Fusing Freight Analysis Framework and Transearch Data: Econometric Data Fusion Approach with Application to Florida
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 146, Issue 2
Abstract
A major hurdle in freight demand modeling has always been the lack of adequate data on freight movements for different industry sectors for planning applications. Both Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) and Transearch (TS) databases contain annualized commodity flow data. However, the representations of commodity flows in the two databases are inherently different. FAF flows represent estimated transportation network flows, whereas TS flows represent production–consumption commodity flows. This study aims to develop a fused database from FAF and TS to determine transportation network flows at a fine spatial resolution (county level) while accommodating production and consumption behavioral trends (provided by TS). To this end, a joint econometric model framework embedded within a network flow approach and grounded in a maximum-likelihood technique is formulated to estimate county-level commodity flows. The algorithm is implemented for the commodity flow information from 2012 FAF data and 2011 TS databases to generate transportation network flows for 67 counties in Florida. The proposed approach may be able to circumvent the need to purchase expensive TS databases in the future.
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the Florida DOT and was carried out at the University of Central Florida. The content of this paper reflects the views of the authors, who are solely responsible for the facts, opinions, findings, and conclusions presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the Florida DOT.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 146 • Issue 2 • February 2020
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 9, 2018
Accepted: Jun 10, 2019
Published online: Dec 7, 2019
Published in print: Feb 1, 2020
Discussion open until: May 7, 2020
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