Simulating freight activity in a statewide model requires the development of an origin/destination matrix containing internal-internal trips, internal-external and external-internal trips, and external-external trips. The external-external trips are often difficult to obtain as data for these trips cannot be surveyed through traditional travel surveying techniques. This paper presents a methodology to use the Freight Analysis Framework Version 2 Database (FAF2) to determine the volume of pass through freight for a statewide transportation model in either tons of freight or value of freight. The methodology is presented using a statewide case study, but is applicable to any region from the database. The paper concludes that the ability to obtain accurate pass-through freight data from a federal database for use in transportation modeling is vital to successful planning.
A Methodology to Use FAF2 Data to Forecast Statewide External-External Trips