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Student Thesis and Dissertations

Developing a Robust Survey Methodology for Collecting Information on the Port Truck Drayage Industry

 
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Publication: Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans)
Publication Date: 2014
Summary:
This paper describes the population characteristics in the drayage trucking population of the Port of Seattle as determined by the 2013 Truck Driver Survey. The 2013 Truck Driver Survey was created to give the Port of Seattle more information on the trip destinations, working conditions, equipment, and economics of truck drivers serving the Port of Seattle, so that policymakers creating regulations affecting trucking at the port could be better informed about the trucking population.
The survey was a 44 question mail-back survey that was distributed at the Port of Seattle. The survey was distributed for eight days at all container terminals at the Port of Seattle, and got a 29% response rate.
The majority of the trips to and from the Port of Seattle are for the local Seattle area (33%) and the Kent Valley (20%). Other trips are distributed to service areas throughout the State of Washington. Owner-operators were found to make more of the short trips, with employee drivers making more of the long trips.
62% of trucks at the Port of Seattle are more than 12 years old. These trucks will have to be replaced before 2015 to comply with the Port of Seattle Clean Trucks Program.
The Port of Seattle has a diverse population, with 53% of drivers indicating that they did not speak English as a first language. Among drivers who indicated that they didn’t speak English, about 50% were from Africa, with South/Central America and Asia/Pacific Islands also having significant populations.
Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Jerome Drescher
Recommended Citation:
Goodchild, Anne, and Jerome Drescher. Developing a Robust Survey Methodology for Collecting Information on the Port Truck Drayage Industry. No. 2012-S-US-0017. Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium, 2014. University of Washington Master's degree thesis.
Student Thesis and Dissertations

A Different Kind of Gentrification: Seattle and its Relationship with Industrial Land

Publication Date: 2019
Summary:

Industry in Seattle often talks about how they are facing their own kind of gentrification. Rising property values, encroaching pressure for different land uses, and choking transportation all loom as reasons for industrial businesses to relocate out of the city. This research explores this phenomenon of industrial gentrification through a case study of Seattle’s most prominent industrial area: the SODO (“South Of Downtown”) neighborhood. My primary research question asks what the perception and reality of the state of industrial land designation and industrial land use gentrification in Seattle is. Secondary research questions involve asking how industrial land designation and industrial land use can be defined in Seattle, what percentage of land is zoned industrial in the SODO neighborhood, and what percentage of the land use is considered industrial in the SODO neighborhood. Finally, subsequent effects on freight transportation and goods movement will be considered. By surveying actual industrial land use compared to industrially-zoned land, one can conclude whether industry’s complaints are accurate and whether attempts to protect industrial land uses are working. Literature details cases that encapsulate the industrial gentrification debate and Seattle has undertaken many studies of its industrial land. Methods involve a case study approach coupled with a field survey. The survey area chosen is the SODO neighborhood, which is part of the locally and regionally-designated Duwamish Manufacturing/Industrial Center. Industrial designation is defined as any of the four types of industrial zoning in the City of Seattle. Industrial land use is defined with the help of the Land Based Classification Standards’ Function dimension, with the following subcategories considered industrial: manufacturing, warehouse, storage yard, marine terminal, railroad, and utility. Results show that over 99% of the study area is designated industrial. After classification of each parcel in the study area, 62% of the study area’s parcels, or 85% of the land area, contain actual industrial land use. When land intensive uses such as marine terminals and railroads are removed from consideration, the percent of industrial land area is only 42%. The conclusion of this study shows that 1) the narrative of industrial gentrification in Seattle is not as universal as initially perceived, 2) being designated as industrial land by zoning is not a surefire way to achieve what some would consider actual industrial land use, 3) actions undertaken by the City in the 2000s—namely increasing the size limits on non-industrial land uses in industrial zoning—have been effective at keeping SODO industrial, and 4) the question of whether Seattle is losing industry and industrial land rests on how one defines and perceives those terms. While much of SODO’s land area is still industrial, market forces and trends are drawing more non-traditional land uses to SODO, such as boutique manufacturing, breweries and distilleries, event venues, and commercial offices and retail stores. Examples are prominent and give the perception of industrial loss even if, technically, much of SODO is still designated industrial.

