Paper

Exploring Benefits of Cargo-Cycles Versus Trucks for Urban Parcel Delivery Under Different Demand Scenarios

URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198120917162

Publication: Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

Publication Date: 2020

Summary:

Urban deliveries are traditionally carried out with vans or trucks. These vehicles tend to face parking difficulties in dense urban areas, leading to traffic congestion. Smaller and nimbler vehicles by design, such as cargo-cycles, struggle to compete in distance range and carrying capacity. However, a system of cargo-cycles complemented with strategically located cargo-storing hubs can overcome some limitations of the cargo-cycles. Past research provides a limited perspective on how demand characteristics and parking conditions in urban areas are related to potential benefits of this system. To fill this gap, we propose a model to simulate the performance of different operational scenarios—a truck-only scenario and a cargo-cycle with mobile hubs scenario—under different delivery demand and parking conditions. We apply the model to a case study using data synthesized from observed freight-carrier demand in Singapore. The exploration of alternative demand scenarios informs how demand characteristics influence the viability of the solution. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis clarifies the contributing factors to the demonstrated results. The combination of cargo-cycles and hubs can achieve progressive reductions in kilometers-traveled and hours-traveled up to around densities of 150 deliveries/km ² , beyond which savings taper off. Whereas the reduction in kilometers-traveled is influenced by the the carrying capacity of the cargo-cycle, the reduction in hours-traveled is related to to the cargo-cycle ability to effectively decrease the parking dwell time by reducing, for instance, the time spent searching for parking and the time spent walking to a delivery destination.

Authors: Dr. Giacomo Dalla Chiara, André Romano Alho, Cheng Cheng, Moshe Ben-Akiva, Lynette Cheah

Recommended Citation:
Dalla Chiara, Giacomo and Alho, André Romano and Cheng Cheng, Moshe Ben-Akiva and Cheah, Lynette. “Exploring Benefits of Cargo-Cycles versus Trucks for Urban Parcel Delivery under Different Demand Scenarios.” Transportation Research Record, (May 2020). doi:10.1177/0361198120917162.

Paper

Understanding the Use of the Curb Space and Alley for Unloading and Loading Operations: A Seattle Case Study

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Publication: VREF: Current Issues Influencing Urban Freight Research

Publication Date: 2018

Summary:

Purpose: The increasing growth of e-commerce has been putting pressure on local governments to rethink how they manage street curb parking and alley operations for trucks and other delivery vehicles. Many studies state that the competition for space among road users and the lack of adequate infrastructure force delivery drivers to either search for vacant spaces or park in unsuitable areas; which negatively impacts road capacity and causes inconvenience to other users of the road (Butrina et al. (2017); Dablanc & Beziat (2015); Aiura & Taniguchi (2005)).

However, local governments often lack data about the current usage of the parking infrastructure, which is necessary to make well-informed decisions regarding freight planning, especially in dense, constrained urban areas.

For these reasons, the purpose of this research is to address the lack of information regarding the usage of the infrastructure at the public right of way used for freight and parcel load and unload operations.

Research Approach: The approach of this research is quantitative. The SCTL research team developed two independent data collection replicable methods to quantify the usage of (i) curb spaces and (ii) alleys in selected areas of Seattle’s One Center City.

Findings and Originality: This research presents two case studies for selected areas in Seattle’s One Center City area. The first one documents and analyzes the duration and types of curb spaces used by delivery vehicles in the surrounding area of five prototype buildings. We also considered all vehicles occupying on-street commercial vehicle load zones located in the study area. The second case study conducts an alley occupancy survey, looking into all parking activities (including trucks, vans, garbage collection vehicles, and passenger vehicles) in seven alleys. A total of twelve survey locations were monitored during 2-3 weekdays and 4-8 hours per day.

Research Impact: This research provides practical step-by-step methods to conduct occupancy studies of public parking for loading and loading operations, which helps to understand the current usage of a key piece of the infrastructure network. The results provide critical information to make well informed decisions regarding urban freight planning especially in dense, constrained urban areas.

Practical Impact :This research describes the steps required to develop an efficient and systematic data collection method to build a database that will provide evidence-based learning to Seattle local officials. By applying these quantitative methods, we provided decision support to pilot-test and potentially adopt solutions to improve the freight parking infrastructure performance.

