The European Union’s (EUs) Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) aims to strengthen the EUs resource resilience by increasing the autonomy of Critical Raw Material (CRM) supply through EU-based extraction, processing, and recycling, thereby reducing external dependencies and promoting a circular economy. Copper, a key CRM, faces growing demand that cannot be fulfilled by mining alone. This research analyzes the European copper supply chain under the CRMA and evaluates the role of recycling in meeting its requirements. An initial qualitative analysis suggests that recycling is the most promising solution to comply with the CRMA. The study develops a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model to optimize the European copper recycling network under the CRMA recycling requirement and to validate the potential of recycling in a quantitative way. Results identify four optimal facility locations spread through Europe based on geographic centrality weighted by supply and demand quantities. Although the collection of European waste can feasibly satisfy the minimum recycling requirements as set out by the CRMA, changing regulations, disruptions, or changes in demand and external supply may lead to shortages. Improving recycling efficiency has therefore been marked as an important direction of future research. ... Read more

The escalating demand for urban mobility has significantly contributed to increased CO₂ emissions, necessitating a shift towards sustainable, low-carbon transportation solutions. Emerging modes and concepts such as micro-mobility, shared mobility, electric mobility and mobility hubs offer promising pathways to reduce vehicle CO₂ emissions. This review explores the role of these modes in emission reduction, with particular attention to the integrative function of mobility hubs. This review synthesized current knowledge on the role of emerging transport modes in reducing urban CO₂ emissions. Our analysis through the Life-Cycle Assessment framework and Dynamic Mitigation Model demonstrates that while these modes can lower emissions by facilitating a shift away from private cars, their success is not a guaranteed outcome. Instead, their environmental benefit depends on managing the balance between modal substitution, operational logistics, and vehicle life-cycles. Mobility hubs are a pivotal strategy for mitigating the life cycle emissions associated with shared transport modes by enhancing integration and minimizing indirect emissions. Therefore, the review argues that advancing shared mobility from a niche option to a mainstream solution, supported by strategically implemented mobility hubs, is essential for achieving significant climate benefits. Prioritizing the coordinated deployment of emerging modes and hubs can capture their synergistic advantages, minimizing life-cycle CO₂ emissions and advancing the transition toward sustainable urban transport. ... Read more

Empty Container Repositioning (ECR) remains a costly activity in global logistics, as empty containers must be moved from surplus to deficit areas without generating revenue. While global ECR is well studied, local and regional repositioning are less understood. This study explores barriers to direct inland repositioning within Maersk’s hinterland networks. Using internal data, interviews, operational assessments, and financial analysis, the research reveals that only 12% of ECR movements currently follow direct routes from surplus to deficit locations, indicating overdependence on hub-based repositioning.

From the point of view of depot operations, key barriers preventing direct
repositioning include limited collaboration between vendors, inconsistent stock levels, container quality issues, and seasonal flow variations. At the corridor level, barriers include off-route locations, rigid transport schedules, lack of suitable services, and physical limitations like barge sizes. Financial analysis shows direct repositioning can cut costs by avoiding extra handling. Operational findings highlight that stakeholder coordination and planning practices significantly affect efficiency.
This study concludes that ECR should be viewed as a coordination challenge
rather than just an optimization problem. Improving stakeholder collaboration and planning flexibility is essential for enabling more cost-effective and efficient direct inland repositioning of empty containers. ... Read more

Many cities have ambitious climate targets, like becoming climate-neutral by 2050, 2040 or 2030, but are uncertain about how mobility and land use should change in order to reduce GHG emissions to levels consistent with the cities’ aims. Finding answers on this, and also on the question of how to strike an effective balance between desired fundamental transformation and realistic expectations, was at the heart of the Interreg Europe project 2050 CliMobCity (2050 Climate-friendly Mobility in Cities). The project partners were four medium-sized but otherwise quite different cities (Bydgoszcz, Plymouth, Thessaloniki and Leipzig), along with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and TU Delft. Each partner city conducted a so-called demonstration study, which required defining ambitious packages of measures (mobility, land use, electrification) and forecasting changes in mobility by macroscopic transport modelling. PIK then analysed GHG emissions using its carbon model. This paper extends the demonstration studies into a case-study approach. This is preceded by an exercise in consistently structuring types of GHG and mobility performances and corresponding measures. The case-study approach is supplemented by a review of the literature on shared and micromobility. A conclusion drawn from the case study is that none of the partner cities is in fact sufficiently reducing GHG emissions. Even if electricity production was completely green, the remaining gap between GHG reduction aims and analysed GHG delivery lies between 30–81 %, dependent on the scenario and city. Shared and micromobility seem not to lead to strongly deviating conclusions. We discuss policies to close the gap. One major option discussed is tackling GHG emissions from urban freight, in forms such as organising public-private cooperation designed to accelerate the electrification of freight vehicles. ... Read more

