Transatlantic Transport Research Activities of the STAR Thematic Network

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

Transportation is a critical facet of contemporary life. Transportation is essential for the conduct of economic activities and for the facilitation of the movement of people, goods, and services that affect the activities of people and institutions in myriad ways. Transportation also is a major source or pollution, however, and the search for new transportation systems and approaches is a major priority for the development of more environmentally friendly, sustainable is a major goal in developed nations. This award will continue support for the STAR (Sustainable Transport Analysis and Research) thematic network that involves geographers, transportation engineers, and other transport-related researchers from the U.S. in an evolving network of counterpart researchers from European nations who are active in the emerging STELLA (Sustainable Transport in Europe and Links and Liaisons with America) network. STELLA has received major support from the European Community. STAR is designed to enable U.S.-based researchers to actively engage in discussions, development of white papers, and other activities to stimulate collaborative international research on transportation and related themes in Europe, North America, and other developed nations. The cooperative work between STELLA and STAR has three primary objectives: (1) to create an institutionalized platform of exchange of scientific information, for pooling experience, and for facilitating research cooperation among European and North American transportation researchers; (2) to foster increased understandings of causes and backgrounds of mobility behavior in the two continents, with special emphasis on policy impacts; and (3) to foster and created conditions for comparative research in Europe and North America regarding behavioral motives, innovative strategies, and policy analyses associated with efforts to develop more sustainable transport. STELLA and STAR will focus their efforts over the next three years on five functional focus areas: (1) Globalization, E-Economy, and Trade; (2) ICT (Information and Communication Technology), Innovation, and the Transport System; (3) Society, Behavior, and Private/Public Transport; (4) Environment, Safety, Health, Land Use, and Congestion; and (5) Institutions, Regulations, and Markets in Transportation. The majority of the funds provided through this award will support the participation of U.S. scientists in annual working group meetings associated with each of these five focus areas as well as overall cooperative linkages between STELLA and STAR leaders. This award complements a substantial award made by the European Community to support comparable activities engaging European transport researchers. This award renews support for activities undertaken with support from NSF Award BCS-0002695. The STAR network will facilitate communication and collaboration among transportation researchers in the U.S. and Europe. The cooperation of researchers in the STAR and STELLA networks will help to identify major research problems that need attention, and the workshops, seminars, exchanges, and other activities undertaken by these networks will help build research teams and foster development of research designs to make substantial progress in addressing critical questions of national significance. In addition to advancing scholarly research on sustainable transportation, STAR and STELLA will promote research that has great practical utility.