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Programme committees

The Programme Committees are appointed annually from Association Members who are interested in contributing to the European Transport Conference.

Their main task is to select papers for the conference, ensuring that they meet the high professional standards for which the Conference is known. In order to provide a continuous flow of fresh ideas, committee members can only be appointed for a maximum continuous period of three years.

The Programme Committees perform a functional role for the Association, assisting with the assessment of papers for the Conference and development of the Conference Programme. The Committees consist of AET members from a broad range of specialities and professional sectors, providing a forum for networking and knowledge-sharing.

The structure of the Programme Committees is reviewed every year together with the committee chairs and council. The current Programme Committees that are in place for ETC, and their mission statements, are:

Committee Description

Planning for Sustainable Land Use and Transport

Chair: Marie-José Oldekalter, Goudappel, NL

This Programme Committee provides a home for issues at the “leading edge” of policy development at the interface between land use and transport planning. Its focus is on sustainable solutions to land use and transport problems and how to measure and evaluate their effectiveness and impacts. The committee encourages the debate on the integration of transport and land use planning through interesting research results and examples of good practice. In its call for papers, the committee emphasises the need to draw out the policy implications of research.

For the 2023 ETC,  Goudappel will sponsor an award for the best paper written for and presented in the PSLT seminar.

Freight and Logistics

Chair: Thierry Vanelslander,
University of Antwerp, BE

The Programme Committee is interested in receiving papers concerning actual issues such as freight and the environment, impact of strategic logistics on freight systems, freight policy development, city logistics, trans-national networks, air cargo transport, ports and maritime policy. The Freight and Logistics committee of the European Transport Conference is in particular inviting transport and logistics researchers to submit high-level contributions that will be submitted to a set of special issues of selected academic journals with Web of Science ranking. A dedicated review procedure is set up so as to make sure that top quality papers can feature in the journals.

Intelligent Mobility - Management and Operation

Chair: Henk Taale, Rijkswaterstaat, NL

ITS is playing a vital and increasing role in dealing with everyday mobility and the consequences it has on accessibility, safety and liveability. Especially when connectivity between road side, vehicles and travellers comes into play (C‐ITS). The aim of this committee is to exchange knowledge about this exciting and evolving field between both researchers and practitioners, with topics such as autonomous vehicles, MaaS and the aspect involving electric vehicles. Besides that, we don’t want to lose track of new developments in the more traditional approaches related to traffic management, traffic engineering and road safety. The IMMO committee wants also to focus on good, practical experience of road design, traffic management policy and implementation, incident management, traffic signal control, priority systems and network management.

Local Public Transport

Chair: Niels van Oort, TU Delft, NL

The Local Public Transport Committee seeks to encourage excellence on all aspects of planning and operations of local and regional public transport. The focus is on both conventional and emerging modes and concepts, such as autonomous shuttles, MaaS and on-demand transit, including access and egress to and from stations. The committee wants to enhance the understanding of key issues that affect the provision of good public transport services.

Rail Policy and Planning

Chair: Peter Endemann, Regionalverband FrankfurtRheinMain, DE

The Rail Policy and Planning Programme Committee seeks to encourage debate on the planning, operation and economics of heavy rail passenger transport overall but also with respect to emerging challenges such as COVID 19, rail system cost and efficiency, climate change or incidents affecting security and safety. Topics of interest are related to: Segmentation of demand side; customer experiences at stations and in the train; passenger information and ticketing; effectiveness of EU policy and its implementation; rail development in Eastern Europe; mobility market; competition; balance between passenger and freight train operations; evolution in decision making - the relationship between central, regional and local government.

Transport Economics, Finance and Appraisal

Chair: John Siraut, Jacobs, UK

The application and understanding of the principles of Transport Economics, Finance and Appraisal are key to sustainability. Transport Economics is a wide field which at its heart is concerned with human behaviour and the effective allocation of scare resources. This requires an understanding of the factors that drive the demand and supply of all modes of transport for people (and how this varies by peoples’ characteristics, circumstances and location) and goods; the linkages between transport, economics and land use; the pricing of benefits such as time savings and externalities such as greenhouse gas emissions; and the role of economic incentives to change behaviour. Given that much of the supply of transport infrastructure is in the hands of governments or private monopolies how the sector is regulated is also important. This Committee's remit covers all these issues and how they relate to the appraisal of publicly funded transport provision, the regulation of transport provision and the financing of transport infrastructure, in general.

Transport Models

Chair: David Christie, Transport for London, UK

Innovative and applied methods in transport planning have long been a mainstay of the programme of the European Transport Conference. Submissions are sought from authors who have completed or are in the process of completing research or projects which move forward the theory and practice of modelling in transport policy and planning. This "super-committee" seeks abstracts from both researchers and practitioners who are at the forefront of methodological innovations; developing models and applying them in practical situations; developing models for policy and decision-making; using "big data"; developing systems for transport simulation. The quality of papers in the seminars will be high but committee members are keen to encourage the younger members of the profession as well as those well-known names who are regular presenters at the conference.

Young Researchers' and Practitioners' Forum

Chair: Andre Goncalves, Sweco, BE

The Young Researchers’ and Practitioners’ Forum (YRPF) is a special format for young professionals. Early career researchers and practitioners are invited to present their work to the participants of the European Transport Conference. The Young Researchers’ and Practitioners’ Forum is also organized by young professionals. Early-stage and experimental projects and research ideas are explicitly welcome. The forum is intended to provide a format which enables constructive and comprehensive feedback as well as more time for discussion than usual.

The Forum also administers the Neil Mansfield Award to the best paper presented at the conference by an author aged 35 or under.

Global Trends Impacting Transport

Chair: Vladimir Momčilović, University of Belgrade, RS

The transport system is influenced by key drivers such as demography, economy, society, technology, environment and politics. Different trends in these areas such as individualization, urbanization or climate change may change the functioning of the transport system profoundly. The Programme Committee on Global Trends Impacting Transport (GTIT) covers the broad area of key drivers and trends. The committee seeks discussion with policy makers, academics and practitioners to understand these impacts and their consequences for the transport system. The committee is interested in attracting papers that comprise a broad range of topics that include scenarios, good practice, policy responses, research and specific trends impacting transport such as climate change, migration, personalisation, sustainability, globalization, terrorism, debts, new technologies, ageing and many more.

Data

Chair: Oliver Charlesworth, Bentley, UK

The Data Programme Committee is interested in attracting abstracts which will examine the use of data in modelling, in how businesses operate, how data can be used to advance technological solutions, how data can promote inclusive and sustainable travel.  In fact, what is new and how can the capture of data help to improve policy making?

For the 2023 ETC Jacobs will sponsor an award for the most innovative use of data written for and presented in the Data seminar.

Aviation

Chair: Johnny Ojeil, Ramboll, UK

In 2022 the AET set up a new Programme Committee on Aviation.
We are excited to have formed a new Aviation committee which will allow us to hopefully attract papers and participants from a range of specialist topics in the world of aviation. Aviation is seeing many challenges throughout the world in addition to the Covid pandemic and a lot of work is being carried out to support airports heading towards being a more sustainable industry. Transport plays a key part in helping the industry move towards a more environmentally friendly product. Zero carbon, mass sustainable transport and active travel are all key areas were we will be looking for contributions from moving forward.

At present, committee members meet their own costs in attending committee meetings and the European Transport Conference.