Title: Development of a Freight Analysis Framework for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area
Abstract: This paper describes how freight transportation is the backbone of the United States economy and it is critical for the daily operations of every business in the United States. Because of the United States’ dependency on freight transportation, it is vital for transportation decision makers to properly maintain the transportation infrastructure to meet the growing demand for freight capacity. In order for these decision makers to identify problem areas for freight transportation, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) created the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF). The major constraint of the FAF is that it only concentrates on the major metropolitan areas of the United States and ignores smaller metropolitan areas. The objective of this research was to create a freight analysis framework for the Kansas City metropolitan area so that the state government agencies will be able to properly plan for future increases in freight traffic, and identify current issues and future trends regarding freight transportation. The objective was accomplished through a four-step approach including literature review, data collection, data analysis, and development of the Kansas Freight Analysis Framework (KFAF). The KFAF is a commodity-destination database that estimates tonnage and value of goods shipped by the type of transportation modes. In addition, it gives projections and forecasts of commodities in the Kansas City area. There are 43 commodities ranging from live animals to furniture and even electronics. The transportation modes include truck, rail, air, water, truck & rail, air & truck, and other intermodal. The framework of the developed KFAF is easily adaptable and can be used to develop a freight analysis model for other cities in the United States once reliable freight data become available.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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