Using national freight data at the local level is challenging due to the high level of aggregation, its proprietary nature and the need to apply proxy factors to allocate freight for system planning. Planning factors used in freight system analysis must be capable of describing the freight generation and attraction characteristics of the region. Employment  Read more »

The ability to plan and forecast freight demand to support transportation infrastructure investment decisions is limited by the lack of available data at a level of detail that is meaningful to the transportation planner.  This paper develops an initial methodology for developing Freight Analysis Zones (FAZs) at a sub-state level to facilitate use of the  Read more »

This research built upon previous work on the development of tools to bridge the gaps in the analysis and understanding of the relationships between economic growth and transportation infrastructure in Alabama. The tasks performed under this contract included: Development of the Integrated Freight Planning Framework including Trip Generation, Trip Distribution, Modal Split and Assignment and  Read more »

The purpose the project Establishing Performance Measures For Alabama’s Transportation System was to research current transportation system metrics and develop a set a performance measures appropriate for establishing the level of performance for Alabama’s multimodal transportation system and the effectiveness and efficiency by which it is able to supply reasonable user access to jobs, goods,  Read more »

The 2008 research into Transportation Infrastructure in Alabama had two main focal points; the creation of the Freight Planning Framework, with particular emphasis on the disaggregation and use of national level freight data at the state and local level, and the refinement and continued development of the Alabama Transportation Infrastructure Model (ATIM) for analysis and  Read more »

2007 DOT – Tools for Solutions – Final Report