Authors: Dr. Anne GoodchildJosé Luis Machado LeónGabriela Girón-Valderrama

Recommended Citation:
Giron-Valderrama, G., Machado-León, J. L., & Goodchild, A. Understanding the use of the curb space and alley for unloading and loading operations: A Seattle Case Study. VREF: Current Issues Influencing Urban Freight Research, 37.

Paper

Mapping Urban Freight Infrastructure for Planning: A Demonstration of a Methodology

URL: https://trid.trb.org/view/1497151

Publication: Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

Publication Date: 2018

Summary:

Urban transportation infrastructure includes facilities such as loading docks and curb space which are important for freight pick-up and delivery operations. Information about the location and nature of these facilities is typically not documented for public or private urban freight stakeholders and therefore cannot be used to support more effective private sector operations or public sector planning and engineering decisions. Consequently, there is considerable value in performing an accurate inventory and evaluation of the system. In response to this urban freight challenge, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) contracted with the Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center (SCTL) at the University of Washington to develop a process to address the lack of information regarding the capacity for freight and parcel load and unload operations in dense urban areas of Seattle. This works focuses on the development of a data collection method for documenting private urban freight infrastructure that does not require prior permission, is ground-truthed, and can be completed within reasonable cost and time constraints. This paper presents the methodology, which consists of a survey form, survey collection app, data quality control process, data structure and a proposed typology for off public right of way freight loading / unloading infrastructure based on basic physical infrastructure characteristics. The data collection process methodology is applied to three Seattle urban centers. The method was then revised and improved for a second data collection effort in two additional urban centers.

Authors: Dr. Anne GoodchildGabriela Girón-ValderramaDr. Ed McCormackJosé Luis Machado León

Recommended Citation:
Machado-León, Jose Luis, Gabriela del Carmen Giron-Valderrama, Anne Goodchild, and Edward McCormack. Mapping Urban Freight Infrastructure for Planning: A Demonstration of a Methodology. No. 18-06171. 2018.

Paper

Exploring Transportation Applications of Small Unmanned Aircraft

URL: https://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=908723

Publication: Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Journal

Volume: 79 (12)

Pages: 32-36

Publication Date: 2009

Summary:

This article describes the promise of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in transportation-related applications. Small UAVs are increasingly affordable, easy to transport and launch, and can be equipped with cameras that provide information usable for transportation agencies. Potential uses of UAVs include accident scene photography, surveying, security inspections, construction data collection, and monitoring the condition and congestion of roadways. However, there are currently limitations that hinder the use of UAVs by state departments of transportation. The limitations are linked to the need to obtain authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration, which has expressed concern about the ability of UAVs to see and avoid manned aircraft. Recent tests were conducted by the Washington State Department of Transportation to evaluate the technical capabilities and institutional concerns related to the use of UAVs. Results from these tests indicate that the UAVs can perform effective and autonomous aerial surveillance, but concerns linger about the reliability of UAVs and the consequences of a crash.

Authors: Dr. Ed McCormack

Recommended Citation:
McCormack, Edward. "Exploring transportation applications of small unmanned aircraft." Institute of Transportation Engineers. ITE Journal 79, no. 12 (2009): 32.

Paper

GPS Data Analysis of the Impact of Tolling on Truck Speed and Routing: A Case Study in Seattle, WA

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URL: https://doi.org/10.3141/2411-14

Publication: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

Volume: 2411:01:00

Pages: 112-119

Publication Date: 2014

Summary:

Roadway tolls are designed to raise revenue to fund transportation investments and manage travel demand and as such may affect transportation system performance and route choice. Yet, limited research has quantified the impact of tolling on truck speed and route choice because of the lack of truck-specific movement data. Most existing tolling impact studies rely on surveys in which drivers are given several alternative routes and their performance characteristics and asked to estimate route choices. The limitations of such an approach are that the results may not reflect actual truck route choices and the surveys are costly to collect. The research described in this paper used truck GPS data to observe empirical responses to tolling, following the implementation of a toll on the State Route 520 (SR-520) bridge in Seattle, Washington. Truck GPS data were used to evaluate route choice and travel speed along SR-520 and the alternate toll-free Route I-90. It was found that truck travel speed on SR-520 improved after tolling, although travel speed on the alternative toll-free Route I-90 decreased during the peak period. A set of logit models was developed to determine the influential factors in truck routing. The results indicated that travel time, travel time reliability, and toll rate were all influential factors during peak and off-peak periods. The values of truck travel time during various time periods were estimated, and it was found that the values varied with the definition of peak and off-peak periods.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Zun Wang

Recommended Citation:
Wang, Zun, and Anne V. Goodchild. “GPS Data Analysis of the Impact of Tolling on Truck Speed and Routing.” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, vol. 2411, no. 1, 2014, pp. 112–119., doi:10.3141/2411-14.

