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Off-Hour Delivery In NYC

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Off-Hour Delivery In NYC

START YEAR: 2010

COMPLETION YEAR: 2013

TOPIC(S): Off-Hour Delivery

PRIMARY CONTACT(S):

  • José Holguín-Veras,
  • Jeffrey Wojtowicz

PARTNER(S):

  • New York City Department of Transportation,
  • Rutgers University

SPONSORS/FUNDING:

  • US Department of Transportation
Off Hour Delivery Project

OVERVIEW

Urban freight transportation is crucial to the quality of modern life, though at the same time it produces significant negative externalities. Despite the relatively small proportion of freight with respect to all traffic, urban freight movements are increasingly recognized as significant forces of influence on urban transportation systems and urban economic vitality. A range of freight system management strategies have been tried and implemented with various degrees of success throughout the world. Some of these strategies are carrier-centered, such as the use of cooperative delivery systems, which change the logistical aspects of carrier operations, but do not affect the actual underlying demand. As a result, their influence tends not to extend beyond carriers, to other aspects of urban transportation systems. At the other end of the spectrum, receiver-centered traffic demand management (TDM) measures attempt to change the nature of the actual demand for the cargo. These policies take advantage of the fact that receivers—by virtue of being the carriers’ customers—have a great deal of power over when and how deliveries are made. Carriers must respect receivers’ wishes if they want to stay in business.

The Off-Hour Delivery (OHD) project is an innovative example of receiver-centered freight TDM. This initiative relies on incentives (financial or otherwise) to induce receivers to accept deliveries in the off-hours (7PM to 6AM). Since the incentives remove the opposition of the receivers, and the carriers are generally in favor, entire supply chains can switch to the off-hours, and the effect of these shifts reverberate through entire supply chains. The NYC OHD project has been implemented in stages. After a successful pilot phase that concluded in 2010, the Research and Innovative Technology (RITA) sponsored implementation phase (Integrative Freight Demand Management in the New York City Metropolitan Area: Implementation Phase) was launched in June 2011. Although this is technically the implementation phase, it should be noted that the term ‘launch phase’ may be more appropriate. The reason for this is that for a proper and successful implementation of an off-hour delivery program a sustained effort over a long period of time is required. After all, the program aims at transforming supply chains, which requires profound modifications of business practices. This report documents the key aspects and findings, impacts and influence of the OHD project, through the implementation phase which concluded in September 2013.

KEY FINDINGS

  • Substantial receiver reluctance or opposition to the program was based on the perceived risk associated with vendors having unaccompanied access to their premises while making off-hour deliveries
  • Possible effects on the community of noise emissions from delivery operations taking place at night and ways to address the noise issue
  • The benefits of targeting receivers in the most congested part of the cities
  • A combination of small toll increases, combined with targeted incentives, could have a dramatic effect on urban congestion

KEY PRODUCTS

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS

CONTRIBUTING TEAM MEMBERS

RELATED PROJECTS

  • Development of a Trusted Vendor Program to Support the Off-Hour Delivery Program

Measuring the Impacts of Social Media on Advancing Public Transit

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Measuring the Impacts of Social Media on Advancing Public Transit

START YEAR: 

COMPLETION YEAR: 2016

TOPIC(S): Smart Transportation Systems

PRIMARY CONTACT(S):

  • O. A. Elrahman
  • Xuegang (Jeff) Ban

PARTNER(S):

  • Transportation Research and Education
  • Center (TREC) at Portland State University (PSU)

SPONSORS/FUNDING:

  • National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC)
Smart Transportation section

OVERVIEW

This project seeks to develop performance measures for assessing the impacts of social media on promoting public transit. Revolutionary changes have occurred in the communication landscape, and there has been a rapid diffusion of social media use as a means of communicating transit information to the public. Significant resources are being directed to the use of social media in communication, yet little effort exists to measure the impacts of these popular vehicles of communication. Rarely studied is the role of social media in achieving the overarching goals of advancing the mission of transit agencies through increasing recruitment and retention of transit riders; increasing resources and customer satisfaction; addressing system issues, performance efficiency and effectiveness; and improving employee productivity and morale. There is a need to measure the impacts of social media and account for the cost effectiveness of its wide use as a means of communication in public transit agencies. This research intends to extend understanding about whether investments in social media tools effectively achieve their intended purposes.

