Changing boundaries, distributed control, and implications for transportation sustainability

Transportation systems are rapidly integrating with cybertechnologies and into cyberphysical ecosystems. Emerging cognitive capabilities are leading to the diffusing of traditional boundaries between transportation and other infrastructure and increasingly distributed control. This requires a new approach to sustainability, reflecting distributed cognitive capabilities of transportation systems, increasingly diffuse boundaries that challenge the historical nature of transportation, and Anthropocene complexity. Public agencies should reassess their roles to manage this increasingly complex environment.