Assignment of Freight Truck Shipment on the U.S. Highway Network

Abstract

With the ever-increasing demand for freight movements, nationwide freight shipments between geographical regions by freight trucks need to be investigated since they comprise the largest share of total freight movements in the United States. To this end, the procedures for freight truck shipment demand network assignment on the entire U.S. highway network considering congestion effect are discussed, and the results are explained in detail, with visual illustrations. A fundamental traffic assignment model with a convex combinations algorithm is proposed to solve the nationwide freight truck shipment assignment problem under the user equilibrium principle. A link cost function is modified, considering the traffic volume that already exists on U.S. highways. A case study is conducted using big data including the entire U.S. highway network and freight shipment information in 2007. Total and average freight shipment costs for both truck and rail transportation for a specific origin–destination pair in the database are computed to compare the characteristics of these two major freight transportation modes in the United States. Application of the proposed model could be possible to address many other related problems, such as improvement of highway infrastructure, and reductions in traffic congestion and vehicle emissions.