The Exploratory Advanced Research Program

National Multimodal Freight Analysis Framework Research Workshop

Workshop Summary Report - December 11, 2013

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Executive Summary

On December 11, 2013, at the National Academies of Sciences' Keck Center in Washington, DC, the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Freight Management and Operations and the Exploratory Advanced Research Program hosted a 1-day workshop titled, "National Multimodal Freight Analysis Framework Research."

During the workshop, participants discussed the state of the art, primary gaps in current capabilities, and strategies for addressing these gaps, particularly in the areas of multimodal freight networks freight-demand modeling, and origin–destination (O-D) data disaggregation. The organizers designed the workshop to identify a set of topics for further research and to ultimately inform the development of the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) version 4 (FAF⁴), scheduled for release in late 2015, and beyond.

The objectives of the workshop were to:

• Understand the nature and purpose of FAF.
• Outline a vision for the next generation of freight analysis.
• Agree on primary gaps in current capabilities.
• Create a game plan to address gaps.

Expert speakers presented historical background of the FAF, as well as perspectives on the state of the art in three specialized topics covered in focused sessions. The topic sessions included:

• O-D Generation.
• Multimodal Transportation Network Assignment.
• Multimodal Routable Network Development.

Following the presentations on each of these three topics, the participants—including university, public, and private sector researchers—identified and discussed the most significant shortcomings in the current state of the art for national-level freight analysis and modeling and examined promising near- and long-term technical approaches.

FAF: Gaps in Current Capabilities
At its inception in the late 1990's, FAF was an internal tool for the U.S. Department of Transportation; however, it has gradually become a national resource of use to other researchers. As the Government develops the next generation of FAF, consideration should be given to both current and potential FAF users, their needs, and other possible applications of the FAF. This analysis will help scope the next generation of FAF for greater utility (e.g., for local and regional planners who need a greater level of granularity) and will identify those dimensions that should remain out of scope (e.g., data that raises privacy concerns should not be included in a publicly available FAF).

Workshop participants identified several opportunities regarding new methods for data, as follows:

• Local-level details (e.g., local O-D data, local network data, local truck, local commodity truck, etc.) are not currently captured in the national FAF. Opening data for peer review and creating an architecture that allows information to be passed from the local level to the national level (i.e., establishing ground truth) could increase data validation.

• Data mining could supplement current national-level freight data to capture temporal and seasonal variations or enable tracking of commodity flows—the current FAF displays only in mode-centric, O-D, and annual flows.

• New automated methods for data mani-pulation could mitigate the variability of data quality—collected and reported on a State-by-State basis—and missing data, which limit the ability to support analysis of intermodal and national-level freight flows.

Workshop participants also identified potential opportunities regarding enhancing a national-level model for freight analysis, as follows:

• Agent-based modeling could assist with the implications of cost and the volatility of cost over time and insights into mode choice.

• Aforementioned enhanced data could provide the ability to assign flows along a multimodal routable network, creating a "flowable" network, that is, one that enables tracking of flows from any origin to any destination.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One: Presentations

Welcome, Introductions, and Charge to Participants

Topic Session 1: Freight Analysis Framework Mission, Goal, and Objectives

• Opening Remarks
• Next Generation Freight Analysis Framework Activities
• Open Discussion

Topic Session 2: Origin - Destination Generation

• Opening Remarks
• Open Discussion

Topic Session 3: National Multimodal Network Assignment

• Opening Remarks
• Open Discussion

Topic Session 4: Multimodal Routable Network

• Opening Remarks
• Open Discussion

Part Two: Workshop Conclusions

Research Opportunities

Freight Analysis Framework Issues

Appendix A: Workshop Participants

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

General Terms