METRANS Researchers Seek Ways to Make the Urban Freight System More Efficient

Given the high construction costs, physical restraints, and limited impact of simply building more infrastructure to resolve congestion issues, METRANS researchers are looking for new and better ways to efficiently manage existing capacity. 

National and international trade flows tend to be concentrated in large metropolitan areas, adding demand to already overburdened highway and rail networks. Reducing total truck and train miles and shifting demand to less congested times, routes, or modes are two ways of increasing efficiency identified by METRANS researchers while reducing vehicle emissions and energy consumption. Possible solutions range from better routing of truck pickup and delivery to virtual chassis pools to various forms of congestion pricing-a method of reducing demand during hours of peak usage by surcharging users, thereby encouraging them to shift usage to off peak hours.