The transport sector is the second highest emitting sector in the Netherlands, with 19 % of the total energy consumption. Where other sectors are becoming more sustainable, the transport sector remains one of the most difficult to decarbonize, despite the many studies in this field. This research aims to gather a list of potential measures and combine them to reach an 80% reduction of CO2 emissions in 2040 for the hinterland freight corridor of Rotterdam – Venlo which has a high rail freight intensity. Literature study and expert interviews established a list of potential measures. Using an iterative normative scenario design approach, a list of 8 potential measures with corresponding targets was drafted. After computation, a reduction of 80% is estimated for the corridor. The results show that for this particular corridor, the reduction depends greatly on the availability and adaptability of biodiesels and the electrification of vehicles and vessels. In contrast, measures aiming to improve the logistical
efficiency do reduce the total energy required and could therefore alleviate challenges related to biodiesel availability and electrification, but have a smaller potential in reducing CO2 emissions. ... Read more

Dry port has emerged as a critical element of transport infrastructure, eliciting substantial research and investment for its development. The strategic selection of dry port locations not only enhances the effectiveness of connections between seaports and hinterlands but also supports the sustainable advancement of the logistics industry, given that dry port operations can integrate with more environmentally friendly transportation modes, particularly inland waterway transport. Extensive research has been conducted to identify optimal dry port locations within the framework of inland waterway container terminals. Nevertheless, these studies primarily focus on developed economies, leaving a notable research void in developing countries. This paper aims to propose a methodological framework for selecting the most suitable dry port location, with a particular emphasis on integration with inland waterway transport in developing nations. This study implements a combination of the Best-Worst Method (BWM) and Elimination Et Choix Traduisant la Realité III (ELECTRE III) in this domain. An analytical case study of Northern Vietnam, considering five alternative dry ports, is conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed framework. Twenty-seven Vietnamese experts, categorized into three groups—policymakers and consultants, dry port investors and operators, and dry port users—participate in the decision-making process, contributing insights to this case study. An aggregated group decision-making approach is employed. Four principal criteria—economic, accessibility, location, and environmental—are utilized to assess and rank the five alternatives. The findings reveal that a reduction in transport cost is the most critical sub-criterion, while environmental considerations and railway accessibility receive the lowest priority. ... Read more

Introduction: Autonomous delivery robots are a promising alternative for last-mile delivery. To realise successful implementation of delivery robots in public spaces, it is important to study the interaction between robots and the traffic environment. The traffic environment includes the physical infrastructure and the objects using it like cars and people.

Methods: This research proposes an assessment method to determine the readiness of a traffic environment for autonomous delivery robots. A conceptual model is proposed that includes the factors that determine this so-called “roboreadiness”. The two key components of the model are the performance of the robot in the traffic environment and its social acceptance. A real-life experimental test case, expert interviews, and a survey are used to refine and validate the framework.

Results: The real-life test case showed for the basic variant a sufficient level both on performance and social acceptance. All other variants such as pillars, road narrowing, and bends did not lead to sufficient performance or social acceptance levels.

Discussion: The main outcome of this research is an assessment framework which allows to quantitatively assess traffic performance and social acceptance of sidewalk automated delivery robots. Suggestions for future work include further detailing and elaboration of the approach, scaling up experiments, and researching the possible influence of social acceptance on traffic performance. ... Read more

The decarbonization of freight transport is currently a big challenge to tackle. One way of decarbonizing the sector is the modal shift towards the least polluting transport modes. This research aims to shed light on modal shift time dynamics in developing economies and considers whether a System Dynamics approach can assist with the policy-making decision about a modal shift towards freight decarbonization. This research explores policies that promote the modal shift of freight transportation for a Brazilian case study, using a System Dynamics model. Policies include fiscal and regulatory measures and infrastructure investments. The findings show that the process of modal shift is slow. However, implementing a combination of stricter policy measures early on, and changes in infrastructure investment strategies, accelerate the shift and this seems to be a robust measure package, capable of promoting a modal shift and decarbonizing the system. The model used highlighted how the system tends to adjust to modal shift measures, which tend to lose efficiency over time, slowing down the pace of decarbonization. Findings also display how modal shift policies alone might not be sufficient to achieve a reduction in CO2 emission. Addressing the problem with a System Dynamics approach may help decision-makers in economically developing countries to develop more effective policy strategies. ... Read more

