Call for Papers:
“The role of users in low-carbon transport innovations: Electrified, autonomous and shared mobility”

Special Issue of Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
Co-Editors-in-Chief: Prof. Robert Noland and Prof. Oliver Gao

Guest editors:
Jonn Axsen, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Benjamin K. Sovacool, University of Sussex, UK and Aarhus University, Denmark

The continued dominance of privately-owned, petroleum-powered vehicles used primarily by single occupants is a major contributor to several societal problems, including climate change, air pollution, excessive congestion, and land-use impacts. Many policymakers and other stakeholders have explored and supported efforts to transition towards more sustainable forms of mobility, with recent interest increasing for three particular categories of innovation: electric mobility, autonomous vehicles and shared mobility. These sociotechnical innovations, individually or in some combination, could play important roles in future transformations of transportation sectors—substantially impacting the environment, energy use, and social well-being. However, there remains enormous uncertainty about the likelihood, magnitude and net impact of these innovations.

This Special Issue focuses on the role of users in such transitions, including vehicle owners, operators and passengers and potentially other actors. To date, much of the research in this field has neglected or overly simplified the user perspective. Many studies take a purely technical or optimization approach—assuming that users will take whatever actions are necessary to “optimize” the system. Others have relied on a rational actor approach, representing consumers as self-focused users with known, unchanging preferences that guide deliberative decision-making—often with an exclusive focus on financial attributes of the technologies. Neither approach is considered to be behaviourally realistic. Arguably, neglect of behavioural realism can lead to incomplete or misleading results in models and analyses. On the cutting edge, some researchers continue efforts to improve our understanding of the human dimension of transport innovations—which this Special Issue aims to support.

This call invites papers that seek to improve our understanding of the roles of users in potential transitions to low-carbon transport innovations, using the cases of electrified, autonomous and shared mobility. The contributions of these papers can be conceptual, theoretical, methodological or empirical. Topics can include (but are not limited to):

  *   Critiques of behavioural assumptions in existing studies;
  *   Analysis of empirical data from surveys or interviews;
  *   Methods to better represent consumer heterogeneity or segments;
  *   Bringing behavioural realism into systems, optimization or simulation models;
  *   Using multi-method approaches to improve behavioural realism;
  *   Interdisciplinary approaches, e.g. drawing from psychology, innovation studies, science and technology studies, sociology and/or economic theories;
  *   Development and proposal of new or existing user theories;
  *   Expanding the consideration of users beyond just "end-users", e.g. citizens that may interact these innovations, as well as other actors; and
  *   Informing policy design with consideration of user behaviour.
Each paper’s key focus must be on improving representations and understanding of users, relating to the cases of low-carbon innovations. All papers must cover at least one of the technology themes—electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles or shared mobility—or some combination thereof, such as shared autonomous vehicles. Applications to any transportation sectors or cases are welcome, including: light, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles; passenger and freight transportation; land, air or marine; vehicles, fuels and related infrastructure.

About 10-20 high quality abstracts will be invited for submission, with an eventual 8-15 papers selected and published post-review for this special issue. There is also potential for some successful papers to be presented at a special workshop at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the National Academies’ Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Washington DC, depending on author interest and the nature of selected abstracts (travel to be funded by the researcher).

Abstract submissions
Interested authors should send an abstract (400 words max), succinctly describing the work’s rationale, methods, and key results. Please explicitly note anything that may threaten your ability to meet the timeline below, e.g. the need for not yet secured funding or data collection. Please also include a short biography and full contact information for each author (not included in the word count). Send your abstract and bios of all co-authors in a single document to Zoe Long ([log in to unmask]) by December 11, 2017 (by midnight, PST).

Applicants will be notified of the outcome by January 15, 2018. Full papers of 6,000 to 8,000 words (excluding references) will be due on June 15, 2018.

Important dates
Abstract submission: December 11, 2017 (midnight PST)
Decision on proposals: January 15, 2018
Manuscript submission: June 15, 2018
Reviewers’ feedback: Sept 1 2018
Revised paper’s submission: October 15 2018
Reviewers’ final feedback, editorial decisions: Nov 15, 2018
Final manuscripts due: December 15, 2018
Publication with Transportation Research Part D, Winter 2019

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment publishes original research on the environmental impacts of transportation, policy responses to those impacts, and their implications for the design, planning, and management of transportation systems. It covers all aspects of the interaction between transportation and the environment. The journal invites submissions of research papers on all modes of transportation, including maritime and air transportation as well as land transportation, and considers their impacts on the environment in the broad sense. Articles are primarily policy-driven and should be relevant and applied as well as being accessible to readers from a wide range of disciplines. There are no disciplinary boundaries to work considered and submissions of an interdisciplinary nature are welcomed. Equally, the journal is fully international in its orientation and invites contributions from economically developing, as well as more economically advanced, countries.
For more on the aims and goals of the journal and for detailed instructions for authors, see https://www.journals.elsevier.com/transportation-research-part-d-transport-and-environment
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Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment publishes original research on the environmental impacts of transportation, policy...






_______________________________________________
Robert B. Noland
Professor of Transportation Planning and Policy
Director, Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center
Director, PhD Program in Planning and Public Policy
E.J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
Rutgers University
33 Livingston Ave
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
phone: 848-932-2859

http://vtc.rutgers.edu/
http://www.facebook.com/VTCrutgers