Program
The tentative program of the conference is as follows:
Workshops
Within the conference, we are currently planning to have 8 workshops as follow:
Workshop 1: Trends in Time, Travel, Transit, and Telework: The Future Reimagined, organized by Ram Pendyala and Steve Polzin (Arizona State University)
In the recent past, disruptive events and technological advances, economic forces and socio-demographic changes, and shifts in attitudes, perceptions, and preferences, have brought about significant changes in people’s mobility-activity patterns, time use, activity participation modalities, and so much more. Planning and modeling paradigms of the past are rapidly becoming obsolete in the wake of rapid behavioral changes. This workshop will dive deep into behavioral trends and engage participants in a global dialogue on how transport models and planning processes of the future can evolve to be responsive to a rapidly evolving mobility landscape.
Workshop 2: EU Living Labs for Co-designing Innovative Transport and Logistics Solutions to address Climate Change. Insights from 7 EU-Funded Projects, organised by Amalia Polydoropoulou and Maria Karatsoli (University of Aegean)
The workshop explores "Living Labs" - real-world testing grounds for innovative solutions to fight climate change in EU's transportation and logistics. Participants will discover Living Labs for sustainable mobility (PT solutions, MaaS) and freight (micro-consolidation centers, cargo hitching). The goal is to understand their practical application, user impact, and how collaboration refines and promotes adoption. It also fosters knowledge exchange on how Living Labs can drive progress through stakeholder engagement and user behavior.
Workshop 3: From imagination to implementation: The evolution of user preference research for automated vehicles in real-world operations, organised by Viktoriya Kolarova, Andrea L. Hauslbauer, Dimitris Milakis (DLR), Yoram Shiftan (Technion), Amanda I.B. Stathopoulos (Northwestern University), Barbara Lenz (Humboldt University), and Elisabetta Cherchi (Newcastle University)
This workshop welcomes researchers who work on the analysis of user preferences for automated vehicles. The workshop focuses on the transition from stated-preference approaches to tangible real-world operational research, and address emerging related research questions, methods, and challenges to acquire empirical insights on acceptance and travel behavior impacts of automated vehicles
Workshop 4: Travel Behavior Research: Are we in Crisis? organized by Joan Walker and Carlos Guirado (University of California, Berkeley)
The workshop aims to assess the state of travel behavior research and its relevance today. We will explore whether the field faces a crisis similar to related disciplines and if it's equipped to prevent reproducibility, fraud, and relevance issues. We will discuss how to create change by revising incentives, norms, and infrastructure to catalyze collective progress.
Workshop 5: Introducing Spatial Availability for Singly-Constrained Accessibility Analysis: Theory and Open Source Tools, organised by Antonio Paez (McMaster University)
This workshop introduces spatial availability, a singly-constrained accessibility measure that makes opportunities available uniquely to members of the population. The workshop explains the intuitions behind spatial availability and describes the mechanisms to implement it. We include an exercise that uses open source software and an open data product. For details, see: github.com/paezha/Workshop-Spatial-Availability
Workshop 6: Travel behavior research agenda with panel data, organised by Maarten Kroesen (TU Delft) and Milad Mehdizadeh (NTNU)
Travel behavior research has long been dominated by cross-sectional data, limiting our understanding of the dynamic nature of travel behavior. The purpose of our interactive workshop is to provide insights into the future of travel behavior modeling using panel data. We aim to initiate discussions on how panel data can be better leveraged to answer new research questions and explore novel theoretical ideas.
Workshop 7: Understanding choice modellers' workflows: hands-on experience using a serious game, organised by Gabriel Nova, Sander van Cranenburgh (TU Delft), Stephane Hess (University of Leeds)
Attention choice modellers! Join our workshop in which you will explore a stated preference dataset, make decision on model specification, and analyse your results within a dynamicand interactive Serious Game (SG) environment. The game is designed to learn more about the modelling practices in our field. It collects the steps and workflows participants take to analyse the data and model the choices. After the Serious Game, we will presentthe first results from the game, which we will use as the starting point for an open discussion with you about (the differences in) the practices in our community. All you need to bring to participate is your laptop (with a browser and internet connection) and your choice modelling instincts.
Workshop 8: Insights on User Potentials and Needs for Policy Design to Motivate Switch to Climate-Neutral Mobility – Lessons from Austria and Beyond, organised by Stefan Seer (AIT Austrian Institute of Technology) with support of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Climate Action (BMK)
More detailed information on presentations' time schedule and room will be provided few weeks before the conference starts.
Planned Side Events
The World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) reception and SSC meeting, organized by Giovanni Circella (University of Ghent), Günter Emberger, Takeru Shibayama (TU Wien)
Inauguration of the European Association for Activity-Based Modelling (EAABM), organized by Alexander Erath (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland). The EAABM facilitates the development and application of activity-based modelling through open and collaborative exchange between science, industry, and policy makers, that are suitable to appropriately address the mobility challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. In this meeting, the EAABM will officially be founded and its activities for the rest of 2024 will be planned. Everybody who is interested in the activities of EAABM is invited to join!
