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

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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.