The Physical Internet (PI) is a paradigm-changing and technology-driven vision, which is expected to significantly impact the development of the freight transport and logistics (FTL) system of today. However, the development of the FTL system towards the PI creates much uncertainty for its current stakeholders. Ports are one of those stakeholders that are expected to be profoundly affected by these developments. However, research that focuses on port policy, under the uncertain developments towards the PI, is still lacking. By providing port authorities with insights and recommendations on robust policy areas, we address this void in literature. We conduct a scenario analysis in combination with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to determine the importance of port performance indicators and policy areas in different scenarios. The most significant, uncertain, and orthogonal factors for the development of the PI are technological development and institutional development. We find that for a proper alignment with the PI vision, in three out of four scenarios, ports should prioritize the implementation of digital solutions and standards, as opposed to an infrastructure focused policy. ... Read more

Background

Automated driving systems (ADS) are exponentially increasing in occurrence and autonomy. Although general rules-of-thumb are slowly being adhered to regarding its human occupant—through Human-Machine Interfaces, take-over requests, etc.—different people respond differently to similar things. Currently, individualising ADS is trending, but no research investigated whether or to what extent different types of personality result in different levels of trust in ADS. This exploratory study asked 120 participants from around the world through an online questionnaire about their trust in ADS and assessed their personality, aimed at finding relations between personality traits and levels of trust in ADS.

Methods

Via an online crowd sourcing tool (Google CrowdSource), education platforms (university student association/notice boards), and social media (e.g., WhatsApp/Facebook), 120 participants from around the world filled out a questionnaire regarding trust in ADS. The survey included questionnaires on demographics, personality (Big Five Inventory; John et al. 1991; 2008), and trust in ADS (based on Jian and colleagues' [2000] questionnaire). Scores regarding level of trust were divided into five categories (very low to very high trust). A correlation analysis was performed for the Big Five Inventory and trust questionnaire scores per demographics variable.

Results

In total, 120 participants from 20 different countries (83 male, age M=27, SD=10) filled out the questionnaire. 20 participants did not have a driving license, and 68 were student. A moderate correlation was found where females scoring high on conscientiousness and those scoring low on neuroticism scored high on trust. Perhaps more interestingly, several correlations between trust and personality were found to score close to zero, meaning no correlation whatsoever. All demographics combined, openness and extraversion were least correlated to trust.

Conclusions

Although commonly thought that the average early adopter of automated driving systems are relatively old, wealthy males (see e.g., Hardman et al., 2019), our results were incapable of confirming this stereotype. Instead, automated driving systems appear to be trusted equally, regardless of the users' personality or demographics. Depsite being a relatively small, exploratory study, these results are promising, and should be expanded. Further research should go more in-depth, investigating other criteria of personality, demographics, and/or trust. ... Read more

Mode choice behaviour is often modelled by discrete choice models, in which the utility of each mode is characterized by mode-specific parameters reflecting how strongly the utility of that mode depends on attributes such as travel speed and cost, and a mode-specific constant value. For new modes, the mode-specific parameters and the constant in the utility function of discrete choice models are not known and are difficult to estimate on the basis of stated preferences data/choice experiments and cannot be estimated on the basis of revealed preference data. This paper demonstrates how revealed preference data can be used to estimate a discrete mode choice model without using mode-specific constants and mode-specific parameters. This establishes a method that can be used to analyze any new mode using revealed preference data and discrete choice models and is demonstrated using the OViN 2017 dataset with trips throughout the Netherlands using a multinomial and nested logit model. This results in a utility function without any alternative specific constants or parameters, with a rho-squared of 0.828 and an accuracy of 0.758. The parameters from this model are used to calculate the future modal split of shared autonomous vehicles and electric steps, leading to a potential modal split range of 24–30% and 37–44% when using a multinomial logit model, and 15–20% and 33–40% when using a nested logit model. An overestimation of the future modal split occurs due to the partial similarities between different transport modes when using a multinomial logit model. It can therefore be concluded that a nested logit model is better suited for estimating the potential modal split of a future mode than a multinomial logit model. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the future modal split of shared autonomous vehicles and electric steps has been calculated using revealed preference data from existing modes using an unlabelled mode modelling approach. ... Read more

