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Call for papers: : Transport in the COVID-19 Virus Era

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is having a massive impact on societies in Europe and elsewhere across the globe. European countries have implemented various measures to reduce the spread of the virus, ranging from banning unnecessary travel, to social distancing, to the closure of schools, restaurants, hotels, shops and other amenities, to the closing of borders. These measures have immediate impacts on the movement of both people and freight. The entire transport sector is affected, including urban transport, tourism, logistics, international freight transport, and aviation. The length of time it may take to return to the pre-pandemic status quo can be expected to last for months if not years. This crisis has severe social and economic impacts. A global economic recession is expected, which will have serious long-term effects on the transport sector.

Many researchers in Europe and beyond are currently examining or setting up studies to examine impacts of the coronavirus crisis on the transport sector. With this Topical Collection Transport in the COVID-19 virus era, European Transport Research Review (ETRR) would like to provide researchers and practitioners a forum for the dissemination of those studies. We are seeking critical discussions to examine the impacts of coronavirus crisis on the transport sector and its related social, economic and environmental impacts. We seek contributions which are of special interest to the European transport research community but will consider papers on non-European case studies if the relevance for the European transportation research field is made sufficiently clear.

We are seeking papers on a wide variety of topics within the main areas of interest of the journal, with a focus on implications for transport policy and planning in the COVID-19 virus era:

  • Mobility and travel behavior, e.g. the impact on travel patterns of propagation and mitigation of the spread of the virus;
  • Transportation safety and security, e.g. traffic safety impacts of reduced traffic flows;
  • Transportation economics, e.g. the economic impacts of the coronavirus crisis;
  • Transportation planning and policy, e.g. studies on accessibility to jobs and basic services by public transport, applications of network resilience concepts;
  • Traffic and demand management, e.g. demand management related to social distancing;
  • Freight transport and logistics, e.g. impact of increases in online shopping on urban logistics;
  • Air and waterway transport, e.g. uncertainties in long-term demand reductions;
  • Environmental issues in transportation and climate change, e.g. the impact of changes in travel behavior during the crisis on the transition toward sustainable transport;
  • Equity, social and health issues related to transport, e.g., studies on how different population groups are affected by the direct and indirect impacts of the crisis.

Given the importance of the topic, a number of ECTRI funded waivers will be issued to fully cover the Article Processing Charges of invited papers to this topical collection.

The potential contributors will be first asked to submit an extended abstract (up to 1000 words) to the journal’s Editor-in-Chief (k.t.geurs@utwente.nl). Invitations to submit the full paper and submission waivers will be allocated based on the quality of the abstract and relevance to the Topical Collection’s scope. The full papers will be processed using the normal review process but due to the nature of the subject, European Transport Research Review (ETRR) is aiming for a quick review and publication process. Please note allocation of a waiver does not guarantee publication.

Deadline for extended abstracts: June 1, 2020.

Decision on waiver allocations: June 15, 2020.

Deadline for submissions: July 31, 2020.