Evaluating Capacity and Delay for Signalized Arterials with Freight Deliveries

Abstract

Freight deliveries on signalized urban streets are known to cause lane blockages during delivery. Traffic congestion associated with urban freight deliveries has gained increasing attention recently as traffic engineers and planners are tasked with finding solutions to manage increasing demand more sustainably with limited road capacity. The goal of this research is to evaluate two models for quantifying the capacity and delay effects of a lane blocking freight delivery on a signalized urban street. The two methods are: an all-or-nothing model similar to methodology used in the Highway Capacity Manual 2010 (HCM2010) and a detailed analytical model consistent with kinematic wave theory. The purpose is to provide insight on the use of these tools for analysis of urban freight delivery policy. The results of the two models are compared with each. A simulation of 8th Avenue in New York has been calibrated to observed freight deliveries from a six-hour period, and the simulated results confirm effect of delivery location on capacity and delay. The results show that the methods from the HCM2010 to account for the effects of buses stopping for passengers provide only a coarse representation of the capacity and delay effects of urban freight deliveries. The more detailed approach that accounts for the dynamics of queuing provide closed form analytical formulas for delay and capacity that can account for varying locations of deliveries, long delivery durations, and different impacts on different lane groups.

Keywords

Urban Freight Delivery ; Signalized Arterial ; Capacity ; Delay ; Highway Capacity Manual (HCM)

