Project Number:
07-19
Research Project:
Adding A Freight Network to an Interstate Input –Output Model: Implications for California
P.I. Name & Address:
Harry W. Richardson
University of Southern California
650 Childs Way # 321
Los Angeles, California 90089-0626
E-mail hrichard@usc.edu
Phone (213) 740-3954
Fax (213) 740-2699
Project Objective:
This research takes the first step in adding a freight network to a national economic impact model by incorporating the national Interstate Highway System and making it’s state-to-state flows endogenous so that there will be freight movement implications of any significant change in the level of economic impact anywhere in the country. This has major implications for metropolitan area freight traffic because the highway system links all the major metropolitan cities. It also has major implications for California, not only because of the disproportionate role of the State in the national economy but also because of close interconnections between freight burdens in California and those in the rest of the country. This partly reflects the dominance of the twin ports complex of Los Angeles-Long Beach in United States-based commodity trade (from both the imports and exports perspective). From a modeling perspective, the California-United States link is reinforced via the integration of two operational models developed by out team estimate freight flows, SCPM (the Southern California Planning Model) and NIEMO (the National Interstate Economic Model). A prime motivation for this research is that while SCPM already includes a highway network NIEMO does not yet have a transportation network component. In addition, although this research focuses primarily on highways, the multimodal component cannot be ignored because there are continuous substitutions among road, rail and air.
Task Descriptions:
The methodological steps in this research include the following:
i. assemble of the FAF (Freight Analysis Framework) national highway network data updating of the data;
ii. update the data;
iii. prune down to Interstate Highways and other major inter-metropolitan roads;
iv. convert County-level to State-level data using the TIGER/LINE shapefile from ESRI;
v. integrate the output flows from NIEMO with the highway network by converting commodity flows to truck movements;
vi. estimate freight costs via alternative methods (e.g. gravity models, volume/capacity ratios);
vii. integrate the national highway network with the existing Southern California highway network of SCPM; develop tests of the reliability of the estimated national-Southern California network.
Milestones, Dates:
September 1, 2006 – August 31, 2007
Total Budget:
$89,998
Student Involvement:
One Student @ 50% effort, 9 months
Relationship to Other Research Projects:
Related to 05-17. 06-03, 06-11, part of goods movement and international trade focus area
Technology Transfer Activities:
Project report posted on the website
Potential Benefits of the Project:
Decreased traffic congestion, enhanced efficiency of freight movement
TRB Keywords:
Truck traffic, freight routing
Primary Subject:
4b.2 Mobility
Goals:
4c.3 Economic growth and trade
Enabling Research:
4c.8 Computer, Information and Communication
Modal Orientation:
4c.13 Highway