Urban freight logistics currently have to deal with multiple unsustainable conditions. Physical Internet (PI) characteristics show promise in making urban freight logistics more sustainable. This paper explores the opportunities and barriers to implementing this concept. Q-methodology is a method used to reveal different stakeholder perspectives. The results of the Q-methodology show four different perspectives out of which three display a positive attitude toward PI characteristics. One perspective is more moderate and states that a lot is possible already without any changes. One of the barriers is that there is no urgency to change. Further, most perspectives have a positive attitude toward regulations as long as they are nationally coordinated. Based on these results, policy recommendations are developed for individual and collaborative actions for stakeholders. ... Read more

The Physical Internet (PI) is a novel, comprehensive and long-term vision of the future global freight transport and logistics (FTL) system, which is aimed at radically improving its efficiency and sustainability. As research on the PI concept is still young, the functioning of maritime ports in the context of the PI is still underexplored. Our aim is to contribute to the scientific debate about radically different futures for maritime ports around the world, by identifying their possible future development paths towards the PI. We construct an evolutionary port development framework that identifies the main dimensions of the PI in relation to ports, including governance, operational, and digital aspects. To design the future development paths towards the PI, we conducted a scenario analysis and used a Delphi survey amongst port development and PI experts. The resulting expectation is that a fully globally functioning of the PI may not be reached by 2040. Also, our analysis shows that global governance of FTL systems is critical for the pace of development and adoption. Building on the identified potential future development paths, we provide a discussion, relevant for port authorities and other stakeholders, as well as avenues for future research. ... Read more

Driverless shuttles are a new automated road-based means of transport, small in size and capacity and with a relatively low operational speed. Classified as high-automation vehicles, these shuttles are capable of driverless operations in specific operational design domains. Given their characteristics, driverless shuttles have been studied as a first/last-mile complement to main public transport lines, serving the access and egress parts in multimodal trips. Currently, driverless shuttles are mostly operated as pilots testing their technical capabilities and measuring passengers' willingness to use them. To reduce the gap between pilots and implementation, this study formulates a set of deployment scenarios for driverless shuttle integration in transit. A four-step approach is followed. First, the scenario field is identified. Second, key factors that support the future integration of driverless shuttles are defined based on a literature study. Third, these key factors are analysed through a stakeholder survey, in which experts in the field of transport define possible development directions. Fourth, survey respondents combine these factors to create plausible future scenarios. Through the formulation of three scenarios, the results of this study show the best combinations of vehicle characteristics, type of supervision, operational characteristics, and type of infrastructure for future integration of driverless shuttles. ... Read more

The Urban Mobility Observatory (UMO) will gather, store, and disseminate empirical multi-modal traffic, transport and mobility data, using a well-balanced set of innovative data collection methods. It will make these comprehensive data available for scientific research to develop and test new theories and models to better understand, predict and facilitate multi-modal mobility in large urbanized regions. UMO is located in the Netherlands, being one of the densest urbanized countries in the world, facing severe accessibility problems and environmental pressures from transport. ... Read more

Shared Automated Vehicles (SAVs) are a new road-based means of transport, usually small in size and capacity, with a relatively low operating speed and no (regular) possibility for the user to engage in any of the driving tasks. Past research focused on the implication of fully Automated Vehicles (AVs) in the transport sector, especially automated cars, analysing travel behaviour, network design, costs and infrastructure development. Such an extensive research on SAVs cannot be found, and most results are based on predictions for AVs acceptance instead, next to simulation studies, assumption-based models or stated choice experiments. In this paper we conduct a meta-analysis of existing literature, analysing the underlying factors that determine the adoption of SAVs. We identify the factors that have a positive effect, the ones that have a negative effect and the ones for which the effect is still unknown. Subsequently, we propose a conceptual scheme to illustrate the links between the public transport network components and the implementation of SAVs, defining a set of research questions that can help integrate SAVs in the public transport system. ... Read more

De omvang en aard van stedelijke mobiliteit is in een rap tempo aan het veranderen. Verdergaande verstedelijking, de digitalisering van onze maatschappij, nieuwe vervoerwijzen en vervoerdiensten – al deze (en nog meer) ontwikkelingen hebben invloed op onze mobiliteits- en vervoerskeuzes. Tot wat voor mobiliteitsmix zal dat leiden? En wat betekent dat voor de rol van de stedelijke wegbeheerders? In dit hoofdartikel verdiepen we ons in de toekomst van verkeer en vervoer in de stad. ... Read more