Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute

Purpose About 8% of the world population lives in extreme poverty. The importance of poverty reduction is acknowledged both in the general sustainability literature and within social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). Existing approaches in S-LCA typically consider the prevalence of poverty, but not how poverty can be reduced. The aim of this paper is therefore to propose a social life cycle impact assessment (S-LCIA) method for poverty reduction potential based on an impact pathway approach. Methods The basis of the S-LCIA method proposed is a literature review about poverty reduction, primarily in the field of development economics. Based on this literature, an impact pathway and a quantitative S-LCIA method were developed. The S-LCIA method was then applied to the case of the cobalt supply chain to illustrate its applicability, covering production of cobalt hydroxide in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and cobalt sulfate in China. Results and discussion The literature review showed that economic growth is the most important factor for poverty reduction and that no country has escaped poverty without economic growth. This suggests that the value added, the process-level contribution to economic growth, is an important product-related parameter for an S-LCIA method on poverty reduction. However, not all growth benefits the poor, and to capture this, the developed method includes parameters accounting for corruption, inequality, and the share of people living below poverty thresholds. The exemplary case study shows that the potential poverty reduction is higher in the DRC than in China, mainly due to the higher value added generated in the DRC and the larger share of people living in poverty. Conclusions The developed S-LCIA method constitutes a first attempt at accounting for how products influence poverty, rather than considering the mere prevalence of poverty. It allows for an identification of the largest contributions to poverty reduction, and an analysis of underlying causes in terms of value added, corruption, equality, and poverty levels. Further developments are recommended, particularly regarding estimating the share of the economic growth that actually benefits the poor.

During the development of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), several changes and improvements have been made to the driver–machine interface (DMI). The intention is to refine the train driver support by adding, removing, or clarifying signal information. In ERTMS Baseline 3, major DMI changes have been made between onboard versions 3.4 and 3.6. This includes clarification about speed targets and a simplified color strategy for target speed monitoring. This paper presents the effects of the DMI version shift on running time, driver target braking toward a European Train Control System target, and driver workload. In an electrical multiple unit train driver simulator, 39 student train drivers tested two different DMI versions on a 16 km railway line. In addition, the drivers rated the driver task workload using the NASA Task Load Index. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that drivers, despite a longer braking phase, go faster with version 3.6 than with version 3.4. The running time difference was about 1%. Although the driving task was short, with a low workload demand, the train driver workload was clearly affected by the onboard version, such that with the later version (3.6), the workload was statistically significantly lower.

Renewable energy resources are widely available, yet they are unevenly distributed globally. In a renewable future, countries lacking high-quality renewable resources may choose to import energy from other countries. To assess the resource-dependent and techno-economic basis for global renewable energy trade and identify potential importers and exporters, this study introduces two new metrics: Renewable Export Cost Index (Cost Index) and Renewable Export Volume Index (Volume Index). These metrics are computed based on regional resource potential, domestic energy demand and varying financial costs across countries, without the need for any energy system modeling. By applying these two metrics to 165 countries/regions, we identify countries with significant potential for exporting renewable energy (e.g., the US, China) and those that lack the domestic resources to satisfy demand (e.g., South Korea, Japan). The Cost Index and Volume Index are validated through a separate analysis, employing a comprehensive energy system model for each country/region.

