The use of national freight data at the local level is challenging due to the high level of aggregation and because freight data is proprietary.  Many national freight databases aggregate information to the individual states or major communities.  Most methods of utilizing freight data depend on applying proxy factors to allocate the freight to the  Read more »

In smaller urban areas, freight transportation is often not explicitly modeled, but is included implicitly as a percentage of non-home-based trips, which has nothing to do with the actual behavior of freight. This incorporation has the potential to develop future traffic forecasts that are unreasonable and potentially will lead to poor roadway infrastructure investment decisions.  Read more »

DLA is streamlining its entire logistics pipeline. Balanced Scorecard, a widely used, very structured commercial approach where senior executives determine what direction, specific initiatives, and funding are needed to be successful. Using the scorecard, DLA formulated a transformation strategy for years to come. The strategy includes modernization of business practices, enhanced information operating systems and  Read more »

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 use of local freight data in transportation planning is essential to ensure accuracy in the travel demand modeling process. However, unlike passenger transportation, where extensive research work has been performed into the collection and use of household travel data, limited research work has been performed to collect and use local freight travel data. This  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 paper presents a modular approach for rapidly developing simulation models that can analyze and evaluate existing port operations, changes and expansions. Simulation is an inexpensive insurance against costly mistakes involving capital expenditures, but many managers still perceive simulation to be a costly and time consuming option. The underlying purpose of this research has been  Read more »

The ability to accurately incorporate freight moving to and from a port into an urban model is difficult in both small and large cities.  To address this issue, this paper presents an application in which the Freight Analysis Framework Version 2.2 (FAF2) Port Data was incorporated into a traditional urban transportation planning model for a  Read more »

As one of the four original pilot studies into disaggregation of the Freight Analysis Framework Version 2 program funded by the Federal Highway Administration, the research team at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAHuntsville) has experienced many of the issues and problems associated with the use of such a highly aggregated database.  The UAHuntsville  Read more »

It is commonly accepted in the transportation planning community that local data is the only legitimate data that can be used to forecast travel.  Therefore, large, highly aggregated data sets are often discredited and deemed an inappropriate data source without extensive consideration.  Additionally, since freight flow databases are generally large and highly aggregated, freight transportation  Read more »