Ohio State researchers are developing solutions for freight truck congestion at U.S. borders.
The research team, led by researchers from Ohio State‘s departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science and Statistics, working in partnership with the University of Arizona, Michigan Tech Research Institute, Michigan Center for Automotive Research and Skycomp, Inc., was awarded a two-year, $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to create the Consortium for Remote Sensing of Traffic Activities.
The consortium team will investigate ways to use sensors and airborne imagery to develop, validate, and feed traffic models and suggest alternative travel strategies for trucks to reduce the time it takes to cross the borders, while ensuring security, especially under conditions of increased truck demand or increased inspection activities. The team will combine information from sensors that determine positioning, timing and navigation with intelligent transportation systems to assess, document and compare delays caused by vehicle inspection at Michigan-Canada and Arizona-Mexico border crossings.
“The Ohio State-led team is building on the expertise developed in an earlier USDOT project where Ohio State and the University of Arizona used aircraft, UAV, and satellite imagery of traffic to develop novel ways to address planning and operations problems,” reports Carolyn Merry, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science. “The goals of this project are to enhance these technologies to mitigate the effects of congestion at border crossings on truck flows.”
Once the researchers have compiled the sensor information, they will develop computer models that can help determine ways to reduce congestion, perhaps by providing information that allows shippers and carriers to shift some of their demand from peak to less congested periods, by diverting demand to alternative crossings, or by helping decision makers evaluate the benefits of staffing more inspection stations.
The work will concentrate on specific sites at the Michigan-Canada and Arizona-Mexico borders, but the methodological developments should be transferable to other border crossing sites, as well. Benefits of improved congestion information and routing and scheduling patterns will be assessed in collaboration with public agencies and private shippers and carriers, and may lead to further automation of border inspections.
Carolyn Merry, Chair, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, (614) 292-3455 or merry.1@osu.eduAug. 30, 2007
