Multimodal Transportation 1 (2022) 100001

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Multimodal Transportation
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/multra

Integrating Multimodal Transportation Research

Salutation

Welcome to the new journal “Multimodal Transportation” (a.k.a. MULTRA). The current era is witnessing an impending need
to construct efficient, reliable, safe, and sustainable integrated transportation systems. Transportation modes are becoming more
interactive and collaborative than ever—novel technologies, concepts, and approaches are emerging from the cross-fertilization of
traditionally distinct disciplines at an ever-increasing rate. However, academia lacks a journal primarily dedicated to the integra-
tion/combination of transportation modes resulting from emerging technical advances in transportation. Multimodal Transportation
is a new and unique venue in this era: an online-only journal publishing high-quality papers from all corners of the modern-day
transportation system, including road, rail, air, maritime, and the integration of multimodal transport. Multimodal Transportation will
reflect the spectrum of the most recent significant improvements in multimodal transportation analysis and bridge gaps between re-
searchers across the world in terms of developing new approaches, new ways of thinking, and novel solutions to address multimodal
transportation problems. The journal embraces papers covering all aspects of multimodal transportation from a variety of interdisci-
plinary fields, including, but not limited to, transportation, logistics, economics, operations research, and urban planning in an effort
to understand the changes taking place.
The journal publishes papers in two categories: (i) theory and methodology, and (ii) empirical research. Papers in the first cate-
gory employ mathematical modeling, optimization theory, etc. for the development of new concepts and technologies, rather than
the refinement of established theories. Papers in the second category can either employ quantitative analysis techniques such as sta-
tistical learning and machine learning or qualitative research methods such as one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and case studies
to identify new insights into specific aspects of transportation research. Research concerning multimodal integration or emerging
transportation technologies is particularly welcome, as is work focusing on intelligent transportation systems, smart transportation,
or big data as applied to transport planning, network modeling, and traffic safety.
MULTRA involves an international team of editors, board members, reviewers, and authors who seek to share and exchange ideas
in the field of multimodal transportation worldwide. The editors of MULTRA include the editors of Transportation Research A-F and
other high-quality transportation journals. Editorial board members have been assembled to represent both young and established
researchers from multiple disciplines from across the world, which ensures a wealth of knowledge with continuity to traditional
transportation research and updated insights into emerging technologies influencing transportation. Furthermore, all submissions
to MULTRA are double-blind peer reviewed, and our editorial goal is to provide a highly efficient peer review process and rapid
publication. The first-round review is anticipated to be completed within 3–4 weeks.
MULTRA was collaboratively developed by Southeast University and Elsevier. MULTRA is an open-access journal. This means
that any reader in any country can download and read any paper for free, which eliminates a barrier to the diffusion of knowledge
and ideas, the costs of journal subscriptions, and article charges. This is a huge change for Elsevier, which hosts the world’s largest
repository of scientific literature. Open access shifts the cost burden of publishing to authors, who are charged a modest publication fee
of US $1,250 in 2022 and US $1,500 in 2023 and 2024. It is worth noting that to encourage researchers to submit high-quality articles,
Southeast University intends to cover open access fees for all articles published in the journal in the first three years (2022–2024) to
allow authors to enjoy the benefits of open access at no cost.

Research Directions

Multimodal transportation offers an advanced platform to promote the creation of more efficient, reliable, safe, and sustainable
transportation systems. Despite receiving considerable attention in the past decade, studies on multimodal transportation from an in-
tegrated perspective are still limited. There are abundant opportunities for research on multimodal transportation, and we recommend
the following future research questions and opportunities:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.multra.2022.100001

2772-5863/© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Southeast University. This is an open access article under the CC BY
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
 Multimodal Transportation 1 (2022) 100001

1) Investigations of the efficacy and impact of emerging transportation technologies on multimodal integration. More importantly,
studies should assess to what extent these technologies could assist in the synergistic integration/combination of various trans-
portation modes.
2) Development of new methodologies that address issues relating to strategic, tactical, and operational levels of multimodal trans-
portation analysis. Owing to the complexity of these problems on all three levels, solving them remains a challenge. Decomposition
and parallel computing techniques should be employed extensively.
3) Analyses of factors pertinent to multimodal traffic safety concerns among heterogeneous travelers using multiple transport modes.
Studies should provide beneficial insights on developing designs, plans, and policies to create safer transportation systems for all
travelers.

The Inaugural Issue

The inaugural issue of MULTRA comprises the following five papers. Ma and Zheng (2002) reviews the relevant studies on individ-
ual mobility prediction, identifies valuable future research directions, as well as potential applications. Qiu et al. (2022) investigates
the taxi sharing practices from the three aspects - matching, route choice, and pricing. Cheng et al. (2022) is an empirical study using
a one-month data of bikeshare trip records in Nanjing if China to examine the nonlinear effects of built environment variables on
bikeshare-metro integrated use. Zhu et al. (2022) proposes a flow-level CAV coordination strategy to facilitate merging operation
in multilane freeways. Huang and Wang (2022) develops a coordinated charging scheduling method for battery electric buses in a
hybrid charging scheme (including plug-in fast charging and battery swapping charging modes) by considering the uncertainty of
battery energy consumption.

Qiang Meng
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Pan Liu, Zhiyuan Liu
School of Transportation, Southeast University, China

E-mail addresses: ceemq@nus.edu.sg (Q. Meng), liupan@seu.edu.cn (P. Liu), zhiyuanl@seu.edu.cn (Z. Liu)

References

Cheng, L., Jin, T., Wang, K., Lee, Y., Witlox, F., 2022. Promoting the integrated use of bikeshare and metro: A focus on the nonlinearity of built environment effects.
Multimodal Transportation 1, 100004. doi:10.1016/j.multra.2022.100004.
Huang, D., Wang, S., 2022. A two-stage stochastic programming model of coordinated electric bus charging scheduling for a hybrid charging scheme. Multimodal
Transportation 1, 100006. doi:10.1016/j.multra.2022.100006.
Ma, Z., Zhang, P., 2022. Individual mobility prediction review: Data, problem, method and application. Multimodal Transportation 1, 100002.
doi:10.1016/j.multra.2022.100002.
Qiu, J., Huang, K., Hawkins, J., 2022. The taxi sharing practices: Matching, routing and pricing methods. Multimodal Transportation 1, 100003.
doi:10.1016/j.multra.2022.100003.
Zhu, J., Tasic, I., Qu, X., 2022. Flow-level coordination of connected and autonomous vehicles in multilane freeway ramp merging areas. Multimodal Transportation
1, 100005. doi:10.1016/j.multra.2022.100005.