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21st Century Operations Using 21st Century Technologies
Table of Contents

Freight and Land Use Travel Demand Evaluation: Final Report

Appendix C: Freight/Land Use Travel Demand Evaluation Literature Review
Appendix C-1: Annotated Bibliography

The following documents were reviewed for this project; details are provided in this appendix.

NCHRP Report 739/NCFRP Report 19: Freight Trip Generation and Land Use

NCHRP; Transportation Research Board; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2012.

Primary Purpose of Document

This document describes relationships between land use and FTG.

Material Highlights

  • Confirms superiority of economic classification over standard land use classification for FTG
  • Sets up the review and release of commodity flow survey micro-data for trip generation estimates per NCFRP Report 37

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

While information provided in NCHRP Report 739/NCFRP Report 19 is a landmark step forward in assessing the relative merits of several FG and FTG models, it also showed that commodity flow data was a superior data source for these models. The work in this document has been superseded by NCFRP Report 37, released in February 2017.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Superseded by NCFRP Report 37.

NCFRP Report 24: Smart Growth and Urban Goods Movement

Puget Sound Regional Council and University of Washington, 2013.

Primary Purpose of Document

This document examines the state of the practice in defining smart growth and urban goods movement. It uses the Puget Sound region as a testbed for scenario planning of emerging urban goods movement concepts.

Material Highlights

  • Chapter 7 notes the Calgary (Alberta, Canada) and Atlanta, Georgia, regional models as examples of emerging activity-based freight models.

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

This document is important for its holistic approach to smart growth and urban goods movement. It also recognized the degree to which the effects of smart growth on freight have not yet benefited from research and development already underway for passenger travel. However, for the most part, the innovations considered in NCFRP Report 24 have been superseded by newer materials such as the SHRP2 C20 initiative.

Materials Updating QRFM?

No, per prior comment on concepts.

NCFRP Report 25: Freight Data Sharing Guidebook

Cambridge Systematics, Inc.; North River Consulting Group; and University of Washington, 2013.

Primary Purpose of Document

This report provides a series of guidelines for sharing freight data, primarily between public and private freight stakeholders. The report recognizes the difficulties in obtaining data from private entities and the significant costs associated with data collection.

Table 3.1 - Provides guidelines categorized into different topics, including:

  • Non-restricted Data
  • Privacy Concerns
  • Scrubbing or Restricting Access to Freight Data
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Articulating Benefits of Sharing
  • Funding for Data Sharing and Projects

Material Highlights

  • Table 3.2 - Public and commercial data sources
    • The table provides 18 different sources of public and commercial data. It is important to note that most of the freight data collected by government agencies or trade and industry associations can be assessed without restrictions.
  • Appendix A - 32 Freight Data Sharing Projects
    • The appendix provides a list of projects that were analyzed in the research of NCFRP Report 25. Projects analyzed included both those in the United States as well as internationally.

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

NCFRP Report 25 applies to a range of contexts and environments; concepts and references are slightly dated.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

  • Incorporate Table 3.1 guidelines into QRFM update as it provides best practices and will be useful to public sector freight planners, private freight data providers, freight partnership leaders, and freight data practitioners.

NCFRP Report 26: Guidebook for Developing Subnational Commodity Flow Data

Cambridge Systematics, Inc., 2013.

Primary Purpose of Document

This report provides State DOTs and other subnational agencies with a comprehensive discussion of how to obtain and compile commodity flow data useful for their analysis.

Material Highlights

  • Existing public and private commodity flow data
  • Procedures for compiling data at different scales (State, MPO, Freight Analysis Framework [FAF] region, zip code)
  • Procedures for conducting subnational commodity flow surveys and studies
  • Examples of using commodity flow data

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

The report supplements Chapter 5.0 (Commodity Models) in the QRFM by detailing the process of collecting and disaggregating commodity flow survey data.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

  • Incorporate Chapter 6.0 (Playbook) guidelines into the QRFM, specifically:
    • Chapter 6.0 focuses on helping users develop a structured approach to accessing their commodity flow data needs and figuring out what method would be best applied to a certain freight planning problem. In many cases, users will want to use multiple methods to approach their situation. A sample game plan worksheet includes:
      • Determining the circumstances generating the concerns
      • Formulating question(s)
      • Identifying stakeholders
      • Laying out an action plan
      • Reflecting on additional strategies

SHRP2 C20: Freight Demand Modeling and Data Improvement

Final Report and Strategic Plan, TRB, 2013.

