Funding source: US DOT
Contract number: 69A3551747109

Funding amount: $114,916
Performance period: 1/1/2020 to 3/31/2021

Link to final report: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9qg2318x

Link to project data: https://doi.org/10.25338/B8934T

The consistent rise in urban consumption has brought along more and more trucks to the cities. While the freight traffic is fundamental to the economy, its pollution intensity is much higher compared to passenger traffic. In addition, the time sensitivity of the freight movement encourages truck drivers to take the shortest or the fastest route to the destination, which more often than not, is not the most energy efficient or eco‐friendly route. Furthermore, conventional truck routes often pass through disadvantaged communities having negative consequences on these vulnerable neighborhoods. This study will expand the authors' previous work to develop a stochastic cargo routing tool for urban and regional networks. The tool will consider the relationship between the vehicle's characteristic parameters and system conditions (i.e., congestion) and evaluate trade‐offs between different system objectives (e.g., vehicle miles/hours travelled, energy, GHGs, and criteria pollutants). The objective of the work is to use the developed model to evaluate different system strategies (e.g., geo‐fencing, access control, infrastructure use restrictions, truck routes) to mitigate the negative impacts from cargo flows, especially to vulnerable communities and sensitive locations (e.g., disadvantaged, school zones, hospitals). Moreover, the study will evaluate the equilibrium conditions under the various fleet operating assumptions.