Project Summary
As a subcontractor to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Irvine (ITS-Irvine) will lead Task 1 as described in the main proposal, to develop a National Freight Data Hub. This will provide a unique national platform for collecting, storing, processing, and visualizing of freight performance measurement and analysis, using both direct data collection as well as third party and secondary sources. Performance is viewed in both economic and operational terms. The data will be made available to other researchers and policy analysts in state and local agencies, as well as be disseminated periodically through a regularly updated web portal. It lies at the core of a comprehensive research program undertaken at all partner institutions, providing a national picture built from local and regional perspectives obtained by our geographically distributed partners. In addition, ITS-Irvine will contribute to Task 2. Logistics Systems Innovations and Modeling, bringing recent research on heavy-duty zero-emission operation of port drayage and long haul tracking to the project. In Task 3. Intermodal Freight and Energy Infrastructures, ITS-Irvine will contribute expertise on renewable energy infrastructures, ports and intermodal facilities, and resilient and sustainable supply chains, by drawing on prior and concurrent research and advising on potential new solutions. ITS-Irvine’s role in Task 4. Computation Platform as a Virtual Testbed will generally be advisory in nature, offering guidance based upon prior experience modeling freight systems.