Road transport | EPFL Graph Search

Road transport or road transportation is a type of transport using roads. Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into the transportation of goods and transportation of people. In many countries licensing requirements and safety regulations ensure a separation of the two industries. Movement along roads may be by bike, automobile, bus, truck, or by animal such as horse or oxen. Standard networks of roads were adopted by Romans, Persians, Aztec, and other early empires, and may be regarded as a feature of empires. Cargo may be transported by trucking companies, while passengers may be transported via mass transit. Commonly defined features of modern roads include defined lanes and signage. Various classes of road exist, from two-lane local roads with at-grade intersections to controlled-access highways with all cross traffic grade-separated. The nature of road transportation of goods depends on, apart from the degree of development of the local infrastructure, the distance the goods

Toward sustainable freight traffic through the Alps: freight traffic impacts considering environmental, social and economical sensitivities of crossed areas

Raphaëlle Arnaud

Freight traffic through the Alps is growing significantly. Road transport, which is better adapted to the new requirements of production and distribution system, resulted in increased pollution, congestion, and safety concerns. The advent of the concept of sustainable development has called current modal split into questions. In this context, the objective of this research is to develop a tool, which would contribute to assess environmental, social and economic impacts of freight traffic along a corridor. Looking for equity not only between generations but also inside the same generation, environmental, social and economic sensitivities of crossed areas will be taken into account.

2003

Méthodologie pour l'analyse d'une répartition modale et spatiale plus durable du trafic

Raphaëlle Arnaud

There has been a significant growth in freight traffic over the last few decades in Europe. The Alps, located in the middle of North-South route, are particularly sensitive regarding this evolution because of their topographic and climatic characteristics. The more flexible road transport has the advantage of meeting the requirements of contemporary production and distribution techniques, thus helping to explain increasing modal split for road transport. The development of road transport resulted in increased air and noise pollution, congestion, and safety concerns (accidents). The advent of the concept of sustainable development has called current modal split into question. It mainly covers the temporal dimension (equity between generations), but sustainable development also has to take into account the territorial dimension (equity inside the same generation). In this context, the consideration of the interaction between traffic and territory is essential. To assess the vulnerability of crossed areas to traffic and mainly to road and railway transalpine freight traffic, in particular to the nuisances they induce, a method has been developed. The use of a Geographic Information System and the development of an indicator system show the interest of this approach to evaluating the impact induced by a modal and/or spatial split of a volume of transalpine freight traffic (scenarios) on the crossed regions' sustainability. Developed to help decision-makers to take decisions meeting the sustainable development objectives, this method counts for the whole "Alpine segment" (Fréjus – Brenner) and is tested on the Swiss territory. The application on the Swiss territory takes railway and road traffic into account and the noise and air pollutions they induce. The development of indicators is based on immission data (concentrations) and on the spatial distribution of the population. This PhD thesis shows that the establishment of relationships between data coming from various sources is possible, even indispensable, to analyse the effect induced by a modal and/or spatial change of transalpine freight traffic. The results of this research reveal that transalpine freight traffic has a significant impact on the short term. To reduce this impact, it appears to be necessary to act on transalpine freight traffic but also on freight traffic in general. A change in a modal and spatial split of a transalpine freight traffic volume is able to reduce this impact but the situation will still not be satisfying.

EPFL2007

Direct observation of water-mediated single-proton transport between hBN surface defects

Ahmet Avsar, Jean Camille Benjamin Comtet, Evgenii Glushkov, Benoît Grosjean, Aleksandra Radenovic

Super-resolution microscopy of defects in a two-dimensional material unveils the transport of single proton charges at solid/water interfaces. Aqueous proton transport at interfaces is ubiquitous and crucial for a number of fields, ranging from cellular transport and signalling, to catalysis and membrane science. However, due to their light mass, small size and high chemical reactivity, uncovering the surface transport of single protons at room temperature and in an aqueous environment has so far remained out-of-reach of conventional atomic-scale surface science techniques, such as scanning tunnelling microscopy. Here, we use single-molecule localization microscopy to resolve optically the transport of individual excess protons at the interface of hexagonal boron nitride crystals and aqueous solutions at room temperature. Single excess proton trajectories are revealed by the successive protonation and activation of optically active defects at the surface of the crystal. Our observations demonstrate, at the single-molecule scale, that the solid/water interface provides a preferential pathway for lateral proton transport, with broad implications for molecular charge transport at liquid interfaces.

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP2020

Méthodologie pour l'analyse d'une répartition modale et spatiale plus durable du trafic

Raphaëlle Arnaud

EPFL2007