Multi-disciplinary research for sustainable transport

INRETS is a public body and develops applied research in the field of surface transport.

INRETS is acknowledged within Europe in the field of transport research as a leading Institute; it currently chairs the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI), it is strongly involved in many European projects, and coordinates three networks of Excellence.

INRETS main purpose is to contribute to breakthroughs in transport systems on various scales, always developing a necessary multi-disciplinary approach.

A significant part of the research activities performed concerns urban areas and their transport systems.

Interactions between cities and mobility

What should be better understood are the stakes and the sociological, economical and environmental determinants of urban mobility. INRETS plays a key role in France as regards data collection and processing about transport and mobility. This role should be reinforced through the implementation of a large so-called ‘soft infrastructure’ for the Marne-la-Vallée scientific and technological centre, which INRETS should coordinate, and which should promote interoperability and interaction between any kinds of urban databases. The research actions especially deal with the analysis of public policies and transport private logics, with mobility regulation and management by motorised modes (public transport, cars, motorbikes) and non motorised modes (cycling, walking), with the modal transfer policies, the regulation and standardisation, the optimisation of travel (passengers and freight), the acceptability of policies and tools, the modes of expression of social demand.

Furthermore, the adaptation of transport systems for urban freight as well as for passengers should be anticipated and all types of inequalities should be taken into account.

Urban vehicles of the future

INRETS researchers mainly work on three issues: the storage and management of on-board electrical energy, the implementation of new functions linked with the use of new information and communication technologies, and the techniques which contribute to optimise the procedures of diagnosis and maintenance. Those three issues can be applied both to private vehicles and public transport.

A multidisciplinary approach is now launched on the growing use of electric vehicles in the city. The research work concerns the power supply, the capture, the traction and energy recovery at braking, the energy storage and management, and engines of clean and efficient generation, focusing on the innovations of power electronics and storage components. This is strongly implemented in the Mov’eo competitiveness cluster, especially through the ‘Mov’eo DEGE’ automotive and transport systems platform, centered on the life cycle of on-board electrical energy storage systems analysis, as well as in the LUTB competitiveness cluster through the TRANSPOLIS project, platform dedicated to new systems for freight and public urban transport.

The INRETS research projects on the information and communication sciences at the vehicle scale should help to improve localisation, especially in urban areas, where GPS signals can be hidden. They also contribute to ensure better safety, through driving aid and automated systems.

Lastly, it becomes necessary to develop automated equipment for diagnoses and maintenance on urban transport systems, which are highly used in large urban areas.

Urban transport systems optimisation

This includes the traffic optimisation, and beyond that, taking into account all transport modes within an actual inter-modality. The purpose is to develop a concept of global optimisation, also centered on individual needs, wishes and constraints. This concept will be multi-criteria, including safety criteria as well as environmental or economical efficiency criteria. The reduction of traffic noise in urban areas, by reducing noise at its source, traffic control and providing adapted infrastructures can be mentioned as examples.

This topic also covers a more technical management of infrastructures, in order to better control congestion, to use all available capacities, new technologies or new organisational plans at best. Considering the new technologies at the system scale should help to better analyse and understand the mobility demand, to develop new transport modes, to ensure a better transport security and safety and to manage crisis situations. The development of operating and automated driving aid systems in all transport modes should make it possible to enhance safety, reduce environmental impacts and improve reliability on the whole.

Concerning people safety, INRETS works focus on a better understanding and control of risks incurred by vulnerable users.