In current Swedish planning and policy discourse, cycling is seen as an efficient way to commute in urban environments and a key component in advancing more sustainable transport. In Sweden, cycling is more prevalent among the more afflu-ent population, but there is (with some exceptions) little knowledge on cycling in low-income areas. Given that well-developed cycling infrastructure is available and that bicycling is a comparably low-cost transport mode, higher rates of cycling in disadvantaged neighbourhoods could be expected. For policies that increase inclu-sive cycling to be implemented, there is a need to understand what makes cycling achievable for diverse groups. Based on the everyday cycling experiences of 31 families living in socially disadvantaged and ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in Sweden, this paper provides qualitative accounts of cycling, knowledge that can inform policy. Key concepts from urban sociology are used to analyse a person’s conditions for cycling. Our findings suggest that while cycling could be considered a practical, social, and flexible mode of transport, especially for younger people, only a few adults in our sample cycled. The results reflect an ambivalence toward cycling as part of everyday mobility. Cycling was perceived as something “typically Swedish”, a norm conditioned by age, gender, and body related weights and reliefs and hard to combine with everyday care- and work responsibilities. The gap between preferred and used mode implies an untapped cycling potential, a finding that suggests that pro cycling policies need to pay increased attention to broader social justice perspectives to support cycling (also) in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

A recurrent challenge on cycle paths are edge cracks, which affect the traffic safety and accessibility of cyclists and produce high maintenance costs. Being both structurally thinner and narrower structures than roads, the cycle paths are extra prone to this problem. A few passages of heavy vehicles in unfavourable conditions might be enough to break the edge. The load-bearing capacity of eight municipal cycle paths in Linköping, Sweden, were assessed by falling weight deflectometer (FWD) and light falling weight deflectometer (LWD) measurements during a year-long cycle. A set of alternative Deflection Bowl Parameters (DBPs), better adapted to the structural design of cycle paths, were suggested and evaluated. The results of the FWD measurements showed that these suggested DBPs are a promising approach to evaluate the load-bearing capacity of cycle paths. From the results of the LWD measurements, it was found that the load-bearing capacity varies considerably with lateral position. The conclusion is that it might be more fruitful to measure the load-bearing capacity by LWD close to the edge, rather than the traditional approach of FWD measurements along the centre line of the cycle path.

Introduction: Persons living with spinal cord injury (SCI) often lacks access to outdoor mobility, which can significantly impact their ability to participate in activities outside the home, to take part in their community, and to have meaningful occupations and relationships with loved ones. Purpose: To better understand the importance of outdoor mobility for persons with SCI, the aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore transport modes, car adaptations, and their perceived function and safety. Method: A web-survey, addressing outdoor mobility and driving, was distributed among people with different physical impairments. Of 274 responses, a total of 93 reported living with SCI and were selected for this study. Results: Public transportation was often underutilized due to inaccessibility and distance. In total, 88 persons (95%) owned a car. Almost everyone used their car weekly (97%) and the annual average driving distance was 17,400 km (SD 22,820 km). Most of the car owners had a station wagon (63%) or van/minibus (27%) and larger vehicles were more common among those needing extensive adaptations (p = 0.014). Discussion: The results corroborate earlier findings on public transport for persons living with SCI and the importance of their having a suitably modified vehicle. The results also offer insights into outdoor mobility and car driving among persons with SCI in Sweden that can support accessibility planning and promote innovations in transport options. Persons living with SCI and other physical impairments could benefit from a comprehensive, national-level knowledge base that encompasses outdoor mobility and car adaptations and their implications for these populations.

Burnout is caused by long term psychosocial stress and has, besides the fatigue and mental health burden, been associated with increased risk of adverse physical health, such as for example type 2 diabetes. This study aims to investigate the glucose and insulin levels in individuals with stress related burnout, by assessing these metabolic markers in response to a standard oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). 38 cases with burnout (13 men and 25 women) and 35 healthy controls (13 men and 22 women) in the age 24–55 were included in the study. The burnout group overall did not differ from healthy controls in glucose or insulin levels during the OGTT. However, the burnout cases who reported more severe burnout symptoms exhibited significantly higher levels of both glucose and insulin levels during the OGTT compared to burnout cases reporting lower severity of symptoms. Furthermore, the group of burnout cases who reported symptoms of depression exhibited higher insulin levels during OGTT compared to the burnout cases without depressive symptoms. The observed higher levels in the burnout cases with most severe symptoms indicate an increased diabetic risk in these patients and it may be of importance to follow glucose and insulin levels in individuals with more severe symptoms of burnout i.e. to perform an OGTT.