KEY TASKS

  • Identify social media-related measures for public transit agencies that can comprehensively capture the impacts of social media use on agency performance
  • Review of the research and practice literature to document findings in other fields on performance measures used to assess the impacts of social media
  • Survey a random sample of public transit agencies nationwide to target identifying performance measures currently used to document impacts
  • Identify a list of performance measures that are most effective for transit agencies

KEY FINDINGS

  • Current performance metrics for social media programs are limited and insufficient
  • Transit agencies use social media mainly to communicate timely service information and get feedback from customers through multiple platforms
  • Transit agencies consider transit-related livability and sustainability benefits to be valuable information to communicate through social media
  • We propose a conceptual performance metrics framework for developing constructive social media program metrics that focus on reach, insights, engagement, and efficiency

KEY PRODUCTS

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS

CONTRIBUTING TEAM MEMBERS

RELATED PROJECTS

Remote Sensing Decision Support System for Optimal Access Restoration in Post Disaster Environments

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Remote Sensing Decision Support System for Optimal Access Restoration in Post Disaster Environments

START YEAR:

COMPLETION YEAR: 2017

TOPIC(S): Disaster Response

PRIMARY CONTACT(S):

  • José Holguín-Veras

PARTNER(S):

  • New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT)
  • Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

SPONSORS/FUNDING:

  • U.S. Department of Transportation
Remote Sensing Decision Support System for Optimal Access Restoration in Post Disaster Environments Project

OVERVIEW

The project’s main goal is to develop a state-of-the-art Decision Support System (DSS) that, using network condition and disaster impact assessments provided by Commercial Remote Sensing (CRS), will compute optimal Access Restoration Plans (ARP). This will help responders optimally use their scarce resources to orchestrate the road openings, road repairs, and other similar actions; and subdivide the work so that multiple groups could seamlessly cooperate to reach maximum effectiveness. The DSS will process multi-modal temporal data feeds (GIS, social media feeds, etc.) to update estimates of disaster impacts, and will use modern optimization procedures to update the ARP as new data becomes available. To achieve the overall goal, the team will collaborate to:

  • Develop a Commercial Remote Sensing (CRS) Module that allows emergency response personnel and planners to produce rapid and accurate assessments of network conditions and disaster impacts by integrating multi-modal/multi-temporal data
  • Develop an Optimization Module and the Decision Support System (DSS) to produce an Optimal Access Restoration Plan using appropriate priority metrics
  • Create a DSS that is smoothly transitioned to practice, fully validated, and useful to responders. These tasks will ensure that the DSS meets the expectations of the end users, in terms of ease of use, quality of results, and usefulness. This will be accomplished by means of creating a Technical Advisory Council, a vigorous process of outreach and validation, and a solid process of training and transition to implementation
  • Develop appropriate procedures for integration of multiple responder groups. This objective seeks to facilitate the integration of multiple responder groups (such as nearby DOTs that send equipment like plow trucks and loaders to help the effort) to the overall effort of access restoration

KEY TASKS

  • Assessment of the CRS technologies for use on debris and flood classification
  • Development of algorithms for location, classification, and quantification of debris/flood occurrences
  • Development of procedures to integrate multi-modal/temporal data to assess disaster impacts
  • Development of algorithms and scripts to geo-locate estimates of network conditions and disaster impacts
  • Review, evaluate, and select applicable priority metrics
  • Develop and improve the Optimization Module
  • System Integration of the CRS and Optimization Modules to create the Decision Support System (DSS)
  • Creation of Technical Advisory Council (TAC)
  • Review current practices

KEY FINDINGS

  • Developed CRS technologies to implement algorithms to detect obstructions to the roadway
  • Considered 5 different metrics (population, private cost, time, deprivation time and cost, and social costs)
  • Recognize that each metric could lead to different results
  • Suggest procedures to let the users of the DSS select the most appropriate metric

KEY PRODUCTS

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS

CONTRIBUTING TEAM MEMBERS

  • Felipe Aros-Vera

RELATED PROJECTS

Cyber Enabled Discovery System for Advanced Multidisciplinary Study of Humanitarian Logistics for Disaster Response

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Cyber Enabled Discovery System for Advanced Multidisciplinary Study of Humanitarian Logistics for Disaster Response

START YEAR: 2012

COMPLETION YEAR: 2017

TOPIC(S): Disaster Response, Network Modeling

PRIMARY CONTACT(S):

  • José Holguín-Veras

PARTNER(S):

  • University of Delaware
  • Virginia Polytechnic Institute

SPONSORS/FUNDING:

