Vehicle Ownership and Mode Use: The Challenge of Sustainability

The theme of this special issue is Vehicle Ownership and Mode Use—the Challenge of Sustainability. This topic was inspired by the increasing emphasis by society on sustainability, in general, and the role of transportation within this broader picture. Indeed, issues of climate change and energy needs are among the biggest challenges currently facing the transportation profession. The quest for sustainable travel has, for better or for worse, been aided recently by historically high fuel prices as well as economic struggles. Together these forces have led to a reduction in vehicle miles of travel and migration of auto buyers from SUV’s to more fuel-efficient cars and reduction in auto ownership all together. Driven by this theme of travel behavior and sustainability, six behavioral modeling papers have been selected that deal with the related issues of fuel price, vehicle ownership, and vehicle miles traveled.