Freight Transportation Planning for Urban Areas

Institute of Transportation Engineers. ITE Journal, Dec 2004 by Chatterjee, Arun

The Goods Movement Council includes ITE members with an interest in planning, designing and operating facilities for the movement of goods, including an emphasis on intermodal transfers. The Goods Movement Council supported and sponsored a variety of sessions at the ITE 2004 Technical Conference and Exhibit and the ITE 2004 Annual Meeting and Exhibit that highlighted curbside management and parking in urban areas and improving freight planning. The council provides information of importance to those working in the mods movement field through its newsletter and ITE Journal articles.

INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE OF PAPER

Planning for freight transportation in urban areas is not performed as commonly or as thoroughly as planning for passenger transportation, despite the fact that one of the seven factors for metropolitan planning specified in the federal legislation (the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century) mentions freight.

Most planners and engineers working for local public agencies are not trained in freight planning. In addition, technical information on freight planning is lacking. The only comprehensive source of information on urban goods movement published in recent years is a book by Ogden.1

However, freight planning has received more attention in the last two years and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has been developing and disseminating useful information. This feature is intended as an introduction to freight planning for urban areas.

Different Approaches

Freight planning for an urban area can be approached from two different perspectives. One focuses on economic development and business logistics; the other primarily concerns the physical infrastructure for accommodating freight movements efficiently. The latter represents the traditional engineering-oriented approach familiar to transportation engineers. However, they are not mutually exclusive. Both approaches should be used simultaneously.

In practice, the economic development approach is more suitable at a regional or statewide level. In some cases, multiple states may be included in the study area. The objectives of this approach include the identification of policies and physical improvements related to freight transportation that would help existing businesses and industries in the area and would help attract new investments. These policies and improvements are likely to involve multiple modes and large-scale projects.

The traditional engineering and physical infrastructure approach is applicable at all levels of planning, including urban areas of large, medium, or small sizes.

The data needs are somewhat different for the two approaches. For the economic development and business logistics approach, information on commodity flows by different transportation modes is needed in addition to data on vehicle movements. The traditional engineering and physical infrastructure approach relies primarily on data on vehicle movements and does not require commodity flow data.

The vehicle-based and physical infrastructure approach is more suitable for transportation and land use planners and traffic engineers working for cities, counties and metropolitan planning organizations (MPO). This feature will primarily examine this approach.

Local planners and traffic engineers must deal with the common problems and opportunities related to truck traffic in an urban area. This feature will identify some of these problems and opportunities and discuss some of the traditional tools for planning and forecasting used by MPOs.

TYPES OF FREIGHT MOVEMENTS

A useful way to examine freight movements is to recognize their spatial orientation with reference to a study area and stratify them into the three classes. This classification scheme, which is commonly used in urban transportation planning studies, is meaningful not only for understanding the spatial orientation of freight movements but also for identifying the scope of planning and types of strategies to use.

External-Internal Movements

External-internal freight movements, which have one end inside and the other end outside a study area, are primarily inter-city movements. They represent a study area's interaction with other nearby areas as well as those located far away. In some cases, external-internal freight movements include international trade and have national significance.

These freight movements are related to the economic base of an area and usually involve several modes of transportation, such as truck, rail, air, water and pipeline. Furthermore, external-internal movements usually involve freight terminals of different modes (truck, rail, air, water and pipeline) located in a study area.

The economic development and business logistics planning approach is appropriate to deal with external-internal freight movements. For planning studies related to these movements, commodity flow data are useful. For studies involving external-internal movements, an area's MPO should work closely with other agencies, such as the state department of transportation, chamber of commerce and, in some cases, airport and seaport authorities.