Among transport planning models, freight transport has long been the Cinderella. Despite the critical importance of freight movement and commercial vehicle traffic, the behavioural influences are poorly understood. The typical approach, almost an afterthought, has been to derive a commercial vehicle trip matrix from insufficient count and interview data and apply coarse growth factors for forecasting. Some attempts have been made to relate goods vehicle travel (usually heavy goods) to land use, but with little success. The impetus for a review of best practice came from the 2001 London Area Travel Survey (LATS). The decennial survey collects the data on which transport models for London and Southeast England are based. Goods vehicle modelling is an important issue, and the LATS management was keen to ensure that it would collect data of value. An international review, including specialists from Britain, Australia and the United States, examined the current practice and emerging developments. The outcome was a scheme for a new model structure based on an econometric land use/transportation model, with microsimulation of commodity flows and goods vehicle travel. This paper describes the need for a new approach, the status of international development, the proposed model and the data needs. The latter have been accepted by LATS in developing its survey programme.
Abstract