This report provides information on strategies to address truck emissions and noise at truck freight bottlenecks, including significant highway bottlenecks and truck access to intermodal connectors. The report includes case studies to demonstrate the potential benefits of various mitigation strategies at three locations. The report considers the extent to which emissions reduction and noise reduction strategies may be mutually supportive or work at cross purposes. The report considers challenges to implementation of these strategies and potential solutions to overcome them. Overall, strategies that improve traffic flow and reduce congestion can have meaningful emissions benefits but are not likely to reduce noise. The same is true for strategies to replace older, more polluting trucks with newer, cleaner trucks, although electric trucks provide some noise benefits at low speeds. The potential for reducing truck volumes by improving the efficiency of drayage operations or shifting freight from truck to rail or water depends greatly on local conditions. Noise-specific mitigation strategies, such as noise barriers and quiet pavements, are generally the most effective means of mitigating noise impacts.
