Towards New Transatlantic Transport Research: The STELLA-STAR Project on the Move

Transportation and communication have developed over the centuries in a mutually dependent manner, in which the former was very much a precursor of the latter. This dependence continues to the present day, when the rapid development of ICT has not only meant an enormous rise in productivity caused by our information and communication economy, but has also facilitated a better logistic handling of both passenger and goods transportation. Nevertheless, there may be different patterns of mobility among various countries as a result of varying adoption mechanisms of new technologies, different lifestyles and residential living patterns, different land use patterns and different transportation policies. Consequently, it is important to investigate the commonalities and contrasts in the transport field in different countries more thoroughly. In particular, at the Transatlantic edge we witness rather drastic differences in both behaviour and policy, which warrants an ambitious effort to draw lessons from comparative studies. The above-mentioned trends prompt a scientific investigation along two complementary lines. First, the rapid increase in Transatlantic transport calls for applied modelling and policy research on actual flows, impediments to mobility, risks of large-scale transport volumes (e.g., security), modern logistics and ICT, as well as policy arrangements on international transport (e.g., open skies or open seas agreements). In the second place, almost all countries face similar problems associated with the mobility revolution (such as congestion, environmental decay, traffic fatalities, just-in-time logistics).