595 / 2019-03-01 12:06:26

Megaregion Truck Flow Estimation Model

全体主题 > Land-use & Transportation modeling

Freight transportation has played a critical role in the growth of megaregion economies. However, most of the existing freight studies have focused on goods movement at the national, state, or metropolitan levels. Megaregion truck transportation has not received much attention. This research intends to develop an analytical model for estimating megaregion truck flows, which is an extension of the regional freight model developed in our previous studies. It utilizes the data from the most recent Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) and implements the extended analytical framework to estimate baseline truck flows in megaregion highway networks. Because the FAF data ignores the details of truck movement within large metropolitan areas, the centroids in the FAF’s zonal system will be redesigned by adding multiple freight external stations or intermodal facilities as network centroids. The estimated link-level truck flows are expected to support the evaluation of freight mobility and facilitate the decision-making process of policy makers for megaregion freight transportation planning. In addition to an understanding of the spatial patterns of megaregion truck flows, it also explores their temporal patterns, especially the night time truck traffic patterns. It selects Texas Triangle as an empirical case to demonstrate the implementation of the megaregion truck flow model.