From 6 to 10 July 2026, our research group took part in the World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR 2026) in Toulouse, France, one of the world most prestigious scientific events in the field of transport and mobility. The conference brought together researchers, academics, policymakers, and industry representatives from across the globe to discuss the latest advances and future challenges in transport research.
CTL contributed to the scientific programme with three research activities addressing key topics in transport safety, sustainable mobility, and freight transport modelling:
- During the WCTRS-Young Researchers Programme, held on the opening day of the conference (6 July), Manuel Merolla presented the paper “Public Transport in Danish Rural Municipalities: Topic Modeling, Semantic Classification, and Citizen Share Prediction Using Crowdsourced Data“. The research explores how artificial intelligence and citizen-generated data can be combined to assess perceived public transport service levels in rural municipalities, providing local authorities with an innovative and cost-effective decision-support framework for sustainable mobility planning.
- The conference also featured a poster presentation by Isaac Ndumbe Jackai II, entitled “Application of Traffic Conflict Studies in Work Zone Safety Assessment: A Review of Recent Findings and Future Research Directions“. Co-authored with Tevoh Lordswill Ndingwan, Steffel Ludivin Tezong Feudjio, Davide Shingo Usami, and Prof. Luca Persia, the study reviews three decades of research on traffic conflicts in work zones, highlighting emerging methodologies (including machine learning and surrogate safety measures) to support proactive road safety assessment and identify future research priorities.
- CTL also contributed to a collaborative poster entitled “Structural Gravity and Transport Policy Analysis: A Methodological Proposal with Illustrative Application”, developed together with researchers from Niccolò Cusano University. Co-authored by Paolo Delle Site, Brayan González-Hernández, Tejas Singri Krishnamurthy, Prof. Luca Persia, Davide Shingo Usami, and Qing Zhang, the research proposes a methodological framework integrating structural gravity models and transport policy analysis to support the evaluation of freight transport systems and inform evidence-based policy decisions.
Through its participation in WCTR 2026, CTL reaffirmed its commitment to advancing cutting-edge transport research, promoting international scientific collaboration, and developing innovative, data-driven solutions to support safer, smarter, and more sustainable mobility systems.