Paper

The Impact of Truck Arrival Information on System Efficiency at Container Terminals

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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3141/2162-03

Publication: Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

Volume: 2162

Pages: 17-24

Publication Date: 2010

Summary:

This paper quantifies the benefits to drayage trucks and container terminals from a data-sharing strategy designed to improve operations at the drayage truck-container terminal interface. This paper proposes a simple rule for using truck information to reduce container rehandling work and suggests a method for evaluating yard crane productivity and truck transaction time. Various scenarios with different levels of information quality are considered to explore how information quality affects system efficiency (i.e., truck wait time and yard crane productivity). Different block configurations and truck arrival rates are also investigated to evaluate the effectiveness of truck information under various system configurations. The research demonstrates that a small amount of truck information can significantly improve crane productivity and reduce truck delay, especially for those terminals operating near capacity or using intensive container stacking, and that complete truck arrival sequence information is not necessary for system improvement.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Wenjuan Zhao

Recommended Citation:
Zhao, Wenjuan, and Anne V. Goodchild. “Impact of Truck Arrival Information on System Efficiency at Container Terminals.” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, vol. 2162, no. 1, 2010, pp. 17–24., doi:10.3141/2162-03.

Paper

Analyzing the Shift in Travel Modes’ Market Shares with the Deployment of Autonomous Vehicle Technology

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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1773/45288

Publication Date: 2020

Summary:

It is generally accepted that automation as an emerging technology in transportation sector could have a potential huge effect on changing the way individuals travel. In this study, the impact of automation technology on the market share of current transportation modes has been examined. A stated preference (SP) survey was launched around the U.S. to ask 1500 commuters how they would choose their commute mode if they had the option to choose between their current mode and an autonomous mode. The survey included five transportation modes: car, transit, transit plus ride-sourcing for the first/last mile, solo ride-sourcing, and pooled ride-sourcing. Each of these modes could be presented as regular or autonomous in the choice scenarios. Then, a mixed logit model was developed using the collected data. Results from the analysis of the model showed that applying the automation in ride-sourcing services to decrease the fare, has the largest effect on the market share of transit ride-sourcing. Also, it was found that measures such as deploying more frequent services by ride-sourcing operators to minimize the waiting time of the services could lead to an increase in the market share of transit plus ride-sourcing but it might not improve the market share for solo and pooled ride-sourcing. Furthermore, it was concluded that if the ride-sourcing market share does not move toward the automation, the mode that will lose the market share is the transit plus ride-sourcing mode for which the market share will be decreased as a consequence of the high decrease in the cost of riding an autonomous private car.

Authors: Dr. Andisheh Ranjbari, Moein Khaloei, Don MacKenzie

Recommended Citation:
Khaloei, M., Ranjbari, A. and MacKenzie, D. (2020) Analyzing the Shift in Travel Modes’ Market Shares with the Deployment of Autonomous Vehicle Technology. Transportation

Paper

Evacuating Isolated Islands with Marine Resources: A Bowen Island Case Study

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URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102865

Publication: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

Volume: 72

Publication Date: 2022

Summary:

