On the Need for Disturbance-Tolerant Transportation Services [Editor's Column]
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Abstract
While I write this editorial (in early August 2020), the so-called second wave of COVID-19 is hitting countries across the globe. As a result, further, more drastic restrictions are being imposed to reduce people’s mobility, which has been significantly restricted since the beginning of the pandemic anyway. In simple terms, only essential outdoor movement is currently being permitted. Thus, I find myself in a paradoxical situation while preparing this issue of IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, as it includes content concerning advanced technological solutions aimed at enhancing people’s transportation mobility to enable them to meet their needs, provide their services, and move their products in a timely and efficient manner. However, the current reality is that, in some countries, COVID-19 lockdowns are being enforced, and people’s outdoor movement is reduced to a minimum or, in some communities, not even permitted at all. The pandemic-related mobility constraints, which are aimed at reducing the pace of community transmission of COVID-19 (i.e., the “growth rate of new cases,” or the “spread of infection”), can be perceived as a set of disturbances to which contemporary transportation systems are currently exposed. The extent of these COVID-19 restrictions (interpreted here as disturbances through which transportation systems are expected to successfully operate) may appear in a range of limited-mobility settings, from safe-distance mandates to total lockdowns and dramatic curfews. These disturbances are, and will always be, with us and around us but with a varying appearance. For the time being, they appear as COVID-19 restraints, while, in not too distant future, they may have a complexion that we do not yet know about (i.e., are not currently familiar with). Therefore, we need solutions that will make transportation services faster and more flexible (such as door-to-door and on-demand services) and ensure that they (fixed-route services, in particular) are capable of operating within a variety of known as well as unknown restrictions and constraints. No doubt, our experience during the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to adjust our current attitude and expectations and to brace ourselves for yet-to-come societal changes. Why not turn the COVID-19 experience and lessons learned into a challenge to envisage and embrace a transformation in transportation systems toward enabling sustained, disturbance-tolerant mobility services? This should become our ultimate goal and the new norm while designing, developing, and implementing the next generation of intelligent transportation technologies, products, and services. Please contact me if you are interested in sharing your thoughts or would like to provide an expert opinion on this topic with the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine community and/or composing a special edition of our periodical, accordingly. I am just a phone call or an email click away.
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IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine
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12
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4
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Transportation, logistics and supply chains
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Vlacic, L, On the Need for Disturbance-Tolerant Transportation Services [Editor's Column], IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, 2020, 12 (4), pp. 3-9