Future transportation: Integrated research agenda on system, technology, equity, and sustainability

We are living through a pivotal era of mobility transformation. This integrated research agenda, developed by some of the coeditors-in-chief of the Transportation Research journal series, identifies critical directions across four interconnected pillars. First, reimagining future urban mobility systems requires the orchestration of microtransit ecosystems and low-altitude operations into ground–air cooperative networks. Second, core enabling technologies must advance verifiable autonomous intelligence, hierarchical vehicle–road–cloud (VRC) control, and decoupled development platforms to ensure safety and scalability. Third, translating data abundance into actionable insights demands rigorous methods for data fusion and bias correction, alongside sustained commitment to granular equity, accessibility, and mobility justice. Fourth, sustainability hinges on coherent policy instruments and equitable emissions allocation across passengers, cargo, and infrastructure. Across these pillars, technological innovation must be coupled with systemic integration, equitable governance, and rigorous sustainability metrics to build resilient, low-carbon, and human-centric mobility systems for the future.