Primary Purpose of Document

This report identifies the means for moving forward in improving freight data development and use.

Material Highlights

  • Summary of Strategic Objectives (Plan p. 5-7)
  • Summary of strengths/weaknesses of practices (p. 23-38)
  • Economic flow models
  • Land use and economic input-output models
  • Commodity-based models
  • Trip-based models
  • Localized estimation routines
  • Aggregate/trendline measures
  • Quick response procedures (note: QRFM used to describe 1996 Cambridge Systematics "model" and not the 2007 document)
  • Sample research plans for each of the initiatives A-M

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

The report adds a discussion of current and emergent freight technologies and processes as well as innovative freight programs that could be incorporated into the QRFM.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

  • Discussion of broad-scale issues such as global trade, technology, innovation, and competitiveness that will influence freight strategies and decisions.

NCHRP Report 750: Strategic Issues Facing Transportation, Volume 1: Scenario Planning for Freight Transportation Infrastructure Investment

Chris Caplice and Shardul Phadnis, 2013.

Primary Purpose of Document

This report provides decision-makers with a critical analysis of the driving forces behind high-impact economic and social changes, as well as sourcing patterns that may affect the U.S. freight transportation system. Additionally, the report introduces scenario planning as a tool that can be used in long-range transportation infrastructure planning.

Material Highlights

  • Schwartz Eight-Step Method for Scenario Planning:
    1. Identify focal issue
    2. Identify key local factors
    3. Identify driving forces
    4. Rank driving forces by importance and uncertainty
    5. Select scenario logic
    6. Flesh out scenarios
    7. Apply the scenarios and uncover implications
    8. Identify leading indicators and signposts
  • Examples of freight scenario planning initiatives (p. 8-10)
  • Provides methodology of scenario planning workshops

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

The current QRFM does not discuss in-depth scenario planning as a way of developing freight forecasts.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

  • Provide freight scenario discussion into QRFM and highlight factors that should be considered when developing scenario models.

Trip Generation Handbook, 3rd Edition, An ITE Proposed Practice

ITE, Washington DC, August 2014.

Primary Purpose of Document

This report provides practitioners with guidance for site-level trip generation with a focus on person trips and vehicle trips by land use code.

Material Highlights

The need to consider truck trip generation is reflected in:

  • Chapter 11, a two-page summary of issues and concerns regarding goods movement with references to NCFRP Report 26, NCHRP Report 739/NCFRP Report 19.
  • Chapter 12, a summary of trip generation survey tools includes a series of questionnaire elements for a truck data collection survey from Thompson, Yarbrouh, Anderson, Harris, and Harrison in TRR No. 2160, p. 163.
  • Appendix J, which includes the following:
    • Compendium of findings from NCHRP Syntheses 298, 384, 358, 410, and 606.
    • Summary of the NCFRP Report 19 database hosted by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and
    • Summary of available ITE database truck trip percentages for 18 land uses.
  • Recognition that in all literature observed, all sample sizes are very low and therefore results should be used with caution.

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

The handbook supplements Chapter 4.4 (Site/Facility Planning) in the QRFM.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

  • Include the ITE Trip Generation Handbook, 3rd Edition as a listed source of potential truck trip rates in the QRFM as it includes improved guidance on the estimation of truck trips generated by development site and new guidance for the estimation of trips generated in urban settings.
  • Include TRR 2160 survey process as a listed source for truck data collection survey instruments.

