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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 May 2024 | Viewed by 8135

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Prof. Dr. Alexander Paz

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School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia
Interests: urban transportation networks; travel behavior; traffic flow; statistics and econometrics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban traffic, freight and logistics are changing at unprecedented speeds as a consequence of multiple simultaneous factors including but not limited to the current global pandemia, micromobility, and climate change awareness and associated developments. Hence, there are significant emerging research needs, such as alternative mechanisms to address changes in demand patterns and services. For example, in recent years we have observed a significant increase in the number of small vehicles delivering goods throughout our urban environments. Even active transport modes are being used to deliver goods. However, existing planning and engineering methods are not yet capable of handling these changes in patterns and services. This Special Issue intends to address some of the existing research gaps regarding sustainable urban transport, freight, and logistics.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Paz
Guest Editor

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Keywords

urban freight
sustainability
logistics
urban services
micromobility

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1985 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Logistics Trends on Freight Transport Development in Urban Areas

by Tomislav Letnik, Katja Hanžič, Giuseppe Luppino and Matej Mencinger

Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16551; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416551 - 09 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2070

Abstract

City logistics is subject to constant development, generated by new logistics trends and high customers’ expectations. With the aim of creating an effective, acceptable, and sustainable city logistics policy, it is therefore essential to understand logistics trends and their expected impact on the development of urban freight transport in the future. In this paper, we explore and compare the expectations of public authorities, business, and academia regarding the short-, medium-, and long-term impacts of different logistics trends on urban logistics. Following a literature review, the expert survey was used to assess the expected impact and time horizon. According to the respondents, “e-commerce”, “automated vehicles”, “electric vehicles”, “grey power logistics”, “omni-channel logistics”, and the “desire for speed” will have the greatest impact on urban freight transport in the future. An interesting observation concerns some differences of opinion between public and private stakeholders. In general, the business community believes that the identified trends will have a greater impact on urban logistics in a shorter period of time, while public authorities believe that the mentioned trends will have a less strong impact on urban logistics in a longer time scale. This shows the need for more active collaboration between them in the policy-making process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Transportation, Freight and Logistics)

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11 pages, 3169 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Digital Automatic Coupler (DAC): An Effective Way to Sustainably Increase the Efficiency of Freight Transport in Europe

by Luciano Cantone, Thierry Durand, Andrea Ottati, Giulia Russo and Roberto Tione

Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 15671; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315671 - 25 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1778

Abstract

This paper employs and improves TrainDy software to simulate the in-train forces of single and coupled freight trains with a Digital Automatic Coupler (DAC), having a length from 740 m to 1500 m and hauled mass between 1600 t and 8000 t. Software improvements have focused on the ability to natively simulate the electro-pneumatic (EP) brake, which will be a feature of the future DAC. The various types of DAC and their main features are outlined in the paper. The study shows that it is also possible to increase the trains hauled mass by using radio communication between traction units (TUs). The “relative approach” method is used to demonstrate the safety of these new trains. The paper’s main results are reported in the conclusions and demonstrate the effectiveness of both technologies in increasing freight transport efficiency, even when applied to coupled trains where one train is “classic” and the other is equipped with mechanical DAC. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Transportation, Freight and Logistics)

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15 pages, 619 KiB

Open AccessArticle

What Makes Courier Service Creative?—From Managing Logistics to Managing Knowledge

by Liu Yao, Nurul Izzah Mohd Shah, Fazeeda Mohamad, Jack Kie Cheng, Hong Ki An and Ahmed N. Abdalla

Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14630; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114630 - 07 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2190

Abstract

The recent online business blossom has stimulated the soaring demand for logistics service, or rather, courier service, which emerged as a robust momentum of economic growth worldwide. So, to satisfy the fast-changing online businesses, courier services have been urged to be more creative to ensure the desired efficient movement of goods and services along the supply chain, especially in logistics and parcel deliveries. How could the courier service be more creative? What makes courier service creative has not yet been fully explored. Therefore, this study aimed to unveil the antecedents of creativity of courier services from the perspective of managing knowledge which is regarded as the source of wisdom. Taking into consideration the logistical nature of courier service, the proposed framework integrates logistics into knowledge management, and focuses on empirically detecting its relationship with creativity in the context of Malaysia. The results prove that the logistics-related knowledge management (LRKM) affects creativity in a significant and positive manner. However, amongst the four select constructs, only the logistics-related knowledge dissemination (LRKD) followed by the logistics-related knowledge responsiveness (LRKR) are significant operational contributors in the development of creativity in courier services. The logistics-related knowledge generation (LRKG) and logistics-related shared interpretation (LRKS) have not yet appeared significant, which is mainly due to the current insufficient development of the courier service in Malaysia. It indicates that to further enhance creativity, courier service providers should attach importance on managing knowledge of logistics operation, especially in the respects of dissemination and responsiveness, while more efforts shall be exerted to the generation and shared interpretation as both are still having positive potentials towards creativity. This study is amongst the pioneers to cross-extend the theory of logistics management and knowledge management into the courier service industry, and it also expands the application of the theory of creativity into the courier service industry. Future study could further examine the inter-relationships among the detected constructs, the effects of creativity of courier service on the performance of e-business firms, and so on. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Transportation, Freight and Logistics)

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25 pages, 2461 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Entropy-Based Transit Tour Synthesis Using Fuzzy Logic

by Diana P. Moreno-Palacio, Carlos A. Gonzalez-Calderon, John Jairo Posada-Henao, Hector Lopez-Ospina and Jhan Kevin Gil-Marin

Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14564; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114564 - 05 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1087

Abstract

This paper presents an entropy-based transit tour synthesis (TTS) using fuzzy logic (FL) based on entropy maximization (EM). The objective is to obtain the most probable transit (bus) tour flow distribution in the network based on traffic counts. These models consider fixed parameters and constraints. The costs, traffic counts, and demand for buses vary depending on different aspects (e.g., congestion), which are not captured in detail in the models. Then, as the FL can be included in modeling that variability, it allows obtaining solutions where some or all the constraints do not entirely satisfy their expected value, but are close to it, due to the flexibility this method provides to the model. This optimization problem was transformed into a bi-objective problem when the optimization variables were the membership and entropy. The performance of the proposed formulation was assessed in the Sioux Falls Network. We created an indicator (Δ) that measures the distance between the model’s obtained solution and the requested value or target value. It was calculated for both production and volume constraints. The indicator allowed us to observe that the flexible problem (FL Mode) had smaller Δ values than the ones obtained in the No FL models. These results prove that the inclusion of the FL and EM approaches to estimate bus tour flow, applying the synthesis method (traffic counts), improves the quality of the tour estimation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Transportation, Freight and Logistics)

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