Introduction

Within the next 25 to 30 years, about 75 % of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. This generates increasing demands for efficient and sustainable transportation systems - for people and goods. If these demands are not dealt with, the result will be more congestion, more environmental problems and more accidents. In the developing countries, road traffic is already one of the leading causes of injury and death.

In order to meet future needs for efficient, safe, equitable and sustainable means of transportation and mobility - regarded by many as a fundamental human right and a high-ranking quality-of-life factor - new solutions are needed, solutions that require research and action. In order to cope with the complexity of urban transport, close co-operation is required between different actors (the public, politicians, city planners, industry, etc.) and analysts (researchers, engineers, etc). Research in this area must, by necessity, be multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary, based upon global as well as regional perspectives, where technical as well as economic and societal changes are incorporated in the research agenda.

Objective of the conference
The major objective of this second conference is to create a meeting place and a forum for debate for those engaged in:

analysing the complex character of urban transport development
meeting the challenge of how to solve current problems
identifying how to support the necessary process of change towards efficient, safe, equitable and sustainable urban transport systems.