Project Summary
The San Pedro Bay Ports (SPBP) of Los Angeles and Long Beach in Southern California comprise one of the largest and busiest container port complexes in the world, and contribute significantly to both our regional and national economies. However, the SPBP complex is a major contributor to air pollution. Local communities adjacent to the ports and associated intermodal facilities are believed to bear a disproportionate burden of the health impacts (respiratory and cardiovascular illness, cancer and premature death) associated with this pollution. A particular concern is emissions from heavy duty diesel trucks (HDDTs), or drayage trucks, which form an unusually large proportion of vehicles on nearby freeways and arterials and which carry port cargo (mostly containers) to and from the ports and intermodal rail and transloading facilities. Our existing UCTC research has developed a new modeling approach to evaluate the health and environmental justice impacts of various SPBP freight corridor operations and pollution mitigation strategies. However, our modeling of HDDTs only addresses the freeway network. This research will therefore complete a major missing link by modeling HDDT drayage truck operations on arterial roads, thereby providing new and more accurate insights into the emission impacts of alternative multimodal SPBP freight corridor operations.
