The future of road transport in Europe. Environmental implications of automated, connected and low-carbon mobility

Abstract

The increasing efficiency of the transport system during the last 100 hundred years has fuelled and sustained the unprecedent economic growth of our society. It has shaped our livestyles and influenced the development of our cities and town. At the same time it has posed several challenges to our world as the provision of transport opportunities has heavily contribuitred to the depletion of natural resources, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, etc. Road transport in particular has had a major role into this. Several policies have been introduced during the last 50 years in the attempt to limit the impact of the transport system, but they have been effective only to a certain extent. During the last years, however, new technologies and social trends are promising to disrupt the transport system and make it substantially more efficient and more sustanable. The present paper discusses the possibile environmental impacts of some of the new technologies applied to transport, in particular highlighting how its complexity may jeopardize the possible improvements that the new technologies promise without properly governing their use.

Economical analysis of electric vehicles in Poland

“…An important feature of a personal vehicle is mobility and independence. This chapter provides information about daily energy usage of 7 most popular EVs in Poland according to Fries et al [2]. It creates an array of vehicles to compare with the ICE powered vehicles already in possession of a large number of commuters.…”

“…It is an important aspect, because this can lead to higher interest in EV as the range would not be an issue anymore. Though certain studies have been carried out on the topic of the wider usage of EVs and their impacts, such as by Szymanski et al [2] or the study on their influence on pollution [3], the question of their basic economy of use in the Polish market, still remains open.…”

Traffic Flow with the Adaptive Cruise Control: The Comparison between Autonomous and Manual Driving

“…Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), becoming increasingly frequent, are radically changing the interactions related to road driving [7][8][9]. To date, however, few studies have evaluated the interactions of systems on traffic flows; for this reason, it is important to determine their impact and, consequently, their main peculiarities, to define how they affect road safety.…”

Review of freight high speed railway (HSR)

“…Considering GHG (Green House Gases) emissions in the EU from means of transport, the largest share of emissions come from road transport (71.7%), which mainly consists of emissions from cars (60.6%) and heavy duty trucks (27.1%). This state of affairs is caused by the availability of internal combustion vehicles and the well-developed road infrastructure in Europe [49]. Rail transport has by far the smallest share in GHG emissions in the EU, accounting for 0.4% [12], although it accounts for 8% of passenger and 19% of freight transport in Europe [42].…”