Achim I. Czerny, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University — August 2026

Dear colleagues and friends of the ITEA,

It is a great honor to take on the presidency of the International Transportation Economics Association, and I begin with a heartfelt thank-you to Erik Verhoef for his outstanding leadership.

Why transport economics matters

My most important message is simple: transport economics matters. It matters because mobility shapes everyone’s life — access to jobs, education, health care, family, and friends. It matters for the policies that govern that mobility, from congestion charging to climate policy, where economic instruments can reach given goals at the lowest possible cost. And it matters for building, financing, and operating the expensive road, rail, and air infrastructure our economies run on.

None of this is abstract. Start with policy: New York City’s congestion charge, launched in January 2025, cut vehicle entries into Manhattan’s core by about 11 percent, sped up traffic, reduced emissions, and raised roughly half a billion dollars for transit investment in its first year — with public support growing as the benefits became visible. Then market structure: the deregulation of U.S. airlines, spearheaded by the economist Alfred Kahn, turned air travel into a mass market — and paved the way for market liberalization far beyond aviation, from trucking and railroads to telecommunications and energy. Then finance: Chile’s pioneering concession program mobilized more than US$11 billion of private investment in roads, airports, and ports, and has become a model across the developing world.

The largest gains may still lie ahead. In Africa, full implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) is projected to raise intra-African traffic by half and cut average fares by about a quarter — the deregulation lesson, waiting to be repeated where it is needed most. Our own work belongs in this story: in a chapter I am writing with Yulai (Sarah) Wan for a volume edited by Clifford Winston, we argue that Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area are superb at putting enormous infrastructure in place, but that their operations would benefit from a more extensive use of market mechanisms. The same holds for climate policy: technology-neutral, market-based approaches can achieve climate goals at lower cost than committing early to specific technologies that may not turn out to be the best ones.

Bergamo, and on to Tokyo

This year’s ITEA Annual School and Conference in Bergamo (June 15–19, 2026) was a great success. My sincere thanks to the local organizing committee — Gianmaria Martini (chair), Laura Ogliari, Flavio Porta, and Davide Scotti — to Jonathan Hall, who chaired the Scientific Committee, and to Stefanie Peer, who chaired the School. Warm congratulations to this year’s prize winners — and to their coauthors, with whom these prizes are shared. Eva Gossiaux received the award for the Best Paper by a Junior Researcher for “The Equilibrium Effects of Urban Air Quality Policies: Evidence from the Grand Paris Low-Emission Zone” (co-authored with Mohamed Bahlali), and Alice Ciccone received the Best Overall Paper award for “Road Pricing: Travel Behavior and Public Support” (co-authored with Cloé Garnache and Gøril L. Andreassen).

Erik and I looked back on the week in a short video conversation, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QPxNEY4G1Bo. Separately, I have recorded interviews with our 2026 ITEA Honorary Member, Sergio Jara-Diaz, and with our Bergamo keynote speaker, Joan Walker; both will be published soon — stay tuned.

Now mark your calendars: the 2027 ITEA Annual School and Conference will be hosted by the University of Tokyo, August 16–20, 2027 (School August 16–18, Conference August 18–20).

Economics of Transportation

Foundations matter, and ours were laid early: the very first issue of Economics of Transportation (EoT) carried Robin Lindsey’s synthesis on road pricing and infrastructure investment and Kenneth Small’s work on the value of travel time. I am deeply grateful to Philippe Gagnepain and Ricardo Flores-Fillol for their excellent service as Co-Editors-in-Chief of the ITEA’s journal. Our contacts at Elsevier report very promising developments, and I share their confidence that EoT can be established as the leading journal in our field. That depends on all of us: send the journal your best work, and say yes when it asks you to review.

Thanks, and welcome

A society is only as strong as the people who run it. Thanks again to Erik — not least for successfully moving the society’s official seat from Finland to The Netherlands. Stefanie Peer has been an outstanding secretary, and Heike Link, the chair of our venue committee, has found us excellent conference hosts year after year. Leo Basso — whom everybody knows and loves — is stepping down after many years of service: thank you, Leo, for everything you have done for this association. I am delighted to welcome Jonas Eliasson as Vice-President and Antonio Russo as Secretary; Maria Börjesson, who takes over our annual school from Stefanie Peer; Ian Savage, who takes over the search for our conference hosts from Heike Link; and Tiziana D’Alfonso, Jinwon Kim, Hugo Silva, Andrew Smith, and Sarah Wan as newly elected members of the Executive Committee.

Looking ahead

One region deserves our particular attention: Africa. Those SAATM numbers are one reason; another is that, as the world’s fastest-urbanizing continent, Africa will build and organize more urban transport in the coming decades than any other region, and the design choices made there will shape mobility, climate outcomes, and public finances for generations. Strengthening ties with African researchers, and bringing African participation into our conferences, our school, and our journal, will be a priority of my presidency.

Transport economics matters. Our job is to make sure that what we know reaches the rooms where these decisions are actually made — and I look forward to doing that work with all of you.

See you in Tokyo!

Achim I. Czerny

President, International Transportation Economics Association