Transport Research Arena

Transport Research Arena (TRA) is a European conference first established in 2006.^[1]

TRA is now the major surface transport conference in Europe and supported by the European Commission, the European Technology Platforms for Road, Rail and Water (ERTRAC, ERRAC and Waterborne respectively) and the Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR). TRA takes place every two years.^[2]

The transport sector plays a strategic and major role in the European single market and in a fast changing economic and societal frame. Policies, technologies and behaviours must be continually adapted to new constraints, such as climate change, the diminishing supply of fossil energy, the economic crisis, the increased demand for mobility, safety and security, etc. Transport infrastructures, vehicles and vessels, modal share, co-modality, urban planning, energy and environment issues are the subject of extensive studies, research works and industrial innovations, conducted by universities, research institutes, companies, practitioners, and public authorities.

The conference topics address the main challenges in transport and mobility of people and goods, with respect to energy, environment, safety and security and socio-economic issues. TRA aims at exploring the most advanced research works and innovations, the latest technological and industrial developments and implementations, and innovative policies, in Europe and worldwide. As a wide forum open to all interested parties, it is a unique occasion to promote and improve efficiency in transport.

Publications

Prior to 2012, TRA proeceedings were published by the hosting organisation. For TRA 2012, the publisher Elsevier agreed to make all papers available. These were published in Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences Volume 48, Pages 1-3700 (2012) ^[3] edited by Panos Papaioannou

2006 Göteborg, Sweden

The first TRA was organised by the Swedish Road Administration in the City of Göteborg. The event was sponsored by the European Commission, ERTRAC and CEDR.

2008 Ljubljana, Slovenia

The second TRA was organised by the Slovenia Road Agency Ljubljana.^[4] The event was sponsored by the European Commission, ERTRAC and CEDR. VideoLectures.net covered many of the key sessions.^[5] EC Commissioner Janez Potočnik gave the opening address

TRA2008 was the first to include the Young Research Area of Research awards.^[6] The competition for European postgraduate and final year undergraduate students working in road transport research was funded by the European Commission's FP7 and coordinated by University College Dublin. Other partners included FEHRL, ZAG and Continental Automotive. The winners in the six categories were:^[7] 1) Energy, environment and resources. Caroline Marchal, France with 'Soot modelling in diesel engines' 2) Safety and security. Kristoffer Lindström, Sweden with 'Co-operative safety based on shared conventions' 3) Transport, mobility and infrastructure. Donnay Fleury Nahimana, France with 'Enhanced GNSS accuracy in urban environment through the use of particle filter methods' 4) Automotive design and production. Amrit Sharma, UK.with 'Dynamics and design of a novel aerodynamically efficient motorcycle' 5) Infrastructure design and production - Tommy Hinks, Ireland with 'Geometric approaches in aerial LIDAR data analysis' 6) Future visions of road transport. Francesco Pilla, Ireland with 'Future visualisation of developments including the impact on the surrounding soundscape'

2010 Brussels, Belgium

The third TRA was jointly organised by the Flemish and Wallonian Road Administrations in Brussels. The scope of the conference was extended to include a more multimodal flavour.

2012 Athens, Greece

The fourth TRA was organised in Athens by the Greek Ministry of Transport represented by Egnatia. This was the first TRA to cover all surface transport modes with the sponsorship of ERRAC and Waterborne.^[8]

The Eltis Award for the best paper on urban transport at TRA 2012 was presented to a team of four researchers from Germany's National Research Centre for Aeronautics and Space (DLR). Their paper “Augmenting the Floating Car Data Approach by Dynamic Indirect Traffic Detection” was selected by TRA’s 2012 programme committee.^[9]

2014 Paris, France

The fifth TRA will be held at the CNIT in the Paris business district of Paris-La Défense in June 2014. IFSTTAR has been delegated by the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy to organise the event^[10]

TRA2014 is not only a research conference, but an arena which aims at bringing together stakeholders from all areas of transport and transport-related activities. A broad spectrum of research and innovation activities are addressed:
1. Environment and Energy
2. Industry Competitiveness
3. Logistics and Mobility Systems and Services
4. Safety and Security
5. Transport Infrastructures
6. Transport policy research,; socio-economic and human sciences
7. Vehicles & Vessels Technologies

and all the surface modes of transport:
A. Road
B. Rail
C. Waterborne
D. Cross-modality

TRA comprises:
• plenary sessions dedicated to general and policy presentations by invited keynote speakers,
• strategic sessions to convey policy messages and industrial key issues,
• scientific and technical sessions on the conference topics, where accepted papers are presented, either as oral or poster presentations,
• invited sessions, proposed and organised by community or project leaders.

A parallel exhibition is organized for governmental and professional organisations, public and private research organisations and industrial companies.

A student research competition (YEAR) is organized to stimulate the interest among young researchers/students in the field of sustainable surface transport.^[11]

References