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476660-00014-1 Report Abstract

Developing and Applying Mobility Performance Measures for Freight Transportation in Urban Areas

David Winterich, William L. Eisele, Juan Villa, and David L. Schrank, Texas A&M University, December 2009, 58 pp. (476660-00014-1)

This report summarizes the activities performed in a one-year study with the objective to develop an understanding of the interrelationships of urban goods movement and congestion and identify performance measures that will help evaluate the impact of goods movement in the urban area. Through a survey instrument and state-of-the-practice review, this research project investigated the impacts and interactions of commodity movements within an urban area, given traffic congestion.

Researchers generally found that traditional mobility monitoring performance measures (e.g., delay, travel time index) can be adopted for freight-related mobility performance measurement. From the surveys conducted, and the state-of-the-practice review, researchers also found that 1) recurring congestion (and most typical incident congestion) is a problem that carriers/shippers can plan for, and in most cases, they can deal with congestion as it comes along; and 2) carriers/shippers tend to estimate a time cushion (buffer) into their schedules to meet their delivery times. There are times when urban congestion levels can impact freight operations (e.g., just-in-time [JIT] deliveries for manufacturing, less-than-truckload [LTL] trips by truck). Researchers also documented the interrelationship of how decisions by either the public sector or the trucking companies can influence one another.

The results of this research will be valuable to decision-making staff at metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and local transportation organizations to understand the big picture of local truck movements, as well as performance measures that will assist public transportation agency staff in considering freight movements and impacts in project prioritization and selection.

Keywords: Urban Freight Movements, Performance Measures, Mobility Monitoring, Congestion, Freight Impacts, Delay

ENTIRE REPORT (Adobe Acrobat File – 1.6 MB)