References

1. Anon, 2010 (2010). Highway Capacity Manual . Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C.
2. Ahrens et al., 1977 G.A. Ahrens, K.W. Forstall, R.U. Guthrie, B.J. Ryan; Analysis of Truck Deliveries in a Small Business District; Transportation Research Record, 637 (1977), pp. 81–86
3. Benekohal and Zhao, 2000 R.F. Benekohal, W. Zhao; Delay-based passenger car equivalents for trucks at signalized intersections; Transportation Research Part A, 34 (6) (2000), pp. 437–457
4. Cherrett et al., 2012 T. Cherrett, J. Allen, F. McLeod, S. Maynard, A. Hickford, M. Browne; Understanding urban freight activity—key issues for freight planning; Journal of Transport Geography, 24 (2012), pp. 22–32
5. Crainic et al., 2004 T.G. Crainic, N. Ricciardi, G. Storchi; Advanced freight transportation systems for congested urban areas; Transportation Research Part C, 12 (2) (2004), pp. 119–137
6. Dowling et al., 2014 Dowling, R., List, G., Yang, B., Witzke, E., Flannery, A. (2014). NCFRP Report 31: Incorporating truck analysis into the Highway Capacity Manual. Project NCFRP-41. Tranportation Research Board: Washington, D.C.
7. Eisele et al., 2013 Eisele, W.L., Schrank, D.L., Schuman, R., and Lomax, T.J. (2013). Estimating urban freight congestion costs: Methodologies, measures, and applications, No. 13-1344. Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting , January 13-17, Washington, D.C.
8. Fioravanti et al., 2015 Fioravanti, R., Guerrero, P., and Chung Cho, E. (2015). Modeling public policies on urban freight distribution: Tackling emissions, congestion, and logistics costs, No. 15-3578. Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting , January 11-15, Washington, D.C.
9. Habib, 1981 P.A. Habib; Incorporating lane blockages by trucks in intersection analysis and signal timing; Transportation Research Part A, 15 (6) (1981), pp. 459–464
10. Han et al., 2005 L. Han, S.-M. Chin, O. Franzese, H. Hwang; Estimating the impact of pickup- and delivery-related illegal parking activities on traffic; Transportation Research Record, 1906 (2005), pp. 49–55
11. Holguin-Veras et al., 2011 J. Holguin-Veras, K. Ozbay, A. Kornhauser, M. Brom, S. Iyer, W. Yushimito, S. Ukkusuri, B. Allen, M. Silas; Overall impacts of off-hour delivery programs in New York City metropolitan area; Transportation Research Record, 2238 (2011), pp. 68–76
12. Holguin-Veras et al., 2006a J. Holguin-Veras, N. Perez, B. Cruz, J. Polimeni; Effectiveness of financial incentives for off-peak deliveries to restaurants in Manhattan; New York. Transportation Research Record, 1966 (2006), pp. 51–59
13. Holguin-Veras et al., 2007 J. Holguin-Veras, M. Silas, J. Polimeni, B. Cruz; An investigation on the effectiveness of joint receiver—carrier policies to increase truck traffic in the off-peak hours: Part I: The behavior of receivers; Networks and Spatial Economics, 7 (3) (2007), pp. 277–295
14. Holguin-Veras et al., 2008 J. Holguin-Veras, M. Silas, J. Polimeni, B. Cruz; An investigation on the effectiveness of joint receiver—carrier policies to increase truck traffc in the off-peak hours: Part II: The behavior of carriers; Networks and Spatial Economics, 8 (4) (2008), pp. 327–354
15. Holguin-Veras et al., 2006b J. Holguin-Veras, Q. Wang, N. Xu, K. Ozbay, M. Cetin, J. Polimeni; The impacts of time of day pricing on the behavior of freight carriers in a congested urban area: Implications to road pricing; Transportation Research Part A, 40 (9) (2006), pp. 744–766
16. Kawamura et al., 2014 K. Kawamura, P. Sriraj, H. Surat, M. Menninger; Analysis of factors that affect the frequency of truck parking violations in urban areas; Transportation Research Record, 2411 (2014), pp. 20–26
17. Lighthill and Whitham, 1955 M. Lighthill, G. Whitham; On kinematic waves; II. A theory of traffc flow on long crowded roads. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A, 229 (1955), pp. 317–345
18. Palmer and Piecyk, 2010 Palmer, A. and Piecyk, M. (2010). Time, cost and co2 effects of rescheduling freight deliveries. Towards the Sustainable Supply Chain: Balancing the Needs of Business. Economy and the Environment September 8-10.
19. Richards, 1956 P. Richards; Shock waves on the highway; Operations Research, 4 (1) (1956), pp. 42–51
20. Silas and Holguin-Veras, 2009 M. Silas, J. Holguin-Veras; Behavioral microsimulation formulation for analysis and design of off-hour delivery policies in urban areas; Transportation Research Record, 2097 (2009), pp. 43–50
21. Skabardonis et al., 2014 A. Skabardonis, R. Dowling, V. Kiattikomol, C. Safi; Developing improved truck passenger car equivalent values at signalized intersections; Transportation Research Record, 2461 (2014), pp. 121–128
22. Su and Roorda, 2014 Su, F. and Roorda, M.J. (2014). The potential of urban freight consolidation for the Toronto central business district, No. 14-2104. Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting , January 12-16, Washington, D.C.
23. Tipagornwong and Figliozzi, 2015 Tipagornwong, C. and Figliozzi, M.A. (2015). A study of the impacts of commercial vehicle parking availability on service costs and double parking behavior, No. 15-5584. Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting, January 11-15, Washington, D.C.
24. Ukkusuri et al., 2015 Ukkusuri, S.V., Ozbay, K., Yushimito, W.F., Iyer, S., Morgul, E.F., and Holguin-Veras, J. (2015). Assessing the impact of urban off-hour delivery program using city scale simulation models. EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics , DOI 10.1007/s13676-015-0079-3.
25. Yannis et al., 2006 G. Yannis, J. Golias, C. Antoniou; Effects of urban delivery restrictions on traffic movements; Transportation Planning and Technology, 29 (4) (2006), pp. 295–311
26. Zou et al., 2015 Zou, W., Wang, X., Conway, A., and Chen, Q. (2015). Empirical analysis of delivery vehicle on-street parking pattern in Manhattan area. Journal of Urban Planning and Development , 04015017.