Local area freight networks (LANs) are used to collect and distribute freight within metropolitan regions. Focusing on common carriers, this paper classifies LAN topologies, then shows how the optimal topology depends on demand characteristics. Continuous space approximations are used to analyze topologies as well as to analyze the relationship between cost and number of terminals. Key findings are summarized in Table 1.

This is the final report for the project Incident Management:Process Analysis and Improvement.The report summarizes findings from three earlier working papers (1998-31,2000-14 and 2000-15)completed under this project, and provides additional analysis on specific scenarios. This study highlights the importance of the following principles: 1)Response units should be adequate in number to handle anticipated demand. 2)Response units should be strategically located to minimize maximum response times. 3)Especially during busy periods,response units should not be dispatched over long distances.It is better to wait for a closer unit to become available than to waste capacity on overly long response distances. 4)Because response units are frequently mobile,and because response units are frequently busy responding to other incidents,it would be very beneficial for dispatchers to have access to location data.

This report documents the institutional issues that have faced the Orange County probe project, a multi-agency project designed to equip a fleet of buses with Global Positioning System (GPS) based tracking equipment and to use tracking data for multiple purposes. The usefulness of the data involve: 1) bus schedule adherence and fleet management; 2) collection of information on roadway traffic congestion; and, 3) dissemination of transit data to patrons.

The objective of this paper is to develop a throughput model of a multiple- lane Automated Highway System (AHS) with lane changes. The paper uses deterministic approximations to model highway throughput, accounting for both longitudinal and lateral requirements. The model is designed to account for trip-length distributions, and the effect of these distributions on the rate of lane changes between each pair of adjacent lanes. To illustrate fundamental principles, the model is applied to an idealized highway operating under sanitary conditions, both in time and space. Parametric analysis is used to study the effects of design parameters, pertaining to the execution of lane change maneuvers, on capacity.

This paper examines the role of travel time in the choice of transportation technologies. First, the components of travel time are introduced and compared among alternative modes. Next, a series of highway automation concepts is created, and the time benefits of each are discussed. Finally, the effects of automation on highway performance are modeled and evaluated, first looking at the space efficiency of highways, then measuring the benefits of increased capacity and increased velocity.

The paper demonstrates that even simple forms of highway automation can provide important travel time benefits. Automated low-speed and stationary merging can reduce queueing at the entrances to bridges, tunnels and other bottlenecks. And “mini-highways” can reduce delays crossing urbanized areas.

Highway automation may achieve great benefits within a few niche markets. Butthese markets are likely in congested existing cities -- where construction of new conventional highways is all but prohibited -- rather than radically transformed “cities of the future.”

This paper demonstrates how the constraints of overnight delivery affect the design of pickup and delivery systems. Cost depends on the number of vehicle routes needed to pickup and deliver shipments. This number in turn depends on the critical parts of the driver's day: the morning delivery period, up to the delivery deadline, and the afternoon pickup period, after the cutoff time. Pickup routing is the more complicated, due to the dynamic nature of customer calls. Models are developed to assess the workload remaining to be completed at the cutoff time and, from this value, the number of routes required to pick up the shipments.

A critical link in the overnight package business is the on-time arrival of trucks at airport terminals. Truck delays can delay the package sorting and transfer process, which can in turn delay aircraft departures from the local terminal, as well as aircraft departures from hub terminals that depend on timely aircraft arrivals. This paper models the airport terminal as a queueing process with random bulk arrivals. Predictions are provided for expectation, and standard deviation, of arrived work. From these predictions performance measures are developed for sort end-time and sort starvation. Particular attention is given to scheduling the start time for the sorting process, to balance a trade- off between maximizing sort productivity and minimizing the end time of the sort. The methods are being implemented as a web-based scheduling tool.

This report documents findings from a series of studies investigating how Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) could be used to improve the integration of commercial vehicle operations (CVO) with governmental services and regulations within intermodal transportation management centers. After a summary of prior project research, the report gives a review of ITS/CVO technologies. This is followed by results of interviews and focus groups that reveal that trucking companies are willing to invest and participate in projects that possess four basic characteristics: 1) modest investment, 2) no new taxes or user fees, 3) promotes operating eficiency, customer service or safety, and 4) voluntary.