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Understanding and Using New Data Sources to Address Urban and Metropolitan Freight Challenges

National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Project 49

  • Urban and Metropolitan Challenges
    • Congestion
    • Last-Mile Access
    • Final 50-feet Access
    • Land Use
    • Truck Parking
    • Case Studies
  • Emerging Data Sources
    • GNSS/GPS
    • Radar
    • Wireless Address Matching
    • Administrative Records
    • Cellular/GSM
    • Induction Loops
    • LIDAR
    • Computer Vision
  • Analytical Approaches
    • Speed
    • Location
    • Re-identification
    • Classification
  • Stewardship Principles
    • Transparency and Openness
    • Purpose Specification
    • Data Minimization
    • Data Quality and Accuracy
    • Accountability
    • Security
    • Data Management
  • Resources
    • Source Use Concept Map
    • Case Studies
    • Previous NCFRP Projects
    • Glossary
    • Sources Cited
Home » Urban and Metropolitan Challenges

Urban and Metropolitan Challenges

The Research Problem – Truck Observability

A number of persistent and growing challenges continue to present mobility impediments to truck freight in urban and metropolitan areas. These challenges and impediments coalesce around five main themes shown in the image and table below. This section also describes these challenges in detail.

Source: CPCS

Challenge Crux of the Issue
Urban Congestion Highway and street congestion delays freight shipments. Congestion could either be intersection/interchange congestion and mainline congestion on roads, or at natural or man-made chokepoints and barriers such as rivers or border crossings.
“Last Mile” Access Truck movement between freight facilities and mainline transportation links can be inefficient. Queuing is caused by inefficient signalization, capacity constraints (including off-ramps), tight turns, circuitous routing (ingress, egress constraints), and incompatible corridor uses (e.g. bicycles lanes on freight corridor). The “last mile” is not a literal mile: in many areas, there may be 6 to 9 miles of arterial roads connecting freight facilities with free-flowing mainline transportation assets, like interstate highways.
“Final 50-feet” Access Loading and unloading trucks can block lanes. Trucks often circle looking for space to load/park; both issues exacerbate traffic. The “final 50-feet” of a trip begins when the truck stops, and the driver must carry goods the remainder of the distance, often greater than a strict 50 feet.
Truck Parking Shortage of truck parking indirectly affects mobility; lack of driver knowledge of available parking affects driver choices and behavior near freight facilities.
Land use Land uses are often not synchronized with freight demand, resulting in additional freight VMT, congestion, circuity, emissions and noise pollution.

Agencies have devised a number of techniques that involve data fusion – integrating both existing and new data sources – to address these challenges. The case studies illustrate these best practices and innovations.

Primary Sidebar

  • Congestion
  • Land Use
  • Last-Mile Access
  • Final 50-feet Access
  • Truck Parking
  • Case Studies

Copyright 2019, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.