Toward Sustainable Multimodal Transportation in Rural Areas: Effects on Traffic Operations and Road Safety

Dear Colleagues，

Our society is now more conscious than ever of its role on our planet. We know we must balance our quality of life with the health of our ecosystems and the preservation of our natural wealth. As a result, there is an increasing concern in providing a sustainable highway system. The research record shows that most past research on transportation sustainability has focused on urban environments, whereas little attention has been traditionally given to rural areas. In open country, the same facility can serve multiple purposes, such as through the movement or local traffic, and serve various user types, such as automobiles, heavy vehicles, pedestrians or bicyclists. These facilities play an important role in building socially sustainable communities, by providing faster and safer connections along rural areas for all users. Nevertheless, an increase in functionality may result in an increase of traffic emissions and/or more land occupation, which could worsen their environmental sustainability. In this sense, it is important to evaluate and provide reliable methods to evaluate their level of service, safety, and environmental impacts as a whole. 

The aim of this Special Issue is to share ideas and efforts in evaluating traffic operations, safety and environmental impacts in rural highways from researchers and practitioners equally. In particular, this Special Issue solicits original contributions in operational analysis, road safety, and environmental impacts of rural highways, including theoretical and applied research for two-lane highways, multilane highways, 2+1 highways, and traffic controls at rural highways and rural freeways. Research in bicyclist and heavy vehicles are especially welcome. Review papers are also welcomed. 

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Novel developments in sustainable assessment of rural highways;
• Advances in multimodal performance measures and in the development of sustainability indicators in rural highways;
• Evaluation of traffic operations and road safety in multimodal rural highways, including two- lane highways, multilane highways, 2+1 highways, and traffic controls;
• Analysis of driver behavior to calibrate and validate simulation tools for multimodal rural highways;
• Discussion on balancing highway operational and safety improvements and their environmental impacts;
• Effectiveness of environmental protection measures in road construction;
• Effectiveness of environmental protection measures in road management and 

Dr. Ana Tsui Moreno
Dr. Manuel Romana
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• rural highways
• two-lane highways
• level of service
• capacity
• multimodal analysis
• bicyclist
• road safety
• traffic emissions
• trucks