Decision Making and Policy Analysis in Transportation Planning
A special issue of Systems (ISSN 2079-8954). This special issue belongs to the section "Systems Practice in Social Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2024 | Viewed by 12929
Special Issue Editors
Interests: cooperative control systems; urban network modeling; large-scale optimization; transportation economics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems; smart mobility systems; big data mining and analytics; deep learning methods and applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Transportation planning requires the continuous assessment of the outcomes of the policies designed to enhance safety, sustainability, mobility, accessibility, and equity in the short- and long-run. While the short-term outcomes of planning policies have direct impacts on their social acceptance, planning policies designed only based on the short-term assessment of the outcomes may not result in the desired strategic goals in the long run. To attain the short- and long-term goals, there are various factors that should be taken into account in the decision-making process, including the travel behavior and mode choice of commuters, the design of traffic control and demand management strategies, the operation of public transit and ride-hailing systems, the availability of ride-sourcing micromobility modes, the allocation of right-of-way to various modes of transportation, and the advent of electric powertrain and autonomous driving technologies. In this Special Issue, we invite the submission of research papers that specifically address decision making and policy analysis in transportation planning in the short- and long-run. The goal of this Special Issue is to cover the state-of-the-art contributions to data curation and analysis, model development, policy design, and system management. Topics of interest with a general focus on transportation planning include, but are not limited to:
- Social acceptance of planning policies;
- Investment in multimodal transportation systems;
- Travel behavior and mode choice of multiclass users;
- Public transportation and customized transit services;
- Emerging micromobility and ridesharing services;
- Lane management and allocation of right-of-way to non-motorized modes;
- Carbon taxing and congestion pricing;
- Sustainability planning and zero-emission transport;
- Travel demand management and cooperative traffic control;
- Electric vehicles and charging infrastructure development;
- Automated vehicles and management policies.
Dr. Mahyar Amirgholy
Dr. Jidong J. Yang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Strategic Sensor Placement in Expansive Highway Networks: A Novel Framework for Maximizing Information Gain
Authors: Yunxiang Yang; Jidong J. Yang
Affiliation: Smart Mobility and Infrastructure Laboratory, College of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
Abstract: Traffic sensors play a pivotal role in monitoring and assessing network-wide traffic conditions. However, the substantial costs associated with deploying an extensive sensor network across real-world highway systems can often prove prohibitive. Thus, the strategic selection of optimal sensor locations within budget and resource constraints becomes imperative, leading to the well-known Traffic Sensor Location Problem (TSLP). In this study, we introduce a novel framework to address the TSLP for large-scale highway networks, focusing on maximizing information gain in a joint vector space that comprehensively captures both network topology and segment-level features. To solve this optimization problem, we devised a Genetic Algorithm (GA) with penalty handling. Additionally, we developed a physics-guided random walk algorithm, which not only significantly reduces the search space but offers remarkable flexibility in striking a practical balance between computational load and the confidence of achieving global optimality. The application of the proposed framework is demonstrated using the Savannah highway network in Georgia, revealing its considerable potential in strategic planning and deployment of sensors for expansive, real-world highway networks.