SHRP2 C20: Piedmont Triad Freight Study—Winston-Salem Innovations in Local Freight Data

Parsons Brinckerhoff, Westat, National Center for Smart Growth—University of Maryland, North Carolina Center for Global Logistics, May 2015.

Primary Purpose of Document

This report documents the first phase of an effort to develop a freight nodes database in the Piedmont Triad region and the collection of survey data to better understand the key attributes and trip-making characteristics of these facilities. Both geospatial data and descriptive data about the nodes was collected.

Material Highlights

The survey data revealed some useful findings with respect to relationships between building square footage, full-time employment, the number of truck bays and the number of truck trips (Tables 14-16). These types of metrics can easily be collected and used to inform truck trip patterns around the region. However, these types of variables should be supplemented with other forecasting tools.

Phase 2 of the project will focus on model development, while Phase 3 will focus on more intensive data collection.

Appendices B and C provide a template for truck driver interview questions and mail questionnaire.

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

The handbook supplements Chapter 10.0 (Freight Data Collection) in the QRFM.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

  • Reference Appendices B and C as sources for truck data collection survey instruments.

SHRP2 C20: Port Everglades Petroleum Commodity Flow Pilot Study

Cambridge Systematics, Inc., February 2016.

Primary Purpose of Document

This report highlights emerging technologies that add value to the data-collection activities associated with better understanding goods movement flows into and through communities. The document focused on petroleum; however, technologies used can be applied to any types of freight commodities.

Material Highlights

  • Table 4-1 highlights vehicle detection technologies and their implementation potential
  • Video image processing
  • Laser/Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)
  • License Plate Recognition
  • Transponders
  • Inductive Loops
  • Weigh-In-Motion (WIM)
  • Microwave Doppler
  • Microwave Radar
  • Magnetometer
  • Piezo/Quartz Sensor
  • Passive Infrared
  • Magnetic Detector
  • Air Switch/Road Tube
  • Ultrasonic
  • Passive Acoustic Array Sensors
  • Table 4-31 highlights advantages, disadvantages, and concerns of potential truck detection technologies.
  • The analysis provides a viable solution to resolve the issue of lacking "last mile" petroleum information in the current TRANSEARCH database widely used by FDOT and project partners to analyze commodity flows.

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

The handbook adds additional means of freight data collection that could be applied to Chapter 10.0 (Freight Data Collection) in the QRFM.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

  • Follow up on methodology developed for estimating fuel consumption of trucks based on local factors such as land use, socioeconomic, roadway, and traffic inputs as this could be a source of data for fuel delivery touring models.

SHRP2 C20: Agricultural Freight Data Improvement Study SD2014-09

Cambridge Systematics, Inc., March 2016.

Primary Purpose of Document

This report focused on ways to better explain agricultural freight demand to efficiently predict impacts on transportation systems and improve policy and transportation investment decisions. The focus was to identify alternative means of freight generation data besides historical trends.

Material Highlights

The key findings of this study include the following:

  • Nine different agricultural freight-related data sources were identified that can be utilized for planning purposes over a horizon ranging from days to months, seasons, and years.
  • Innovative data collection methods such as unmanned aerial vehicles and smartphones offer significant promise for cost-effective means to filling large gaps in data on local roadway traffic counts and surface condition.
  • The demonstration developed a compendium of conventional and "unconventional" agricultural freight data related to major crops and livestock facilities. The demonstration included trip generation estimates for four major crop types and two types of livestock facilities, and testing of various planning scenarios, including facility siting and public roadway closures.

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

In line with the goal of SHRP2, the freight modeling data and tools developed in this project will have substantial value to a wide range of agricultural and transportation stakeholders in States with agricultural interests, and the freight transportation community as a whole. This report supplements several topic areas in the QRFM, including trip generation, freight data collection, and freight forecasting.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

  • Include spreadsheet evaluation tool into QRFM developed as part of the methodology to knit together agricultural and transportation data sources to achieve a common baseline for analysis. As the focus of this research was to craft a methodology using low- or no-cost data available in the public realm, others are easily able to recreate the demonstration from scratch, or plug and play using the existing spreadsheet tool with their own data.

