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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 » Land Use

Land Use

Traditionally, land use and transportation planning have been performed separately, by different government organizations with different policy tools and goals. An understanding of local freight movements is needed to support freight and land use coordination, and a lack of empirical data on trips is a barrier to understanding local freight movements. Information about freight flows can be used to identify problem areas like streets with high congestion, areas with insufficient loading zones, or areas with unusually high rates of truck-related accidents. In turn, identification of freight flows and problematic areas can be used to inform transportation planning and investment. Currently, models and forecasts of freight flows are available for planning organizations, but these models are often focused at the county or state level, and the complex nature of truck operations and movements presents a barrier to data collection (Wygonik, Bassok, McCormack, Goodchild, & Carson, 2016).

In planning, freight’s economic benefits should be weighed against its social and environmental costs. The figure lists some common benefits and costs of freight movement.

Freight Land Use Benefits and Costs
Benefits Costs
Employment Decreased Air Quality
State and Local Tax Income Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Contribution to State and Local Economic Output Environmental Justice (Disproportionate Impacts)
Proximity of Goods Decreased Quality of Life

Source: (Federal Highway Administration, 2012)

Coordination between land use and freight movements maximizes freight’s benefits (such as economic development) while minimizing impacts on the transportation system and local residents. Some examples of good coordination practices include:

  • Creating buffers or separation between industrial land use and other land uses.
  • Zoning to guide freight development to areas near major highways or other transportation assets, which will reduce freight traffic on local streets.
  • Preserving and maintaining existing industrial areas, or preventing conflicting development near these areas.
  • Promoting context-sensitive solutions: tailoring solutions to specific problems at individual freight facilities, like using appointment systems at ports to reduce traffic congestion.
  • Poor coordination, such as the placement of freight facilities in or adjacent to residential neighborhoods can jeopardize public health and quality of life, and reduce traffic mobility. Freight and land use coordination is accomplished through policies and actions like comprehensive planning, zoning, loading zone rules, and the establishment of truck routes.

In order to make freight and land use coordination effective, planners must combine land use and economic activity data to understand where freight and land use conflicts occur, and where potential coordination improvements may be made.”

Freight value distribution in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota for the manufacturing sector
Freight value distribution in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota for the manufacturing sector
Source: CPCS

Primary Sidebar

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

Potential Data and Analytical Remedies

The newer sources of truck data, such as GPS probe data, can help illuminate freight movements at the local level to understand origins and destinations of trucks. These could be fused with land use and economic data. Sources of land use data include zoning information, maps of parks, schools, hospitals, and other community assets that may be negatively impacted by frequent freight movement. Sources of economic data include truck traffic counts, freight commodity flow data (such as Freight Analysis Framework), information about business establishments’ locations, employees, sales, and industry classification, and interviews with freight stakeholders.

The fusion of the land use and freight movement data, including truck GPS movements, is also new. Fusing transportation information with land use and zoning data will help planners visually identify potential areas of conflict. Fusion can also be used for modeling purposes; for example, to predict where freight traffic may be most intense within certain geographic areas (Guiliano, Kang, Yuan, & Shin, 2016). Modeling approaches like this could help planners identify particular areas to study in greater depth.

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