Dear Colleagues,

Long-time urban issues related to transportation include traffic congestion, carbon footprint, air and soil pollution, road safety, and land consumption. The majority of these issues still exist in an environment where urban entities are increasing and rising, but several crucial aspects of urban development are now being disturbed by ambiguous cultural trends, occupational norms, and new technology, necessitating a renewed research effort.

Noticeable changes are also taking place in the areas of mobility and transportation. In the mobile internet era, new means of transportation with scooters or bikes that can be shared or not appear. Mobility as a Service (MaaS)'s development and adoption also make it unclear whether cultural attitudes on mobility are evolving. Public transportation still remains an indispensable solution, but to what extend do the electrification and automation of (urban) road transport alter the factors of vehicles and the cities? Since all of these phenomena have a significant impact on urban development, it is important to better understand them. How to realize the integrated MaaS solutions that are tailor-made to different people? The impact of MaaS on travel patterns, especially in suburban areas.

Besides, the urban landscape has quickly changed as a result of tactical urban mobility efforts, most of which support cycling and other comparable forms of transportation. For instance, the amount of car utilization has been dramatically reduced, making more space available for other uses. Considering such a major shift occurrence, it is vital to investigate the current dynamics from a multidimensional and multidisciplinary perspective that includes concerns with participation, citizenship, the role of volunteer geographic information in a smart city perspective, processes of tactical experimentation and their evaluation, in order to better understand how cities of the future take shape. Mobility is a very relevant starting point to understand the dynamics at play, even though this set of questions is not specifically related to urban mobility difficulties; rather, they are more general addressing urban development. Research articles and reviews in this area of study are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Shiyao Zhang

Section Editor