Editorial: safety, risk and uncertainties in transportation and transit systems

Disruptions in the operation of transportation and transit infrastructure may put at risk the functioning of our societies and their economies. Such disruptions may result from many kinds of hazards and physical and/or cyber-attacks on installations and systems. Safety is the first priority in operating transportation and transit systems. The public and customers rely on operators to assure them the reliable and safe day-to-day uses of public transports. To improve satefy and reliability of transportation and transit systems, many key engineering implementations on board and on site have been innovated. In addition, based on recent facts and evidences, extreme physical and cyber threats become more common and even more dangerous to the public. Such examples are the terrorist attacks in St Petersburg in 2017, in London in 2017, in Stockholm in 2017, in Brussel in 2016, in Nice in 2016 and so many more. These examples have one thing in common. They all targeted at transportation and transit system, either on rail, bus, car or truck, etc. This research topic will further promote and encourage research, development, policy and innovation in improving safety, managing risks, and mitigating uncertainties in transportation and transit systems where perspectives from the humanities and the operations are also included.
It will be aligned with United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, especially:
• Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable;
• Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels; and
• Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
The topic attracts very recent research work and very best discussions over a wide range of timely issues on technologies and innovations focusing on broad aspects of safety, risk and uncertainties in order to address global grand challenges and UN’s sustainable development goals with great social and economic importance. One of the papers published has won the inaugural Professor Joseph M Sussman Best Paper Prize in early 2019.