Assessing Freight Data Needs at the Metropolitan Level

A Freight Data Needs Survey was administered to Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in the U.S. to assess urban freight data needs given the demographic characteristics of the region, the freight issues MPOs have to deal with, and the state-of-the-practice in integrating freight component into the urban travel demand models (TDMs). Special emphasis was given to cargo data because it provides valuable insight into urban freight movements. The results of the survey revealed that, although two-thirds of the responding MPOs are conducting freight planning, only 26% of them have integrated both the passenger and freight components into their TDMs. Among the responding MPOs, 49% to 94% indicated a need for origin-destination patterns, routing details, shipment details, and commodity type information, while cargo data availability varied from 6% to 33%. It is thus obvious that effective freight planning and informed decisions are still largely limited by a lack of reliable data, especially among the small, mid-size, and midlarge MPOs. Given a lack of funding sources these MPOs will have to explore innovative and cost effective means to gather an understanding of freight movements. Data collected by electronic means such as those provided by Intelligent Transportation Systems can be invaluable to urban freight planning.

• Corporate Authors:

  ITS America

  1100 17th Street, NW, 12th Floor
  Washington, DC  United States  20036
• Authors:
  • Victoria, Isabel C
  • Prozzi, Jolanda
  • Walton, C Michael
• Conference:
  • 12th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems
  • Location: San Francisco California, United States
  • Date: 2005-11-6 to 2005-11-10
• Publication Date: 2005

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: CD-ROM; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 12p
• Monograph Title: Proceedings of the 12th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cargo handling; Data collection; Demographics; Electronics; Freight and passenger handling; Freight handling; Intelligent transportation systems; Metropolitan planning organizations; Planning; Urban areas
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Railroads; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01016202
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 5 2005 3:49PM