United States-European Commission Urban Freight Twinning Initiative: Compendium of Project Summaries
Overview of Second Annual Urban Freight Roundtable at 2017 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting

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Research

United States

Effective Decisionmaking Methods for Freight-efficient Land Use

Freight traffic is growing faster than car traffic. Research on land-use strategies has traditionally been focused on reducing the vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) of passenger vehicles and has generally ignored the movement of commercial vehicles. There are many other factors influencing land use such as population growth, gentrification, and new supply chain management approaches. Among these new approaches are freight villages, freight hubs, and inland ports. Furthermore, pollution from diesel engines has emerged as a top health concern. To plan for an environmentally sustainable and livable future, we have to understand and consider the dynamics between freight and land-use.

This research project is funded by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) of the Transportation Research Board (TRB). The research team is led by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; research partners include SRF Consulting Group, University at Albany-State University of New York, American Transportation Research Institute, and Emprata.

Project Type

Research

Period of Performance

Ongoing

Project Site(s)

End products are intended to be used at all scales (city, region, State).

Website

http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/trbnetprojectdisplay.asp?projectid=4187

Contact

José Holguín-Veras, Ph.D., P.E.,F.ASCE
William H. Hart Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(518) 276-6221
JHV@rpi.edu

Challenges Addressed

• Land use
• Mobility
• Air quality
• Livability
• Environmental sustainability

Expected Outcomes

The project will result in:

• A guide to quantify and evaluate the impact of land-use practices and policies to support efficient movement of all modes of freight
• Decision-support tools to assist local, regional, and State land-use and transportation decisionmakers to support efficient movement of freight.

Stakeholder Involvement

Potential stakeholders include land-use planners, local and State-elected officials, locally appointed officials (planning commissions and board of zoning appeals), remonstrators, constituents, courts, developers, and economic development officials.