While road transportation has often been related to economic development, it is also linked to important worldwide challenges such as road safety and environmental sustainability. Each year, road traffic crashes kill about 1.24 million people and up to 50 million people are injured. Road traffic injuries represent the leading cause of death among young people (Assailly, 2001), aged 15—29 years, and increase drastically among emerging countries (World Health Organization (WHO), 2009). Global estimates of the cost of road traffic crashes were approximately US$ 518 billion in 2000 (World Health Organization (WHO), 2009). Besides, road transport crashes also have a negative impact on our environment and personal health. Indeed, the high concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is contributing to global warming (Intergovernmental panel on climate change, 2014) and in particular the increased use of cars has been linked to the growth in obesity (Jacobson, 2011). According to some recent statistics, more than one billion people are overweight and 400 million of them are considered as obese (Monash Obesity and Diabetes Institute (MODI), 2014). Overweight people runs a greater risk of developing a range of different diseases and, besides from personal suffering, the economic burden of obesity across developed nations is estimated to be around 10 per cent of total health care costs, a cost which is expected to grow (Monash Obesity and Diabetes Institute (MODI), 2014). In order to solve these problems, a multidisciplinary approach is needed and one important discipline in this context is psychology since both road traffic crashes and modal choice are related to human factors and human decision-making. Applying psychology to public health issues needs to encompass a range of stages from basic research to well-designed, evidencebased, implemented, disseminated, and evaluated interventions (American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2014). It could also be argued that transport research would benefit greatly from more research using a theoretical framework which not only assess the different constructs but also predict the behaviour. Furthermore, this approach would also provide important information, but measures aiming to change behaviours still need to be developed and evaluated. Driving a car is among the most complex dynamic activities that involve hierarchic tasks from more automatic processing until more controlled processing (Rasmussen, 1987). Road safety would benefit from better evidence-based motives about higher-order cognitive skills including: hazardous perception, anticipation and detection of dangers. Research would also need to consider several indicators of danger and potential dangers at the same time. Basic research on risk is often the starting point for other research aiming to evaluate the effect of technological devices both inside and outside the car. Learning remains a main focus. Driving a car, riding a twowheeled motor or a bicycle, or even be a safe pedestrian in a city must be learned. Meta-cognitive abilities about one’s own driving abilities and well-calibrated self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) are necessary to handle complex road situations (Boccara, Delhomme, Vidal-Gomel, & Rogalski, 2011; Ivancic & Hesketh, 2000). Many guidelines about learning, training and continuing education for road safety are available (Minimum requirement for driving instructor training (Merit), 2005). However, while follow-up evaluations of driver training are available, a number of flow have been detected which make interpretation difficult (see Beanland, Goode, Salmon, & Lenne, 2013). Finally, if we want to change behaviour, further research focusing on the mechanisms underlying the behaviour and the process of change (Skår, Sniehotta, Araújo-Soares, & Molloy, 2008) are needed. This area of research is also of prime importance for improving interventions such as road safety education and training programs (Underwood, 2005), road safety communication campaigns (Delhomme, Dedobbeleer, Forward, & Simoes (2009)) and rehabilitation training courses for traffic regulation offenders (Delhomme, Kreel, & Ragot, 2008). This also applies to the development of measures persuading people to use more sustainable forms of transport. This will include an understanding of travellers’ needs and interests but also barriers to change. The special issue contains seven articles which intervene at different stages of research in psychology of transport in Europe and North-America. Two of them deal with the identification of risky behaviour, and one article exposes models to change road users’ behaviour. The other articles present the findings of research on the change of behaviour. (Author/publisher)
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