Because transportation investment programs have extended time horizons, state departments of transportation (DOTs) must forecast costs well into the future. This poses a serious challenge: the longer the time horizon, the more uncertainty and risk that forecasted costs will vary from actual, future costs. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 953: Improving Mid-Term, Intermediate, and Long-Range Cost Forecasting: Guidebook for State Transportation Agencies presents...

In recent public policy debates, much emphasis has been placed on proposals to shift freight from highways to rail. This emphasis is based on goals of reducing emissions and highway congestion. However, prudent planning requires an understanding of the basics of mode choices, what could change those choices, and what the impacts will be. The TRB National Cooperative Freight Research Program's NCFRP Research Report 40: Impacts of Policy-Induced Freight Modal Shifts provides public policymakers with the fa...

Guidance to public and private stakeholders on mitigating and adapting to logistical disruptions to supply chains resulting from regional, multi-regional, and national adverse events, both unanticipated and anticipated, is provided in  NCFRP (National Cooperative Freight Research Program) Research Report 39: Freight Transportation Resilience in Response to Supply Chain Disruptions . The report makes a significant contribution to the body of knowledge on freight transportation and system resiliency ...

TRB's National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Research Report 38: Guide for Conducting Benefit-Cost Analyses of Multimodal, Multijurisdictional Freight Corridor Investments explores how to conduct benefit-cost analyses (BCAs). A BCA is an analytical framework used to evaluate public investment decisions including transportation investments. BCA is defined as a collection of methods and rules for assessing the social costs and benefits of alternative public policies. It promotes efficiency b...

TRB's National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Research Report 37: Using Commodity Flow Survey Microdata and Other Establishment Data to Estimate the Generation of Freight, Freight Trips, and Service Trips: Guidebook provides policy makers with improved establishment-level models that estimate the Freight Trip Generation (FTG), the number of vehicle trips produced and attracted at a given establishment; the Freight Production (FP), the amount of cargo produced by the establishment; and the S...

TRB's National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 36: Enhancing Sleep Efficiency on Vessels in the Tug/Towboat/Barge Industry provides best practices to improve an operator's sleep and reduce operator fatigue in the United States inland waterway industry, including the use of anchor-sleep/nap-sleep strategies. NCFRP Report 36 identifies and describes the metrics that could be used to evaluate current operational interventions (e.g., educational materials and programs; noise abatement; sl...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCFRP) Report 35: Implementing the Freight Transportation Data Architecture: Data Element Dictionary provides the findings of the research effort to develop a freight data dictionary for organizing the myriad freight data elements currently in use. A product of this research effort is a web-based freight data element dictionary hosted by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). The project web page includes a l...

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 34: Evaluating Alternatives for Landside Transport of Ocean Containers explores a method for evaluating alternatives to diesel trucks for ocean container transport to or from deep-water ocean ports and inland destinations within 100 miles.

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 33: Improving Freight System Performance in Metropolitan Areas: A Planning Guide outlines potential strategies and practical solutions for public and private stakeholders to improve freight movement system performance in diverse metropolitan areas. The report includes links to an Initiative Selector tool to aid in the selection of possible alternatives for various problems, and Freight Trip Generation (FTG) software that planners can use ...

TRB’s National Freight Cooperative Research Program (NCFRP) Report 32: Integrating MTS Commerce Data with Multimodal Freight Transportation Performance Measures to Support MTS Maintenance Investment Decision Making investigates the feasibility of evaluating potential navigation operation and maintenance projects on the Marine Transportation System (MTS) as they relate to both waterborne commerce and landside freight connections.