Border Freight Scoping Study

Border Freight Scoping Study

Freight Scoping Study

• A three month effort

• Late September – December 2006.
• Funded by Section 5512 of SAFETEA-LU (TRANSIMS development)
• Sponsored by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration

• Objectives

• Articulate the freight issues in Buffalo-Niagara Falls area, and the decisions to be supported by improved modeling
• Identify available data for a freight model
• Outline how TRANSIMS might be adapted for the regional simulation of freight

Presentation Outline

• What is the Transportation Analysis Simulation System (TRANSIMS)

• Findings to date

• Freight issues
• Decisions to be supported by improved modeling
• Data to support an improved model

TRANSIMS

• Microsimulation model

• Differences from conventional 4-step

• Simulation of individual entities
• e.g., households or freight movements
• Generation of tours
• Not tied to
• Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ)
• Time-of-day buckets
• Detailed modeling of highways and intersections

• But, any model is only as good as the available data

Freight Issues

• Cross-Border and Domestic

• Freight Growth

• NAFTA
• Feeder port possibility

• Primary mode is truck

• Increasing need for reliable travel times

• Congestion

• Cross Border
• Other highway

Cross-Border Congestion

• Issues

• Two crossings for commercial vehicles

• NAFTA impact on commercial traffic

• Congestion at borders and on highways

• Security concerns

U.S. Domestic Issues

• Economic Growth

• Congestion

• Grand Island Bridges
• Narrow lanes
• Steep grade
• I 90 / I 290 Interchange

• Non-freeway movements

• Route 219
• Route 63

Decisions to be Supported

• Peace Bridge and Plaza

• Improvements •

Data: Freight Movements

• Internal vs. External

• Cross-border vs. domestic

• X-X

• CCMTA National Roadside Study
• Regional models (e.g., FAF)

• X-I

• CCMTA National Roadside Study
• Regional models (e.g., FAF)
• Local economic forecasts
• Local origins/destinations

• I-I

• Urban goods movement
• e.g., warehouse to retail

Data: Traffic Flows

• All traffic

• Existing regional model as a source of data
• Background congestion

• Truck traffic

• Sources

• Satellite tracking of trucks
• Toll counts (classification)
• Other traffic counts, including classification
• Turning movement counts

Data: Highway Network

• Four-step model

• Link capacities

• Microsimulation model

• Intersection capacity
• Signals
• Turning lanes
• Road physical characteristics
• Hills, curves
• Lane width
• Barriers
• Tolls, border crossings

Topics for Discussion

• Issues affecting freight movements

• Decisions to be supported

• Scope of a planning model

• Domestic with cross-border coordination
• Bi-national

• Data sources for traffic growth and mode split

• Data sources for origin-destination movements

• Data for modeling the highway network

• Classification counts for calibration and validation