Excursions
On Wednesday late afternoon, the following activities are currently planned:
(the execution of the excursions depends on the number of registered participants and also other external conditions to ensure participants' well-being and safety)
Cycling tour: Starting from the conference venue we will cycle to Prater, crossing various developed and under development bicycle infrastructure projects, including the first Bicycle Highway in Vienna (https://www.fahrradwien.at/radwegoffensive-2023). The difficulty of the route is low but to ensure your safety familiarity with cycling in urban environment is necessary. City bikes will be available for all participants.
Visit to SeeStadt: Vienna's aspern Seestadt is one of Europe's most ambitious planned developments and a Austrian national living lab for smart city development (https://preview.aspern-seestadt.at/en). Seestadt is not a conventional urban expansion zone, but a city-within-a-city fulfilling a diverse range of urban functions, a business hub creating up to 20,000 jobs and housing for over 25,000 people (https://www.dw.com/en/seestadt-aspern-viennas-city-of-the-future/video-66822713)
Visit to Nordbahnviertel: Visit one of Vienna's largest and newest urban development projects. During this visit you will have the opportunity to stroll through urban wilderness, parks, and green courtyards and you will feel nature behind the walls of the dense city. (https://austriaguidesforfuture.at/tour/nordbahnviertel)
Visit to Freudenau port & thinkport Vienna living lab: The port of Freudenau is a cargo port at the River Danube. It is the largest public Danube port in Austria and also the largest trimodal (rail, road, ship) freight transport center. As part of a guided tour, we will be introduced to thinkport VIENNA, which is an open mobility laboratory dealing with challenges of urban logistics and gain an insight into the transshipment processes using facilities for bulk goods and raw materials, container and car terminals and Austria's largest open-air customs warehouse. (https://www.thinkportvienna.at/?lang=en, https://www.hafen-wien.com/en)
Tour of Vienna Public Housing System: In this tour we will focus on Vienna's public housing system which has captivated many city planner around the world (e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/10/the-social-housing-secret-how-vienna-became-the-worlds-most-livable-city). We will be led by a colleague from the City of Vienna to visit SonnwendviertelOst neighbourhood next to the Main Central Station. During the tour we will discuss on how Vienna Public Housing System has been developed and integrated on neighbourhood development plan and what variety of housing systems that Vienna city currently have.
Visit to Viennese City Climate Strategy Office: The Climate and Innovation Agency of the City of Vienna will give us an insight about the strategy of reaching climate neutrality in the field of mobility. As part of a guided tour, we will visit facilities fostering green modes as well as a re-developed street design considering the challenges of climate change in urban space. (https://www.wien.gv.at/spezial/klimafahrplan/, https://urbaninnovation.at/en)
Visit to U2xU5 subway construction site: The extension of the subway network to be opened partially from 2026 onwards, comprises a total of around 10 kilometers of tunnels with 12 new stations and closes an important gap in the inner-city public transport supply. We will be introduced to the city's most important future project and have the opportunity to visit the construction site of a major interchange. (https://www.wienerlinien.at/web/wl-en/u2u5-public-transport-expansion)
Visit to Transport museum: A trip in time, from the first horse-drawn tramway in 1868 and the Reichsbrckenbus, which tumbled into the Danube river in 1976, to the present and future public transport in Vienna. A guided tour in English will be offered during the visit. https://www.wienerlinien.at/web/wl-en/transport-museum-remise
Visit to Austrian Parliament Building: Experience this heritage monument and the heart of Austrian parliamentarism! The historic Austrian parliament has always been the site of many historic moments and has reopened its doors after almost five years of renovation. A guided tour in English will be offered during this visit. (https://www.parlament.gv.at/en)
Tour of University of Vienna Building: Visit the Main Building of the University of Vienna, one of the city's historic buildings. Inaugurated in 1884 and built in Italian Renaissance style, this building adorns the Ringstrasse boulevard in the heart of Vienna.
Visit to Wien New Museum: The Wien Museum is home to Vienna’s extraordinary collection of art works and historical artifacts, giving visitors a glimpse into the city's culture and history. The museum’s permanent exhibition “Vienna. My History” offers a chronological tour of the city — from the first settlement to the present day (https://www.wienmuseum.at/wien_museum_en).
Visit to House of Music: The Haus der Musik (House of Music) in Vienna is the first museum of sound and music in Austria. Across an exhibition space of 54,000 sq. ft., a range of hi-tech interactive and multimedia presentations introduce the world of music from the earliest human use of instruments to the music of the present day. Those involved in developing the museum included four Austrian universities, two foreign university institutes, a team of musicians and music theorists, artists from multimedia and other areas, sound technicians, architects, and students (https://www.hdm.at/en).
Visit to MUSA Wien: The Wien Museum MUSA is an exhibition venue for Vienna’s contemporary art. The exhibitions trace the development of art over the last decades and introduce the work of new, undiscovered artists. With over 50,000 objects by nearly 5,000 artists, it is one of the largest of its kind in Austria. The Startgalerie is a space for experimentation, a stage for young curators who develop and implement their ideas in collaboration with local artists (https://www.wienmuseum.at/musa_en).
Self-organise football: This is a self-organise (unsupervised) football at a public park at Hauptalee
Of course, besides these activities, the participants are also free to carry out their own activities.