Recommended Citation:
Tomporowski, David (2019). A Different Kind of Gentrification: Seattle and its Relationship with Industrial Land. University of Washington Master's Degree Thesis.
Thesis: Array
Student Thesis and Dissertations

Observing Goods Delivery Activities and Identifying Opportunities to Improve the Design of Commercial Vehicle Load Zones in Seattle

 
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Publication Date: 2018
Summary:

The growth of freight activity is one of the results of urban population growth. The growth of freight means that more commercial vehicles must share finite infrastructure like alleys, loading docks, and yellow curb space. In this research project, curb space is studied in order to better understand the needs of commercial vehicles at the curb. Cities in the United States like Seattle have recognized that there are opportunities to better manage curb space, and have implemented programs such as the Flex Zone Program 2016 in order to do so. In this research paper, I have focused on just one aspect of the curb, which is the yellow curb space reserved for Commercial Vehicle Load Zones (CVLZ). The purpose of this thesis is to observe the needs and activities of courier drivers during deliveries/pickups in Seattle, and incorporate observations into a new design of freight curb space that may better respond to their needs. The new design suggests a system in which curb space is designed for different vehicle dimensions and activities. This is done by including paint, texture/pattern, and signage on the pavement and sidewalk that comfortably accommodate the vehicle and activities around the vehicle. By providing a better designed freight curb space that accounts for the needs and activities observed, the hope is that courier drivers will be less likely to partake in high-risk behavior such as double parking, and spilling over into adjacent transit lanes/pedestrian areas/bikes lanes, by providing better infrastructure for them.

Authors: Manali Sheth
Recommended Citation:
Sheth, Manali (2018). Observing Goods Delivery Activities and Identifying Opportunities to Improve the Design of Commercial Vehicle Load Zones in Seattle. University of Washington Master's Degree Thesis.
Student Thesis and Dissertations

Optimization Modeling Approaches to Evacuations of Isolated Communities

Publication Date: 2022
Summary:

Isolated communities are particularly vulnerable to disasters caused by natural hazards. In many cases, evacuation is the only option to ensure the population’s safety. Isolated communities are becoming increasingly aware of this threat and demand solutions to this problem. However, the large body of existing research on evacuation modeling usually considers environments where populations can evacuate via private vehicles and by using an existing road infrastructure. These models are often not applicable to remote valleys and islands, where road connections can be disrupted or do not exist at all. The use of external resources is therefore essential to evacuate the population. How to systematically evacuate an isolated community through a coordinated fleet of resources has not yet been researched. This dissertation thesis addresses this knowledge gap by designing a new routing problem called the Isolated Community Evacuation Problem (ICEP) that optimally routes recovery resources between evacuation pick-up points and shelter locations to minimize the total evacuation time. The research presents derivations of the initial model for (a) emergency planning and (b) response purposes to give emergency planners and researchers tools to prepare for and react to an evacuation of an isolated community. For (a), a scenario-based two-stage stochastic program with recourse considers different emergency scenarios to select the optimal set of recovery resources to hold available for any evacuation emergency. Furthermore, the dissertation explores efficient structure-based heuristics to solve the problem quickly. For (b), the assumption of certainty over the size of the affected population at the time of evacuation is relaxed. Approaches from robust and rolling-horizon optimization are presented to solve this problem. Moreover, meta-heuristics are explored to solve the problem to optimality while overcoming the complexity of the problem formulation. Finally, an in-depth, real-world case study that was conducted in collaboration with first responders and emergency authorities on Bowen Island in Canada is presented to test and evaluate the applicability of the proposed models. This case study further informed the official evacuation plan of the island. This collaboration demonstrates the potential of full integration of the research approach with local emergency expertise from the affected area and highlights the data requirements that need to be met to maximize the use of the model.

Authors: Fiete Krutein
Student Thesis and Dissertations

An Evaluation of Engineering Treatments and Pedestrian and Motorist Behavior on Major Arterials in Washington State

Publication: Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC)
Publication Date: 2008
Summary:

This report examines pedestrian and motorist behavior on arterials in Washington State and determines how, if at all, these behaviors change when various engineering treatments are applied. The treatments that were examined included crosswalk markings, raised medians, in-pavement flashers, signage, stop bars, overhead lighting, and sidewalks. The relationships between pedestrian travel and transit use, origin-destination patterns, traffic signals, and schools were also explored.

The study examined seven locations in the state of Washington. These were State Route (SR) 7 at South 180th Street in Spanaway, SR 99 at South 152nd Street in Shoreline, SR 99 at South 240th Street in Kent, SR 2 between South Lundstrom and King Streets in Airway Heights, SR 2 at Lacrosse Street in Spokane, SR 2 at Rowan Avenue in Spokane, and SR 2 at Wellesley Avenue in Spokane.

Because pedestrian-vehicle collisions are rare when specific locations are studied, other criteria were used to evaluate the conditions and behaviors that were present. These included “conflicts” such as running behavior, motorists having to brake unexpectedly to avoid a pedestrian, pedestrians waiting in the center lane to cross, and more. These unreported, but very common, occurrences enabled the researchers to gain a better understanding of both pedestrian and motorist concerns and behaviors and the effects that improvements might have.

The study concludes that the causes of conflicts are highly varied: ignorance of or noncompliance with the law (by the motorist or the pedestrian), inattention, vehicles following too closely, impatience, anxiety in attempting to catch a bus, use or non-use of pedestrian facilities, placement of features in the built environment, and more. While pedestrian/motorist interaction improves with improved visibility (something which can be obtained through better engineering design and the removal of visual clutter) better education and/or enforcement will also be needed to achieve significant safety benefits.

Authors: Katherine D. Davis, Mark E. Hallenbeck
Recommended Citation:
Katherine D. Davis, Mark E. Hallenbeck. An Evaluation of Engineering Treatments and Pedestrian and Motorist Behavior on Major Arterials in Washington State. Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC), 2008.
Thesis: Array
Student Thesis and Dissertations

Survey on the Bike Commute Environment among Seattle Area Bike Planners and Advocates

Publication Date: 2020
Summary:

Bike facilities like bike lanes, bike trails, and neighborhood greenways have been the backbone of Seattle’s bike planning policy with the goal of promoting active transportation, reducing car dependence, improving social equity, and eliminating bike accidents. While the equitable implementation of all of these facilities are still a priority for the Seattle’s Office of Planning and Community Development to increase viable commute mobility options, bike planning investments may not reflect the priorities shared by those in the bike community. Other factors in the bike commute environment were not present in Seattle’s Bike Master Plan, such as bike storage and shower facilities. There is also a lack of knowledge on whether there were priorities that people of color might have that are different. To better understand those priorities, this study sent out an online survey to 14 bike facility planning groups and bike community organizations around Seattle on the importance of nineteen different factors in the bike commute environment. For each factor, there were a range of values gauging the degree of importance of a bike commute factor to the bike commute environment, as well as a free response to allow respondents to elaborate on their answers. In total, 71 survey responses were received. The factor that placed the highest importance on the bike commute environment was bike racks and storage, higher than even bike facilities such as bike lanes. There were also not many differences in the priorities expressed by people of color, with the only significant difference being the weighting of sharrows, which had received significantly more support from people of color. Using the results of the survey, we recommend that the City of Seattle develop a bike commute environment index with a weighting scheme that is reflective of the priorities expressed in the survey, in addition to informing the City what are the community priorities in the bike commute environment.

Authors: Dr. Ed McCormack, Theodore Cheung, Katie Sheehy, Christine Bae
Recommended Citation:
Cheung, Theodore & Sheehy, Katie & Bae, Christine & McCormack, Edward. (2020). Survey on the Bike Commute Environment among Seattle Area Bike Planners and Advocates. 10.13140/RG.2.2.28619.31529.
Student Thesis and Dissertations

Life Cycle Assessment of American Wheat: Analysis of Regional Variations in Production and Transportation

Publication Date: 2009
Summary:

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a model-based approach to quantify where, and in what form, energy and materials are used in industrial production. The “life cycle” refers to the production of raw materials for fuels, infrastructure and energy conversion equipment, use, maintenance, after life options, and relevant health and social factors. This is sometimes referred to as a “cradle to grave” approach when assessing environmental impacts. Current interest in carbon footprint and environmental impacts of products derived from crops, primarily food and bio-fuels, first requires a detailed life cycle assessment of the agricultural production. American wheat is selected to study the variation in life cycle impacts of an agricultural product that has been aggregated in previous LCAs. All previous studies contain an LCA case study of one species of wheat grown in a specific location. Such a narrow approach is not an accurate representation of the system. This LCA of American wheat differs in the fact that it investigates multiple locations, species, variation in farming practices, fuel use, fertilizer application, and transportation throughout the country in an attempt to be inclusive of the spatial and species variability of wheat production on greenhouse gas emissions. Due to the decentralized nature of American agriculture, an understanding of transportation decisions and resulting impacts are especially important. Results indicate a 101% intra-species and 62% inter-species variation in greenhouse gas emissions of wheat grown in the U.S. However, due to a range of 1440 kg CO2 eq/ha to -1404 kg CO2 eq/ha, sequestration of carbon during cultivation is the most sensitive and variable contribution to life cycle greenhouse gas emissions.

Authors: Brendan O'Donnell
Recommended Citation:
O'Donnell, Brendan. (2009). Life cycle assessment of American wheat: Analysis of regional variations in production and transportation. University of Washington Master's Degree Thesis.
Thesis: Array
Student Thesis and Dissertations

Micro-Consolidation Practices in Urban Delivery Systems: Comparative Evaluation of Last Mile Deliveries Using e-Cargo Bikes and Microhubs

 
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Publication Date: 2021
Summary:

The demand for home deliveries has seen a drastic increase, especially in cities, putting urban freight systems under pressure. As more people move to urban areas and change consumer behaviors to shop online, busy delivery operations cause externalities such as congestion and air pollution.