The perception of comfort and safety among passengers of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) is crucial and significantly influences their adoption in current Public Transport systems. It is essential to align the objective perception with an analysis of vehicle performance data to identify vulnerabilities and factors affecting passenger comfort and safety. This paper presents the first comprehensive correlation between objective and subjective data from autonomous fleets in three well-established pilot locations (Graz, Madrid, Linköping), each using different technologies and experiencing varying environmental conditions. Our analysis (i) revealed significant differences between the three pilot sites in terms of perceived safety and comfort (both perceived and actual) and (ii) confirmed a strong correlation between safety and comfort levels and the vehicles’ behaviour in terms of speed and acceleration, particularly noting the impact of hard braking events as those were defined by the SHOW consortium.

This paper presents a new conceptual framework, and stepwise approach to populate it, for informing countermeasure development to support fitness-to-drive for professional drivers. Professional drivers are vital to the transport network; however, the job is demanding and drivers are vulnerable to impairments which may impact safe driving. Countermeasures are any action or activity that mitigates the impact or frequency of occurrence of driver impairment. The framework proposes countermeasures to be delivered across three time points: Operational (during shift), Tactical (immediately after shift) and Strategic (outside of on-shift) and at multiple system levels, e.g., driver, manager, enforcement etc. The framework was successfully pilot tested with three different professional driver use cases: autonomous shuttles, taxi, and garbage truck drivers. This structured approach to countermeasure design offers potential to improve driver health and enhance road safety. The work was conducted within PANACEA, an EU project, grant agreement number 953426.

Rutting, a prevalent failure mode in flexible pavements, largely stems from subgrade issues. Despite this, there is a lack of standard protocols to evaluate subgrade rutting or permanent deformation (PD). This study attempted to characterise PD in subgrades, focusing on a poorly graded sand and two silty sands. Moisture contents above and below optimum levels were considered to account for seasonal variations. The research involved adapting a test to assess the PD by determining typical stresses on the subgrade. Moreover, given these soils’ unsaturated state and medium- to fine-grained nature, suction is an important factor. Suction-controlled multi-stage repeated load triaxial tests were conducted, and the results were fitted by a PD model modified to account for suction. The characterisation was compared with the subgrade strain criterion used in pavement design solutions. Results indicated discrepancies between the PD characterisation and strain criteria predictions, with the silty sands performing better than the poorly graded sand, consistent with the shakedown theory.

A two-level three-factor factorial design experiment was conducted to study the influences of three critical specimen preparation parameters on the measurement results of bitumen by a dynamic shear rheometer (DSR). The investigated factors were (1) the pre-heating temperature (HT) for manufacturing the specimen, (2) the bonding temperature (BT) onto the rheometer, and (3) the trimming (Trim) operation for preparing the specimen after bonding. The analysed data were the measured shear modulus |G*|, phase angle δ, and the characteristic temperatures of bitumen’s specific stiffness TX with corresponding phase angle δTX according to the European standard EN 14770:2023. Five types of bitumen were tested, including three penetration grades and two modified bitumen specimens (with polymer and wax additives). In addition, a repeatability evaluation of the test results was conducted. We found that the trimming operation for preparing the specimen has a noticeable impact when using smaller plates (PP08) for the DSR measurement. At higher test temperatures when using larger plates (PP25), the trimming operation does not significantly impact the measured parameters, in contrast to the HT and BT. Except for bitumen type 70/100, modified binders are more susceptible to variation in the analysed parameters than unmodified ones. The three-way interaction Trim:BT:HT tends to cause relatively little variation in measured data. Interactions between two factors Trim:BT, Trim:HT, and BT:HT contribute more to the fluctuation in δ value than in TX and |G*|. The variation employed in this study affects the test repeatability of wax-modified bitumen significantly; however, for unmodified binders the repeatability of TX and δTX are within 0.4–2.1 °C and 0.3–3.1°, respectively.

