Preface

The transportation system is the backbone of any social and economic system, and is also a very complex system in which users, transport means, technologies, services, and infrastructures have to cooperate with each other to achieve common and unique goals.

Currently, the transport sector is undergoing a revolution due to fast technological innovations, the need for reliable and safe infrastructure and services, and the increasing attention on environmental impacts. In this context, both methodological and operative issues are worthy of interest and need to be investigated.

The aim of this book is to present a general overview on some of the main challenges that transportation planners and decision makers are faced with. Indeed, the book addresses different topics that range from user's behavior to travel demand simulation, from supply chain to the railway infrastructure capacity, from traffic safety issues to Life Cycle Assessment, and to strategies to make the transportation system more sustainable.

The first two chapters deal with the needs for effective but lean methodologies to overcome the main limitations of the approaches traditionally adopted for modelling and simulating the travel demand. Indeed, traditional four-step transportation planning models and consolidated random utility choice models may fail to capture novel transportation modes (such as car/ridesharing) and to effectively model users' propensity to adopt new technologies.

Chapter 1 introduces the need for a multi-agent modelling and aims to give a clear guideline on population syntheses approaches based on travel diary surveys, land use data, and census data. In particular, a state of art and the most prominent techniques are introduced (iterative proportional fitting, iterative proportional updating, combinatorial optimization, Markov-based, fitness-based synthesis, and other emerging approaches).

Chapter 2 argues that numerous non-quantitative variables (such as psychological factors, attitudes, perceptions etc.) may significantly affect users' behaviors in the presence of innovative choice contexts. To this aim, the chapter proposes a methodological overview on how psychological factors may be incorporated within the traditional random utility theory framework. The hybrid choice modelling approach with latent variables is introduced and the main operative issues are discussed.

Chapter 3 and 4 discuss two important topics: third-party logistics in the supply chain and the need for a reliable estimation of railway infrastructure capacity.

Chapter 3 deals with one of the most challenging issues of modern logistics and supply chains: third-party logistics. The chapter introduces the main definitions, then classifies the main components and activities, and then discusses the main issues that may characterize third-party logistics.

**II**

**Chapter 9 183**

**Chapter 10 205**

A Multitiered Holistic Approach to Traffic Safety: Educating Children, Novice Teen Drivers and Parents, and Crash Investigators to Reduce Roadway

*by Claudia M. Knezek, Susan Polirstok, Roxie James, Anthony Pittman* 

Influence of Tribological Parameters on the Railway Wheel Derailment *by George Tumanishvili, Tengiz Nadiradze and Giorgi Tumanishvili*

Crashes - An Eight-Year Introspective Project

*and Gary Poedubicky*

Chapter 4 deals with infrastructure capacity research, and introduces and defines the processes of managing the capacity of the railway infrastructure on which the quality of operational traffic management is based. The objective is to investigate the impact of systematic train paths in periodic timetables on rail infrastructure capacity.

Chapter 5, 6, and 7 investigate some of the main environmental issues related to the transport sector from different points of view. These chapters cover the need for life cycle assessment approaches, the need for the management of air and rail cargo and, finally, the possibility of using alternative fuels for local transport.

Chapter 5 addresses the research development of life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to transportation infrastructure. In particular, it introduces LCCA and LCA, then critically and systematically reviews the current research problems of LCCA and LCA and, finally, proposes and integrates evaluation methodology that combines LCA and LCCA.

Chapter 6 reviews and summarizes the latest energy efficiency management strategies in air and rail cargo transportation. The political framework conditions of the EU as well as the associated European emissions trading system are also described. Moreover, the drive technologies, CO2 emissions, and fuel saving options are also discussed.

Chapter 7 argues that large-scale sewage plants in large cities are suitable for the production of large quantities of biogas, using economically viable biogas upgrading technologies and generally available public transport fleets of a sufficient number of local buses, as well as municipal vehicles. The authors discuss the opportunity of using biogas from wastewater treatment plants in local transport vehicles of (buses, taxis, public utility vehicles). An economic analysis is discussed and real case studies are introduced.

Chapter 8, 9, and 10 deal with transport safety issues. As for the previous chapters, different perspectives are deepened: road traffic safety, education strategies for traffic road safety, and railway safety.

Chapter 8 describes a methodological structure to support and improve the decisionmaking process for redesigning the geometric configurations of substandard sites, and thus for reducing the crash risk factors in two-lane rural road networks located in Southern Italy. Starting from an initial evaluation of the risk level at each investigated site, a more precise hierarchy of intersections with "black" rankings was developed and new geometric configurations for the most hazardous sites were suggested based on a statistical comparison in terms of safety and Level of Service (LoS).

Chapter 9 describes the main results of a multi-tiered holistic project for improving traffic safety.

It is proposed that a strategic prevention framework be used as an effective injury reduction model for reducing driver injury crashes on community roadways. The project involved Kean University and the New Jersey Division of Highway Safety, and consisted of crash prevention strategies involving education and enforcement outreach educating children. First, an effective K-12 traffic safety program was established for supporting driver education training, then crash investigation training and a statewide traffic safety specialist certification was promoted within the law enforcement community.

**V**

is proposed.

Chapter 10 carries out an analysis on wheel derailment with particular attention on the degree of destruction of the third body. Indeed, the destruction of the third body affects tribological properties of the contact, increasing the value and instability of the friction coefficient. The contribution investigates the geometric features of the wheel and rail interaction and their influence on the friction path (sliding distance) and relative sliding velocity. A corrected criterion of the wheel derailment

**Stefano De Luca and Roberta Di Pace**

Department of Civil Engineering,

University of Salerno,

**Boban Djordjevic** University of Ljubljana,

Professor,

Italy

Slovenia

Chapter 10 carries out an analysis on wheel derailment with particular attention on the degree of destruction of the third body. Indeed, the destruction of the third body affects tribological properties of the contact, increasing the value and instability of the friction coefficient. The contribution investigates the geometric features of the wheel and rail interaction and their influence on the friction path (sliding distance) and relative sliding velocity. A corrected criterion of the wheel derailment is proposed.
