Conversations In: How to ensure technological innovations in future transportation systems are built to serve people and enable sustainable communities

“Conversations In” represents a novel platform designed to stimulate dynamic and insightful dialogues amongst researchers, policy makers and industry professionals. It invites concise contributions that either respond to existing discussions or introduce fresh perspectives on specific nuances within the broader theme of the collection. Each article aims to spark and contribute to meaningful debates.

For this “Conversations In” collection, we ask for contributions that address the question: is the future of transport being built for people, for access, equity and a liveable climate, or for technology, chasing the next innovation while the outcomes that matter change little?

Transport is in the middle of a transformation being described as its most profound in a century. Electrification, automation, shared and on-demand mobility, drones and urban air mobility, hydrogen, digital platforms and AI-driven network management are all advancing at once, each promising a cleaner, safer, more efficient way to move. Yet global transport emissions are still rising, congestion and road deaths persist, and access to mobility remains deeply unequal. Between the pilot projects and the strategy documents, a quieter problem has emerged. We have no shortage of visions of what the future of transport should look like. We know much less about which governance arrangements, fiscal levers, business models and technological choices actually deliver sustainable, equitable mobility on the ground, and on whose terms.

This collection invites compelling opinion articles that engage the future-of-transport question directly. We are equally interested in contributions that argue the current wave of innovation is genuinely bending the sector toward sustainability and in those that argue it is, in measurable ways, substituting technology for the harder structural and political changes the transition requires.

We particularly welcome perspectives on the regulatory tools, fiscal instruments and institutional reforms that succeed or fail in steering innovation toward public goals; on how advances such as electrification, automation, mobility-as-a-service, drones and aerial mobility, alternative fuels, and data-driven and AI-enabled systems can support genuinely sustainable transport, and the procurement, data-ownership, cybersecurity and equity challenges stakeholders face as those innovations move from pilot to policy; on what public backlash and failed deployments reveal about the democratic legitimacy of transforming how societies move; on reframings from Global South, rural and low-income contexts where the assumptions of technology-led roadmaps break down; and on the honest limits of what innovation can achieve when it meets induced demand, embodied emissions, affordability and the enduring politics of the street.

Themes for submission include, but are not limited to:

-Governance and regulation: the regulatory tools, institutional reforms and political coalitions that steer innovation toward public goals, or fail to
-Fiscal levers and business models: pricing, subsidy, procurement and funding models that determine whether new mobility scales sustainably or entrenches inequality
-Technology in practice: whether electrification, automation, mobility-as-a-service, alternative fuels or AI-enabled systems deliver on their promises once they leave the pilot stage
-Data, cybersecurity and ownership: who controls the data and digital infrastructure of future transport, and who is accountable when it fails
-Equity and access: whether the transition widens or narrows mobility gaps across income, ability, gender and geography
-Democratic legitimacy: what public backlash and failed deployments reveal about how societies consent to transforming how they move
-Global South, rural and low-income contexts: reframings where the assumptions of technology-led roadmaps break down
-The limits of innovation: induced demand, rebound effects, embodied emissions, affordability and the enduring politics of the street

We seek voices from across disciplines and backgrounds, including transport engineers and planners, energy and infrastructure researchers, economists, geographers, political scientists, technologists, public-health and equity specialists, policymakers, industry practitioners and engaged citizens, who can move the conversation beyond the demonstration project, beyond the hype cycle, and toward a defensible account of how a sustainable future of transport is actually delivered.

Each article submitted should be no more than 1,500 words and can include one table and/or figure. Authors should select the Opinion article type when submitting their manuscripts to this call. Whilst opinion pieces from groups of authors are welcome, we ask that researchers consider the value of individual dialogue within this article collection as well.

In recognition of the importance of this collection, discounts to Article Processing Charges are available to authors. Please reach out to the Editorial Office in advance of submitting at futuretransportation@frontiersin.org for more information on how to access these waivers.

Please note, due to the topical nature of this theme, the journal is acting as overall host of the Topic. This ensures all potential authors across the spectrum of opinions on this theme feel welcomed to submit their pieces. Papers in this collection will be handled and reviewed by members of our permanent Editorial Board.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Future of transport, Sustainable mobility, Transport innovation, Mobility governance, Transport equity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.