As part of PSRC’s current Congestion Management Process (CMP), freight movement was identified as being one of the most challenging functions of the transportation system to adequately address. The primary reason identified for this was the lack of available data and analysis tools. In order to adequately incorporate freight into the CMP, and the regional long-range transportation plan, analysis of better data will begin to provide a more accurate picture of the ways that freight movement behaves with regards to regional congestion.

Freight movement, as a major function of the regional transportation system, plays a significant part in, and is impacted greatly by, regional congestion. Because the majority of freight in urban areas is moved by trucks, the focus of this particular work has been on trucks. This situation has highlighted the need to develop performance measures to assess deficiencies in the truck-oriented freight transportation systems and to improve the efficiency of investments and improvement to the systems. Freight performance measures guide planning, programming, and investment decisions, and help to implement effective operational and infrastructure improvements for both the public and private sectors. Properly designed freight performance measures can also be used to demonstrate the importance of the freight system and extent of system problems to the public and elected officials.

Freight data analyses were done in four areas: truck values of time, operating costs, speeds, and performance measures. Primary findings were:

• Truck values of time needs local or statewide data collection to improve estimates by truck type.
• Operating costs for trucks can be separated in regional travel demand models to represent real differences in costs for passenger cars and trucks.
• Speed data for cars and trucks can be determined from existing data sources.
• Quantitative performance metrics can represent the full range of planning objectives for freight.
• Benefit-cost analysis can separate the freight and passenger benefits for any project or program.

In addition, truck counts were compiled to assist in the validation of the truck model for use in regional planning.