Editorial Special Section on Intelligent Transportation Systems for Public Transportation

PUBLIC transportation serves many important roles in society: When functioning well, it provides accessibility for people to work, healthcare and other essential activities, as well as high-speed mobility for massive volumes of passengers during peak hours. The efficiency of public transportation, in terms of energy consumption, emissions, surface occupancy, etc., makes it a crucial component of sustainable transportation systems in combination with the active mobility modes. New technologies have the potential to enhance the performance, efficiency and attractiveness of public transportation through new vehicle concepts, better resource utilization, and better use of automated data sources. This special section on "Intelligent Transportation Systems for Public Transportation" was established to provide a collection of studies that advance the state-of-the-art in the field by developing, implementing and evaluating novel technologies and methods. After a rigorous review process, nine scientific papers have been selected to be published. A couple of themes emerge from the combined contributions, highlighting important and active areas of research: