Abstract: The City of Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) engaged the Urban Freight Lab to establish a baseline cordon truck and car count for the Greater Downtown area before major construction, transit, and traffic changes occurred in fall 2018. The UFL developed a detailed typology of all commercial vehicle types, and is now assigning every commercial vehicle crossing the cordon to a category that may be tied to its use. Examples of these detailed use types include food delivery, garbage pick up, construction, and service vans. The researchers are analyzing video data provided by SDOT of 30 primary gateway intersections around the perimeter of the Greater Downtown area, which includes Seattle’s downtown, uptown (lower Queen Anne), South Lake Union, and Capital and First Hill urban centers.
This research will enable the city to understand much more about the economic sectors served by commercial vehicles that enter and leave the Greater Downtown area. When this project is completed, SDOT will be the first major city department of transportation in the nation to develop a database that provides such detailed commercial vehicle use information.
Presentation:
Cracking the Freight Data Nut: Estimating Center City Inbound and Outbound Vehicle Volumes from Cordon Counts (METRANS International Urban Freight Conference, October 17, 2019)
Data Visualization:
Cordon Counts: A Data Visualization of Vehicles Moving in and out of Seattle’s City Center