A (somewhat belated) New Year’s Message from the President,

Dear colleagues,

There are at least three good reasons for sending you this “Happy New Year’s Message” only in the beginning of February, a little bit later than presumably expected. One is that it will stand out just a little more, when it is not competing with comparable messages. A second is that we’re now also in the position to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Snake. But the third, in all honesty, dominates: it allows me to remind you all that abstract submissions for this years ITEA Conference and School at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) have just opened, and is accessible via the conference website at:

https://transportation.northwestern.edu/news-events/itea2025/itea2025.html

We are so grateful, already, to the Local Organizing Committee, the Scientific Committee and the School Committee, for all the hard work that has already been done and that still will have to be done in preparation for our annual gatherings!

If you have not already done so, also please feel invited to have a look at our renewed website at https://itea.science/, where you can not only find all sorts of information about our association and our flagship journal Economics of Transportation, but also – in the member area – log in, check and possibly update your membership status. The web site also shows the up-to-date composition of all committees and officers currently serving our association in formal roles. It is my pleasure, on behalf of the association, to extend a big thank you to all these people, too!

Societal challenges for transport policy makers are only becoming more and more pressing and urgent. At the same time, disinformation and right-out denial of scientific knowledge increasingly seems to infect public debates. And, international relations appear to rapidly become less predictable and stable than they used to be. In such demanding times, the importance of international academic associations like ours can hardly be overestimated, and only increases. Of course, ITEA can only thrive through the intellectual contributions of its members. I therefore wholeheartedly hope to see all of you at our annual meetings this year, and I very much look forward to seeing your latest research presented there, and/or to seeing it published in our journal.

Have a Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year!

Erik T Verhoef

President of ITEA