SHRP2 C20: Innovative Local Freight Data

Capital District Transportation Committee and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2016.

Primary Purpose of Document

This report focused on the production of a dynamic freight database that would aggregate data at the more local level. The report characterizes a comprehensive list of potential freight datasets, sources, the process of obtaining data, compatibility to research, level of disaggregation, advantages, and limitations.

Material Highlights

The key findings of this study include:

  • Table 1: Summary of freight data sources included in the master freight database, both public and private, that includes common sources such as Commodity Flow Survey, FAF, and employment data—as well as lesser user data like overweight, oversize permitting, truck crash data, and Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) station counts.
  • Table 27 summarizes the variables available in the dynamic freight database such as origin-destination trip information, cargo type/value, vehicle characteristics, levels of aggregation, and update frequencies.

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

The report supplements Chapters 9 and 10 of the QRFM as it focuses on identifying various types of data sources as well as the method needed to collect them.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

  • Include a review and discussion of freight data sets discussed in the report, but not included in the current QRFM into the updated QRFM.

NCHRP Project 08-96 Report: Guide for Integrating Goods and Services Movement by Commercial Vehicles in Smart Growth Environments

Lamm, Kirk, Stewart, Fregonese, and Joyce, TRB, 2016

Primary Purpose of Document

This report summarizes a wide range of strategies for accommodating goods movement demand and operations given the context-sensitivity of particularly freight-sensitive land uses, with a focus on issues for areas transitioning from freight-intensive to mixed use.

Material Highlights

The key findings of this study include:

  • Table 2.2: Development of Smart Growth land use categories and overlay with traditional land use transect, recognizing six specific types of both new development and redevelopment that affect how goods movement may be developed or retrofitted. These six classifications are industrial areas in transition, working waterfronts in transition, older commercial areas being revitalized, aging commercial corridors, greenfields, and large-scale reconstruction.
  • Table 3.1 summarizes the types of strategies to best achieve goods movement objectives with minimal adverse effects, including setting the stage, creating places and streets, operating with minimal impacts, and ongoing monitoring.

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

The report provides useful case studies for implementing progressive strategies. The report does not contain information on how the strategies would be expected to affect freight demand from a quantitative perspective.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

  • Reference as a state of the practice for considering different strategies to plan for and manage freight demand.
  • Covers different types of emerging land uses that can be expected to substantially alter freight demand.

NCFRP Report 37: Using Commodity Flow Survey Microdata and Other Establishment Data to Estimate the Generation of Freight, Freight Trips, and Service Trips: Guidebook

José Holguín-Veras, Catherine Lawson, Cara Wang, Miguel Jaller, Carlos González-Calderón, Shama Campbell, Lokesh Kalahashti, Jeffrey Wojtowicz, and Diana Ramirez; National Cooperative Freight Research Program; Transportation Research Board; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016 (pre-publication document).

Primary Purpose of Document

This report provides estimated freight generation using commodity flow data as a function of characteristics such as establishment size and economic activity. The models and data will aid practitioners in better curb management, planning for properly sized loading/unloading areas, and improved support for traffic impact analyses.

Material Highlights

  • Proportionality between FTG/STG and business size happens only in a few industry segments.
  • The models estimated at the establishment level are transferable, but need more testing to reach definitive conclusions.
  • NCFRP Project 25 models generally outperformed the models in previous literature including the ones in the ITE Trip Generation Manual and the QRFM.
  • Commodity flow surveys can be efficiently used to estimate freight production (FP).
  • FP patterns statistically differ across States and vary from region to region, thus national models may lead to errors in estimation.

New Concepts Adding to or Supplementing QRFM?

This report stresses the importance of accounting for service trips as mentioned in the QRFM. Service industries represent almost 55 percent of establishments and 51 percent of employment in metropolitan and micropolitan areas of the country. As such, they create a large number of service trips and tend to control a high proportion of curb space, which can impact freight providers looking for suitable parking.

Materials Updating QRFM?

Recommendations:

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