Freight Traffic Diversion Impact Studies

For a variety of clients in both public and private sectors, we performed freight diversion studies that forecast the change in traffic volumes as a result of freight policy or highway infrastructure changes.  The studies typically started with locally provided data, specifically some measures of AADTT (annual average daily truck traffic), which we would match against the traffic demands implied by a proprietary origin-destination (O/D) commodity flow database.  Having determined the likely O/D and commodities of the traffic mix using the highway facility, we now have much more information about the freight that’s moving on the facility (in key variables such as equipment type, commodity value, sensitivity to route or modal diversion, travel time, toll and labor costs, etc.), and thus could predict with some certainty the likely impact of facility upgrades, engineering alternatives, or policy changes such as time-of-day restrictions or addition of toll lanes.  The outputs would include forecast AADTT, revenues, economic impacts, and levels of environmental impacts where this was applicable.  Typically we would analyze the traffic impact of several scenarios that included both variables that the client can control, as well as ones that they cannot (such as future economic conditions.)  We provided this information to the client who utilizes these results to evaluate their proposed infrastructure investment projects, private investment schemes, or make decisions on freight policy changes in the region.

Note: Alex Lu performed this work as an employee of another firm.