  • National Science Foundation Information and Intelligent Systems (NSF-IIS)
Remote Sensing Decision Support System for Optimal Access Restoration in Post Disaster Environments Project

OVERVIEW

This project is concerned with the development of an integrative “Cyber Enabled Discovery System for Advanced Multidisciplinary Study of Humanitarian Logistics for Disaster Response.” As part of the work, transportation, computer, mathematical, and social scientists will collaborate to:

  • Create new paradigms of humanitarian logistic (HL) models that explicitly consider two key aspects not studied by current techniques: deprivation costs (DC), and material convergence (MC)
  • Develop appropriate models to represent human suffering as a DC
  • Explicitly consider DC in the key HL decision models
  • Develop analytical models to quantify/influence the amount, type, and arrival patterns of donations
  • Gain insight into the links between media framing of needs and MC
  • Define mechanisms to modify donor behavior
  • Develop algorithms and heuristics to solve the formulations developed

The goals of this project are:

  • To develop a new generation of computable HL models capable of explicitly considering the impacts of delivery actions on DCs, and able to integrate the real time estimates of MC produced by the cyber enabled discovery system in the definition of proper control procedures
  • To predict—on the basis of real (or quasi) time analysis of media reports—the flow of goods to the disaster site. Predictions would integrate all media data (e.g., news, websites, social networks), and a predictive model based on responses to previous similar disasters
  • To qualitatively and quantitatively explain the relationship between media framing of needs and MC, and suggest response strategies to better react/influence, media-driven MC

KEY TASKS

  • Incorporation of DC in HL models
  • Identification of the linkages between media framing and MC, both qualitatively and quantitatively
  • Development of cyber tools to estimate donation amounts, types, and arrival patterns
  • Definition of control procedures to influence donation behavior
  • Integration of MC estimates and DC into HL
  • Conceptual validation of the models
  • Educational activities/Outreach to practitioners/Curricular changes

KEY FINDINGS

KEY PRODUCTS

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS

CONTRIBUTING TEAM MEMBERS

RELATED PROJECTS

Improving Freight System Performance in Metropolitan Areas

By

Improving Freight System Performance in Metropolitan Areas

START YEAR: 2012

COMPLETION YEAR: 2014

TOPIC(S): Sustainable Freight Systems, Urban Freight, Transportation Planning

PRIMARY CONTACT(S):

  • José Holguín-Veras,
  • Jeffrey Wojtowicz

PARTNER(S):

  • CDM Smith,
  • New York City Department of Transportation,
  • HDR,
  • Michael Browne

SPONSORS/FUNDING:

  • The National Cooperative Freight Research Program Project 38 (NCFRP 38)
Initiative Selector

OVERVIEW

This project focuses on freight systems as a crucial economic and quality of life contributor, and a major source of environmental pollution, unwanted noise, and safety hazards. The primary goal of this project is to improve the overall performance of the urban freight industry.

The project will define a pragmatic and conceptually well-grounded planning guide that includes both supply and demand strategies (including hybrids), that is supported by solid guidelines to establish effective and proactive stakeholder engagement processes and software tools to estimate freight trip generation in urban areas. The project will provide practitioners with comprehensive, pragmatic, and actionable guidelines on how to plan, design, and implement both supply and demand strategies.

The public sector strategies (both supply and demand side) to be considered in the project will seek to achieve one or several of the following objectives:

  • Reduce Congestion: Public agencies seek to reduce delays by either increasing capacity (which may induce demand and a return of congestion in the long term) or managing demand. This is an important objective because congestion delays are correlated with air pollution externalities, as well as economic inefficiency.
  • Environmental Sustainability: The desire is to minimize environmental impacts, e.g., emissions, associated with freight activity. Often correlated with congestion reduction, it is not necessarily a cause and effect relationship; for instance, fostering the use of alternative fuels, efficient engines, and electric trucks reduces environmental impacts without impacting congestion.
  • Enhance Safety: The main intent is to reduce the risk/severity of accidents. This is an important objective, particularly for local communities that tend to think of freight activity as the cause of traffic accidents.
  • Enhance Security: In this case, transportation decision makers are looking to improve the ability of the freight system to repel security attacks that may compromise life and property, and to enhance the resiliency of the system to manmade or natural threats.
  • Enhance Economic Competitiveness: The desired intent here is to foster economic activity in the study area. For instance, by means of freight-friendly land use policies, or by enhancing the efficiency of freight related economic activities.
  • Revenue Generation: Increasingly transportation agencies are seeking to use fees and other forms of payment transfers to generate funds that can enhance the capabilities of the metropolitan area to perform its duties.
  • Enhance Livability: These considerations seek to preserve the community culture, foster a positive synergy between business and residents, and seamlessly integrate freight activity into the fabric of the local communities.

KEY TASKS

  • Identify and Summarize Applicable Research
  • Identify Strategies and Initiate Stakeholder Engagement
  • Identify Obstacles and Successes
  • Prepare Interim Report
  • Develop a Draft Planning Guide
  • Develop Software Tool to Estimate Freight Trip Generation
  • Gather Input from Stakeholders
  • Revise the Draft Planning Guide
  • Conduct Workshop
  • Finalize and Disseminate the Planning Guide
  • Produce Final Report

KEY FINDINGS

  • FG and FTG are very different concepts: their modeling approaches follow different principles
  • Using constant FTG rates is bound to produce large estimation errors
  • Employment and establishment area are good variables to explain FG and FTG
  • The type of economic activity is a key variable to estimate FTG
  • Industry sectors are better proxies of economic activities than land use
  • The aggregation procedure should be determined according to the disaggregated model specification

KEY PRODUCTS

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS

  • Holguín-Veras, J., Amaya, J., Sanchez-Diaz, I., Gonzalez-Calderon, C., Jaller, M., Wojtowicz, J., Wang, C., Browne, M., Hodge S., and Rhodes, S. Strategies to Improve Urban Freight Systems
  • Presentation at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN
  • Presentation at the Fifth International Urban Freight Conference INUF-METRANS in Long Beach, CA

CONTRIBUTING TEAM MEMBERS

  • Cara Wang
  • Johanna Amaya Leah
  • Ivan Sanchez-Diaz
  • Carlos González-Calderón
  • Miguel Jaller

RELATED PROJECTS

  • Effective Decision-Making Methods for Freight-Efficient Land Use
  • Collaborative Approaches to Foster Energy-Efficient Logistics in the Albany-New York City Corridor

Freight Transportation Cost Data Element

By

Freight Transportation Cost Data Element

START YEAR: 2010

COMPLETION YEAR: 2012

TOPIC(S): Freight Modeling

PRIMARY CONTACT(S):

  • José Holguín-Veras,
  • Jeffrey Wojtowicz

PARTNER(S):

  • Jack Faucett Associates, Inc.,
  • A. Strauss-Wieder, Inc.,
  • TNO

SPONSORS/FUNDING:

  • The National Cooperative Freight Research Program Project 26 (NCFRP 26)
NCFRP Report 22

OVERVIEW

Freight Data Cost Elements identifies the specific types of direct freight transportation cost data elements required for public investment, policy, and regulatory decision-making. The report also describes and assesses different strategies for identifying and obtaining the needed cost data elements. The key objectives of the project are to:

  • Identify the specific types of direct freight transportation cost data elements required for public investment, policy, and regulatory decision-making; and
  • Describe and assess the different strategies needed to identify and obtain these cost data elements

KEY TASKS

  • Identify and describe the state of the practice for current multimodal freight transportation cost data uses, sources, methods, collection strategies, and data elements for public-sector planning and decision-making
  • Identify current and evolving public-sector freight transportation planning and decision-making functions and the cost data currently used, or that might be used, to support those functions. Describe the key freight transportation cost data elements required for public-sector planning and decision-making
  • Identify primary and secondary freight transportation cost data sources and assess their applicability to the key requirements identified in Task 2. Discuss data issues and limitations, including data accuracy, privacy, antitrust issues and other constraints, as well as conceptual collection strategies. Discuss methods for closing any identified gaps
  • Identify available cost estimation tools, methods, and procedures, and their applicability to the key requirements identified in Task 3. Discuss strengths and weaknesses and identify methods for closing any gaps
  • Submit a final report that (1) identifies the specific types of direct freight transportation cost data elements required for public investment, policy, and regulatory decision-making and (2) describes and assesses different strategies for identifying and obtaining the needed cost data elements

KEY FINDINGS

  • FG and FTG are very different concepts: their modeling approaches follow different principles
  • Using constant FTG rates is bound to produce large estimation errors
  • Employment and establishment area are good variables to explain FG and FTG
  • The type of economic activity is a key variable to estimate FTG
  • Industry sectors are better proxies of economic activities than land use
  • The aggregation procedure should be determined according to the disaggregated model specification

KEY PRODUCTS

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS

CONTRIBUTING TEAM MEMBERS

  • Carlos González-Calderón

RELATED PROJECTS