Using porous road surfaces can be an alternative to more traditional noise reduction measures. Two factors contribute to the fact that road noise can get lower than with a conventional dense road surface: the rolling noise emission decreases, and the sound-absorbing road surface can further reduce the level. In a traffic noise calculation with Nord2000, the influence of the road surface on the sound emission is specified using road surface corrections while the acoustic surface impedance of the road surface determines the ground attenuation. However, due to measurement technical reasons, porous road surface corrections will include some (undesirable) ground attenuation, leading to that the rolling noise emission might be underestimated. Another problem is that the impedance model in Nord2000 (Delany & Bazley) does not give correct results for porous road surfaces. These complications have been investigated with Nord2000 calculations using a program code extended to also include an impedance model capable of handling porous road surfaces (Hamet et al). The results have been used to formulate official Swedish recommendations on how porous road surfaces can be handled in traffic noise investigations with Nord2000.

This research project presents a mapping of noise levels in green areas across all of Sweden, with a particular emphasis on nature reserves, national parks, and other recreational spaces. Utilising the Nord2000 noise prediction method, our study incorporates the following noise sources: road traffic, railway traffic, wind turbines, and airports. Our analysis includes longer propagation distances than typical noise maps (up to 8 km) to account for distant sources, given the importance of low noise levels in pristine natural environments. Weather conditions play a crucial role in long-range sound propagation; therefore, we have integrated ten years of weather statistics (2013-2022) from the ERA5 climate dataset into our assessment. This mapping effort represents one of the first nationwide noise mapping initiatives with a specific focus on low-exposure natural areas. Our findings not only provide valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders in managing and preserving the acoustic quality of Sweden's green spaces but also offer a foundation for analysing the potential impact of noise pollution on wildlife and biodiversity within these ecologically sensitive areas. The resulting noise map and relevant weather statistics are publicly released and downloadable. Participants from industry, government, and academia cooperated in this environmental monitoring project.

This paper presents results of a trial replacing the natural aggregate in the top layer of a double-layer porous asphalt pavement with steel slag. A 200 m long motorway section was paved with this material and performance in terms of macrotexture and noise properties (made annually with the CPX method) were monitored for an entire life-cycle of 7 years. The results in terms of noise reduction compared to the common Swedish reference pavement (SMA16) indicated an initial noise reduction of about 7 dB; only marginally lower than the same pavement with normal natural aggregate. By time, this marginal loss in noise reduction was turned into a somewhat higher noise reduction after 5-6 years of service. This was surprising since the steel slag pavement appeared to clog a little more than the conventional double-layer asphalt pavement. Probably, there are (uncertain) properties in the slag material which balances out the clogging effect. At the present time this pavement has reached an age of 7 years, which is similar as the conventional porous pavement has served on the same road over two lifecycles so far. With its lower noise-reducing deterioration versus time, steel slag is a promising material for recycling in this way.

For rail traffic, the wheel-rail interaction is one of the most important sources of noise, and is included in different ways in the noise calculation methods being used in Sweden today. However, if the rolling stock exhibit other noise sources it is not clear how they are handled by the different calculation methods. Recent measurements in Sweden of the newly refurbished 'X2' passenger trains indicate that cooling fan exhausts mounted high up on the driving unit radiate noise at levels corresponding to the wheel-rail noise at speeds of 200 km/h. The NMT96 calculation method currently used in Sweden represents the whole train as one line source per octave band, each placed at different heights. The newer Nord 2000 method, applies three sources at low heights for rolling noise and allows additional sources but without defining how to accommodate them. The Cnossos-EU method puts all potential exhaust and fan noise at the higher of two sources, at 4 m above the rail. None of the models define how to apply a source to just the locomotive as sound power is given per meter train or per rolling axis. The impact on noise exposure and mitigation is discussed in this paper.