Developing integrated microsimulation models for intra-urban, inter-regional and cross-border freight transportation: an application to Ontario, Canada

与许多工业化国家的情况一样，加拿大的货运在过去15年中有了很大的增长。全球化、对廉价商品的需求以及我们的市场对集装箱货物运输的依赖推动了这一增长。评估一个城市和地区之间的货物运输的影响正成为决策者面临的紧迫问题之一。目前关于货运运动和运输系统性能之间关系的知识非常有限。这方面知识的缺乏会影响我们未来的生活质量。因此，有必要在这一领域开展积极的研究计划。在加拿大的背景下，安大略省是研究货运运动的沃土。安大略省是加拿大的经济中心。因此，大量的货物运输和卡车运输发生在安大略省不同的当地市场、港口、过境点和卡车通道内部和之间。迄今为止，对安大略省的货运旅行进行广泛研究的工作很少。因此，本研究计划的具体目标如下：推进安大略省货运运动知识的现状；收集和分析公司层面的（微观）货运数据，重点是温莎；解释托运人的运输行为、使用的运输模式以及影响货物表现（例如跨境延误）和运输的因素；开发综合计算机程序（即模拟模型），为安大略省的货物运输提出可持续的战略。提出的研究计划的新颖性有两个方面：(1)这项工作将依赖于微观层面的数据。在加拿大，收集和分析这些详细数据的工作很少，(2)研究项目旨在开发和应用一套综合货运模型。据我们所知，这是第一次尝试将模拟城市内、区域间和跨境货运过程的模型结合起来。这种方法将提供更多的现实性，并提高模型的预期结果。总的来说，这项研究计划将推动运营模式的发展，这些模式是行为的，政策敏感的，适合长期货运旅行规划。

Freight transportation in Canada, as is the case in many industrialized countries, has grown substantially over the past 15 years. Globalization, the demand for cheap commodities and the reliance of our markets on cargo shipped by containers have fuelled this growth. Assessing the impacts of freight movement in a city and between regions is becoming one of the pressing issues for decision makers. The current knowledge on the relationship between freight movement and the performance of transportation systems is very limited. The lack of knowledge in this area can impact our quality of life in the future. Therefore, there is a need for an active research program in this area. In the Canadian context, the Province of Ontario is fertile ground for research on freight movement. Ontario is the economic heartland of Canada. As such, a lot of goods movement and trucking takes place within and between Ontario's different local markets, ports, border crossing points and truckway corridors. To date, little has been done to extensively study freight travel in Ontario. Accordingly, the specific objectives of this research program are as follows: advance the current state of knowledge on freight movement in Ontario; collect and analyze firm-level (micro) data on freight transportation with emphasis on Windsor; Explain the travel behaviour of shippers, the modes used and the factors affecting the performance (e.g. cross-border delays) and movement of cargo; Develop integrated computer programs (i.e. simulation models) to propose sustainable strategies for goods movement in Ontario. The novelty of the proposed research program is twofold: (1) the work will rely on micro-level data. Little has been done to collect and analyze such detailed data in Canada, (2) the research program seeks to develop and apply a suite of integrated freight models. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to combine models that simulate intra-urban, inter-regional and cross-border freight transportation processes. This approach will provide more realism and enhance the expected outcomes of the models. Overall, this research program will push forward the development of operational models that are behavioural, policy sensitive and suitable for long-term freight travel planning.