Urban freight transport demand modelling and data availability constraints

Abstract

The paper provides a review of urban freight transport demand modelling approaches confronted with constrains regarding adequate data provision from a perspective of the local authorities. Demand estimation models has been selected as a reference because they are the most representative in terms of inclusion of urban freight indicators which can be transformed into a decision-support tool for evaluation of freight measures. The main concern is to find a balance between an effort required to create a reliable urban freight analysis framework and transport policy’s objectives. Delivery-based models has been considered as the most promising in terms of possible results and ability to represent different aspects of urban supply chains in a coherent way. As they use a vehicle movement as a descriptor, the results can be presented in measurable way in terms of general transport planning framework.