TRDs have been organized. Previous editions were held in Hasselt (2005), Rotterdam (2007), Brussels (2009), Namur (2011), Luxembourg (2013), Eindhoven (2015), Liège (2017), and Ghent (2019). And also the venue for the 9th TRD has been decided: Delft (2021).

In May 2019 the TRDs were organized by the Social and Economic Geography (SEG) Research Group of the Geography Department of Ghent University. The conference theme, although general enough to welcome various mobility- and transport-related disciplines, centred around moving forward towards more sustainability mobility and transport through smart systems. In 12 different sessions devoted to Safety, Travel behaviour, Traffic flows, Freight, Climate, Accessibility, Route choice, Pricing, Cars, Ports/airports, and Travel data, the best of current transport, mobility and logistics research in the Benelux-countries was presented. The set of full papers can be found in Witlox (2019). Yes, BIVEC-GIBET keeps its tradition and still publishes (in paper form) its proceedings… Another tradition is to go for a special issue of a journal, and we are very happy that European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research (EJTIR) agreed to host such a SI. In total we received eight papers, three of which, after review, have been accepted. By coincidence, all three accepted papers stem from Dutch researchers. And all three are of high relevance in today’s ongoing pandemic of the coronavirus disease, although neither of the three papers refers to COVID-19 because the research was conducted prior to the pandemic.