This volume explores the field of transport sector development. Derived from the 2015 TranSopot conference held in Sopot, Poland, it discusses current trends, issues, and research on the topic. Specifically, it aims to explore sustainable development, examines current problems ranging from transport systems to transport enterprises and provides a variety of analytical methods such as economic and econometric analysis. The three most important fields of current transport research are sustainable transport development, innovation and technological progress and the conditions of transport enterprise growth and survival. Transport is an activity which is supposed to be sustainable, environmentally aware, economically optimal, socially sound and politically responsible. Striving for innovation in transport means looking for organizational and technical solutions which increase the efficiency, effectiveness and safety of transportation. However, the main research issue in the field are strategies for sustainable transport developments in urban and rural areas, instruments of internalization of external transport costs, promotion of environmentally-friendly transport behavior and improvement of transport energy efficiency. Transport infrastructure innovation, intelligent transport systems, innovations in management and finance are some of the main concerns of researchers and policy-makers in the field. Transport enterprises need to adapt to the conditions of the new economic growth perspectives. They need to create unique growth conditions, otherwise they will condemn themselves to struggle for survival. In particular, transport enterprises have to create special functioning systems and programs to diversify economic activity to use funds in the most efficient ways possible.

This proceedings present current trends in the transport growth. It presents transport solutions both at a micro-level, such as that of a single city or a single company, as well as at a macro-level of a whole transportation system. The transport decisions made by an individual in regards to the transport mode and route, add up to the structure and efficiency of the whole system. Transport systems cannot grow extensively anymore, due to lack of space or the amount of additional costs, so the authors presents new solutions, ones which are innovative and sustainable, while also increasing the efficiency of transport operations. These solutions are analyzed for performance at a scale of individual cities or companies, as well as whole transport systems. The researchers, who are often also practitioners in the field of transport, provide not only the theoretical background for the transport analysis but also empirical data and practical experience.

This proceedings present current trends in the transport growth. It presents transport solutions both at a micro-level, such as that of a single city or a single company, as well as at a macro-level of a whole transportation system. The transport decisions made by an individual in regards to the transport mode and route, add up to the structure and efficiency of the whole system. Transport systems cannot grow extensively anymore, due to lack of space or the amount of additional costs, so the authors presents new solutions, ones which are innovative and sustainable, while also increasing the efficiency of transport operations. These solutions are analyzed for performance at a scale of individual cities or companies, as well as whole transport systems. The researchers, who are often also practitioners in the field of transport, provide not only the theoretical background for the transport analysis but also empirical data and practical experience.

This report analyses measures taken in many cities regarding goods delivery in the OECD area and provides recommendations for dealing with these challenges.

This proceedings volume examines the effects of transport on socio-economic development including innovation, public health and cultural behavior. Featuring contributions presented at the 2017 TranSopot Conference in Sopot, Poland, the enclosed papers are divided to provide emerging research in transport sustainability, innovation, structure, and in municipal transport economics. Collectively, the contributions provide not only the theoretical background for transport analysis but also empirical data and practical applications. Researchers in the transport sector strive to explore the nuances of various aspects of transport economics, which are connected on many levels. The sustainability of transport fits into a wide perspective of the sustainable economy. It treats the activities of individuals, companies and local, regional and national governments as means of achieving economic and social ends. Conversely, transport sustainability has a certain burden on society as it may generate external costs in the form of congestion, pollution and negative health effects. Many of these adverse effects might be counteracted by transport innovations, both the technical ones and the organizational ones. These innovations, while their main goal might be to increase the efficiency of the transport entities, should also fit into the desirable trend of responsible economic design thinking. These general ideas of transport research naturally have to influence the research in various branches of transport ranging from the road transport to railway. Lastly, there is the municipal transport, in which goals of different stakeholders are often contradictory which leads to highly complicated decision problems. Featuring case examples on topics as bike sharing, green travel, compact cars, freight transport and electric cars, this book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students in the fields of transport economics, innovation, and sustainability.

This book offers a collection of valuable guidelines for making decisions concerning the future development of transport networks and traffic engineering. The decision-making support systems described here will certainly attract the interest of those who face the challenge of finding solutions to problems concerning modern transport systems on a daily basis. Consequently, the book is chiefly intended for local authorities involved in planning and preparing development strategies for specific transport-related areas (in both urban and regional contexts), as well as for representatives of business and industry who are directly engaged in the implementation of traffic engineering solutions. The guidelines provided in the respective chapters help to address the given problem soundly, and to simplify the selection of an appropriate strategy. The topics covered include increasing the competitiveness of public transport, the status quo of electric vehicle infrastructures worldwide, methods for calming urban traffic as an element of sustainable transport development, speed traffic zones and electric buses, car-sharing systems in Poland, a method for deconstructing the regional travel demand model, monitoring urban traffic using floating car data, problems of deliveries in urban agglomeration distribution systems, estimating the number of threatened people in case of fire in road tunnels, and road pavement evaluation using advanced tools. Since the book also considers new approaches to theoretical models (including traffic flow surveys and measurements, transport behaviors, human factors in traffic engineering, and road condition modeling), it will also appeal to researchers and scientists studying these problems. The book gathers selected papers presented at the 15th Scientific and Technical Conference “Transport Systems. Theory and Practice”, organized by the Department of Transport Systems and Traffic Engineering, Silesian University of Technology in Katowice, Poland on September 17–19, 2018.

Having been under colonial rule for the first half of the century, by 1965 all but a handful of African countries had regained their independence and were poised to take off into an era of development. However, Africa now suffers from the most acute form of underdevelopment anywhere in the world. Bringing together a broad selection of case studies covering a wide range of key issues, this volume provides a multidisciplinary exploration of Africa's development opportunities and challenges into the twenty-first century.