This research focuses on the development of multi-criteria tools for measuring and analyzing the impacts of recurring and non-recurring congestion on freight corridors in the Portland Metropolitan Area. Unlike previous studies, this work employs several distinct data sources to analyze the impacts of congestion on Interstate 5 (I-5) in the Portland Metropolitan Area: global positioning system (GPS) data from commercial trucks and Oregon DOT corridor travel-time loop data and incident data. A new methodology and algorithms are developed to combine these data sources and to estimate the impacts of recurrent and non-recurrent congestion on freight movements' reliability and delays, costs, and emissions. The results suggest that traditional traffic sensor data tend to underestimate the impacts of congestion on commercial vehicles travel times and variability. This research also shows that congestion is not only detrimental for carriers and shippers costs but also for the planet due to major increases in GHG emissions and for the local community due to large increases in NOx, PM, and other harmful pollutants. The methodology developed throughout this work has the potential to provide useful freight operation and performance data for transportation decision makers to incorporate freight performance measures into the planning process.

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published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

With congestion, environmental Impact, and the price of oil becoming topics that influence businesses and individuals in a daily basis, measures need to be undertaken in order to accommodate the growing demand for freight transportation. By directing many of the trucks travelling along the National Highways Systems to the Marine Highway corridors developed by the U.S. Maritime Administrations, many of the problems can be addressed in the Short and Medium terms. In order to do so, Short Sea Shipping, through the use of Ro/Ro (Roll-on/Roll-off) Vessels, needs to be implemented. Although the environmental and congestion reducing benefits are considerable, the profitability of this transportation mode needs to be considered. A cost benefit analysis can determine the margin of profit, and attract investors and businesses. By developing a mathematical model that accounts the costs associated with transporting trucks along a particular corridor, the competitiveness of Short Sea Shipping can be determined. / by Alvaro Galletebeitia. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This research focuses on fleet management in freight transportation systems. Effective management requires effective planning and control decisions. Plans are often generated using estimates of how the system will evolve in the future; during execution, control decisions need to be made to account for differences between actual realizations and estimates. The benefits of minimum cost plans can be negated by performing costly adjustments during the operational phase. A planning approach that permits effective control during execution is proposed in this dissertation. This approach is inspired by recent work in robust optimization, and is applied to (i) dynamic asset management and (ii) vehicle routing problems. In practice, the fleet management planning is usually decomposed in two parts; the problem of repositioning empty, and the problem of allocating units to customer demands. An alternative integrated dynamic model for asset management problems is proposed. A computational study provides evidence that operating costs and fleet sizes may be significantly reduced with the integrated approach. However, results also illustrate that not considering inherent demand uncertainty generates fragile plans with potential costly control decisions. A planning approach for the empty repositioning problem is proposed that incorporates demand and supply uncertainty using interval around nominal forecasted parameters. The intervals define the uncertainty space for which buffers need to be built into the plan in order to make it a robust plan. Computational evidence suggests that this approach is tractable. The traditional approach to address the Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands (VRPSD) is through cost expectation minimization. Although this approach is useful for building routes with low expected cost, it does not directly consider the maximum potential cost that a vehicle might incur when traversing the tour. Our approach aims at minimizing the maximum cost. Computational experiments show that our robust optimization approach generates solutions with expected costs that compare favorably to those obtained with the traditional approach, but also that perform better in worst-case scenarios. We also show how the techniques developed for this problem can be used to address the VRPSD with duration constraints.

This research provides an example delay calculation for long-haul single unit and combination trucks on Interstate-75 (I-75) in Georgia. Truck profiles on Georgia interstates are used to calculate the value of freight by truck type and commodity moved. Determining the types of trucks and commodities moved within the state of Georgia allows the researcher to monetize the effect of recurring congestion by location in addition to the cost of lost time. A more accurate calculation of delay based on truck type and commodity moved will better inform the Georgia Department of Transportation about the performance of Georgia's major truck routes and its potential effect on the local economy. A review of past research on this topic found that the calculated cost of delay in previous studies varied widely based on truck and commodity type. The identification of the types of commodities moved can assist in better monetizing the value of truck freight. Using forecast data on future truck traffic volume increases in the corridor, the growing importance of putting a value on different types of truck freight delay costs are demonstrated.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration