An activity-based freight mode choice microsimulation model

Abstract

This study embarked upon the development of a nationwide freight activity microsimulation as an acceptable analysis tool for policy assessments. Mode choice component of a large-scale behavioral microsimulation framework, named Freight Activity Microsimulation Estimator (FAME) was developed and validated in this study. The results of a nationwide establishment survey, discussed in earlier studies, are used to develop the mode choice model for the entire US. Despite many previous freight mode choice models, the proposed model works at the disaggregate level of firm-to-firm. A new concept for firm-types is implemented in FAME to keep the computational burden at a reasonable level and to diminish the need for highly disaggregated data. A total of 45 206 firm-types were synthesized in the US, among which more than 14·8 billion tonnes of domestic shipments were simulated. Total tonnage, value, and tonne-mile of commodities for each mode were obtained as the final output, which showed a satisfactory match with public freight data in the US.

Keywords:

• Freight modal selection
• Activity-based approach
• Microsimulation

Acknowledgments

This work was (partially) funded by the National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE) based at the University of Wisconsin. National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education is a national university transportation center supported by the US Department of Transportation. Partial funding was also provided by Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). All responsibility for the contents of the paper lies with the authors.