SPONSOR: TransNow University Transportation Center

BUDGET: $122,442

ABSTRACT: It is seen that congestion on the overall highway network is negatively impacting the efficient and effective freight movement, and that this is having a deleterious effect on our national and regional economies. Despite investments in intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in many regions, we still do not have a comprehensive understanding of how our freight transportation system operates. This is complicated by the presence of many private operators with complex needs traveling on publicly operated highways with a complex permitting and regulatory environment. There is a heightened need to improve our knowledge of freight flows in order to improve the overall transportation system, the freight component in particular, and to respond to new and emerging security concerns. The objective of this project is to build upon past and ongoing research in the area of identifying techniques for collecting freight transportation data by designing two specific data collection experiments using an existing ITS infrastructure and equipment. The objective will be met by carefully reviewing the literature, developing unique and comprehensive data sampling strategies, working with regional transportation agency partners to clearly define their data needs, and implementing a data collection experiment to demonstrate the capabilities of two existing ITS surveillance system for freight data collection. The results of the experiment will be documented and results will be disseminated via project reports, website outreach and presentation of results at regional and national conferences.

PRODUCTS:

report Horowitz, Zachary, R.L. Bertini, "Techniques for Mining Truck Data to Improve Freight Operations and Planning." Final Research Report, Portland State University, May 2006