Micro-consolidation implementations and their possible pairing with soft transportation modes offer practical, economic, environmental, and cultural benefits. Early implementations of micro-consolidation practices were tested but cities need to understand their implications in terms of efficiency and sustainability.

This study includes a research scan and proposes a typology of micro-consolidation practices. It focuses on assessing the performance of microhubs that act as additional transshipment points where the packages are transported by trucks and transferred onto e-bikes to complete the last mile.

The purpose of the study is to assess the performance of delivery operations using a network of microhubs with cargo logistics and identify the conditions under which these solutions can be successfully implemented to improve urban freight efficiencies and reduce emissions. The performance is evaluated in terms of vehicle miles traveled, tailpipe CO2 emissions, and average operating cost per package using simulation tools. Three different delivery scenarios were tested that represents 1) the baseline scenario, where only vans and cars make deliveries; 2) the mixed scenario, where in addition to vans and cars, a portion of packages are delivered by e-bikes; and 3) the e-bike only scenario, where all package demand is satisfied using microhubs and e-bikes.

The results showed that e-bike delivery operations perform the best in service areas with high customer density. At the highest customer demand level, e-bikes traveled 7.7% less to deliver a package and emitted 91% less tailpipe CO2 with no significant cost benefits or losses when compared with the baseline scenario where only traditional delivery vehicles were used. Cargo logistics, when implemented in areas where the demand is densified, can reduce emissions and congestion without significant cost implications.

Authors: Şeyma Güneş
Recommended Citation:
Gunes, S. (2021). Micro-Consolidation Practices in Urban Delivery Systems: Comparative Evaluation of Last Mile Deliveries Using e-Cargo Bikes and Microhubs, University of Washington Master's Thesis.
Student Thesis and Dissertations

Statistical Analysis of Commercial Vehicle Border Crossing Times and Volumes: Case Study of the Pacific Highway Port-of-Entry Free and Secure Trade Lane

 
Publication Date: 2009
Summary:

International land ports of entry are unique transportation bottlenecks in the North American transportation system and present interesting statistical analysis problems. At the Pacific Highway port-of-entry, located between Surrey, British Columbia and Blaine, Washington, commercial vehicles have experienced crossing times of two hours or more. To address this, the crossing has a dedicated lane for users that comply with certain security procedures under the Free And Secure Trade program. Crossers using this program experience significantly shorter wait times. These issues present the need to understand border operations, crossing times, and arrival volume patterns in greater detail to mitigate congestion and effectively utilize existing infrastructure. This thesis will address temporal patterns of commercial vehicle crossing times and arrival volume patterns by season, month, day of the week, and hour; introduce primary and non-primary crossing time concepts; analyze drivers’ lane choice; and complex statistical sampling techniques. Thus, this thesis will provide insight as to how to better manage border congestion, and introduce statistical techniques that can be used to support future research.

Authors: Li Leung
Recommended Citation:
Leung, L. (2009). Statistical Analysis of Commercial Vehicle Border Crossing Times and Volumes: Case Study of the Pacific Highway Port-of-Entry Case Lane. University of Washington Master's Thesis.
Thesis: Array
Student Thesis and Dissertations

Ridehail and Commercial Vehicles Access in Urban Areas: Implications for Public Infrastructure Management

 
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Publication Date: 2022
Summary:

As urbanized populations and concentrations of activities increase, there is growing pressure in dense and constrained urban areas to unlock the potential of every public infrastructure element to address the increasing demand for public space. Specifically, there is a growing demand for space for parking operations related to the access to land use by people and goods. On one side, ridehailing services, such as those provided by Uber and Lyft, are on the rise and with them the associated passenger pick-up/drop-off (PUDOs) operations. On the other side, freight and servicing trips require a supply of adequate infrastructure to support vehicle access and load/unload activities and final delivery/service to customers. This dissertation aims to provide insights based on real-world datasets and tests to support the management of two key public infrastructure that provides access to land uses: alleys and curb lanes. To achieve this goal, first, this dissertation will investigate what roles alleys play in cities and inspect alleys’ physical characteristics and vehicle parking operations in these spaces. Secondly, this research will examine factors of PUDO dwell time and evaluate the impact of adding curb lane PUDO zones and geofencing ridehailing vehicles to these zones using a hazard-based duration modeling approach. Finally, this dissertation will analyze the impact of different ridehailing curb management strategies on curb lane utilization based on simulation.

Recommended Citation:
León, J., Luis Machado. (2022). Ridehail and Commercial Vehicles Access in Urban Areas: Implications for Public Infrastructure Management (Order No. 10827973). University of Washington Doctoral Dissertation.