The Transport System of Tomorrow is both greener and more sustainable, while also safer and smarter
A flexible and sustainable transport system is essential in a well-functioning society. However, transport problems are becoming larger in scale and more complex in content, making them all the more challenging to solve. The world’s population is growing, and soon more than half of all people on earth will be living in large cities. Consequently, the number of vehicles, as well as the traffic volumes, may increase dramatically.
"Our challenge is to create a transport system that is both safe and economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. Here, our students and researchers have an important role," says Professor Lars-Göran Mattsson, Head of the Department of Transport Science.
The Department of Transport Science consists of three divisions: Traffic and Logistics, Transport and Location Analysis, and Highway and Railway Engineering. We have excellent research and educational programmes in a range of areas concerning the future transport system. The Department collaborates closely with nationally and internationally leading research groups; with the Swedish Transport Administration, and other planning agencies; with the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI); and with industry.
Research about the transport system is interdisciplinary and covers all modes of transport, both when it comes to personal travel and to goods transport. Our research covers such areas as travel behaviour, use of economic instruments and forecasting, and values and policy issues. We also have research seeking to find new materials, technologies and processes to build and maintain infrastructure such as roads and railways. How to use information technology to monitor, control and facilitate the use of the transport system has also become an increasingly important research area.
One important issue that cuts across many areas of research is how to achieve improved energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact from the transport sector - i.e. how we can foster a greener, safer and smarter transport system.