Inhabited islands are susceptible to natural hazards, such as wildfires. To avoid disasters, preventative measures and guidelines need to be in place to strengthen community resilience. If these fail, evacuation is often the only choice. However, island evacuation is a vastly understudied problem in both research and practice, particularly for islands without permanent road connections to the mainland that require marine evacuation. Multiple vessel trips are necessary to evacuate the population from suitable access points, which previous studies did not entertain. Furthermore, most existing studies either focus on evacuations from an academic, or from a government perspective. Instead, this paper presents a collaborative approach. It applies a recently developed evacuation routing model that optimizes the evacuation plan for Bowen Island in Canada through minimizing the expected evacuation time across disaster scenarios. These were designed with the participation of a broad range of stakeholders, from local residents and volunteer groups to agencies from all levels of government and companies, which integrates both academic and practical perspectives to maximize solution quality. Different options for fleet sizes, staging locations and scenarios were considered. The results show that the optimized evacuation time for Bowen Island varies between 1 and 8 h, as it strongly depends on the disaster scenario, the evacuation fleet, and can be accelerated by temporary staging areas. The suitability of the approach for evacuation studies can be confirmed through the identification of key improvements for increased community resilience and the inclusion of the results in the official Bowen Island evacuation plan.

Authors: Fiete KruteinDr. Anne Goodchild, Jennifer McGowan

Recommended Citation:
Krutein, K. F., McGowan, J., & Goodchild, A. (2022). Evacuating isolated islands with marine resources: A Bowen island case study. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 72, 102865. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102865.

Paper

A Policy-Sensitive Model of Parking Choice for Commercial Vehicles in Urban Areas

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URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2019.0970

Publication: Transportation Science

Publication Date: 2020

Summary:

Understanding factors that drive the parking choice of commercial vehicles at delivery stops in cities can enhance logistics operations and the management of freight parking infrastructure, mitigate illegal parking, and ultimately reduce traffic congestion. In this paper, we focus on this decision-making process at large urban freight traffic generators, such as retail malls and transit terminals, that attract a large share of urban commercial vehicle traffic. Existing literature on parking behavior modeling has focused on passenger vehicles. This paper presents a discrete choice model for commercial vehicle parking choice in urban areas. The model parameters were estimated by using detailed, real-world data on commercial vehicle parking choices collected in two commercial urban areas in Singapore. The model analyzes the effect of several variables on the parking behavior of commercial vehicle drivers, including the presence of congestion and queuing, attitudes toward illegal parking, and pricing (parking fees). The model was validated against real data and applied within a discrete-event simulation to test the economic and environmental impacts of several parking measures, including pricing strategies and parking enforcement.

Authors: Dr. Giacomo Dalla Chiara, Lynette Cheah, Carlos Lima Azevedo, Moshe E. Ben-Akiya

Recommended Citation:
Dalla Chiara, Giacomo and Cheah, Lynette and Azevedo, Carlos Lima and Ben-Akiva, Moshe E. (2020). A Policy-Sensitive Model of Parking Choice for Commercial Vehicles in Urban Areas. Transportation Science, 54(3), 606–630. https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2019.0970

Paper

Economic Analysis of Onboard Monitoring Systems in Commercial Vehicles

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URL: https://doi.org/10.3141/2379-08

Publication: Transportation Research Record

Volume: 2379

Pages: 64-71

Publication Date: 2013

Summary:

Onboard monitoring systems (OBMSs) can be used in commercial vehicle operations to monitor driving behavior, to enhance safety. Although improved safety produces an economic benefit to carriers, understanding how this benefit compares with the cost of the system is an important factor for carrier acceptance.

In addition to the safety benefits provided by the use of OBMSs, operational improvements may have economic benefits. This research provides, through a benefit-cost analysis, a better understanding of the economic implications of OBMSs from the perspective of the carrier. In addition to the benefits of reduced crashes, the benefits associated with reduced mileage, reduced fuel costs, and the electronic recording of hours of service (HOS) are considered. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates that OBMSs are economically viable under a wide range of conditions.

The results indicate that for some types of fleets, a reduction in crashes and an improvement in HOS recording provides a net benefit of close to $300,000 over the 5-year expected life span of the system. Furthermore, when additional benefits, such as reduced fuel consumption and reduced vehicle miles, are explored, the operation-related benefits can be upward of seven times more than the safety-related benefits.

This research also shows that net positive benefits are possible in large and small fleets. The results can be used to inform policies that motivate or mandate carriers to use such systems and to inform carriers about the value of system investment.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Kelly A. Pitera, Linda Ng Boyle

Recommended Citation:
Pitera, Kelly, Linda Ng Boyle, and Anne V. Goodchild. "Economic Analysis of Onboard Monitoring Systems in Commercial Vehicles." Transportation Research Record 2379, no. 1 (2013): 64-71.