Editorial

Abstract

The April issue of Transport provides our readers with a number of high-quality research papers, the findings from which have the potential for immediate practical application. The issue reflects the diversity of our authors and the broad range of topics addressed by Transport. The effect of climate on road infrastructure is considered in our first two articles. UK-based water specialists and environmental scientists (McSweeney et al., 2016) reflect on the potential impacts of climate change on the future requirement to salt to keep the UK's roads free from ice. Methods of reducing the amount of ice forming on our roads in the first place are the subject of our second paper by highway engineering researchers from the UK industry and academia (Wright et al., 2016). Authors from universities in China describe research on improving the prediction of real-time traffic flow (Yao et al., 2016) and provide an analysis of the factors affecting driver injury in roadwork zones (Weng et al., 2016). Finally, academic researchers from Spain (García-Pastor et al., 2016) describe a methodology for assessing the true economic impact of improving quality attributes for operators of public transport.This issue of Transport is complemented by a discussion of a recent paper on railway track drainage and by two book reviews of railway and highway texts written by well-respected Greek authors.The lead paper, by McSweeney et al. (2016), investigates the potential impact of predicted climate change on the £150 million annual cost of the UK's winter maintenance programme. The focus of their study is on the uncertain, or marginal, nights when temperatures are close to freezing and when winter maintenance managers need to use their expert opinion to decide whether salting is required. The study uses data from across England together with data provided by the United Kingdom Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) weather generator to infer near-term predictions of temperature. The importance of the work is that the methodology can provide information for road administrations, such as Highways England, so that future severe weather can be planned for and appropriate resources allocated. Our second paper, by Wright et al. (2016), complements the lead article, exploring as it does the potential of chemical modification to the surface layer of a road pavement to prevent ice and snow adhesion. Wright et al. (2016) elegantly marry theoretical modelling with a novel experimental procedure to assess a number of technologies whose integration into road surfaces could potentially lead to economic, environmental and safety benefits for winter maintenance service providers and road users.An improved model for predicting real-time traffic flow is the focus of the paper by Yao et al. (2016). The model uses both historical and current travel data to infer real-time traffic flows. The authors demonstrate their model using data obtained from global positioning system (GPS) equipment fitted to taxis.Weng et al. (2016) provide our fourth paper, which is an assessm...