Jill Hatcher

Abstract

Freight transportation is essential to economic health in the United States in that it transports all types of goods and materials that support commerce and meet consumer demands. However, the literature strongly suggests that the demand for freight transportation is expected to increase, and at a rate that exceeds the capacities to support such demand. The national highway network was built to accommodate a far smaller national population, and its limited capacity and expansion, coupled with a strong and steady population increase over the last century has borne a myriad of congested highways, increased travel time, increased transportation costs, and significant amounts of harmful air pollutants emitted into the air. Furthermore, the literature also calls for increased inclusion of environmental interactions in transportation decision-making; and this thesis attempts to contribute to that field. This thesis centralizes on the development of a network flow model that utilizes optimization to achieve minimization of travel time, travel costs, and emissions of six ambient air pollutants associated with freight transportation within the I-95 Corridor Region. This model utilizes the Microsoft Excel application and the Premium Solver Platform, and it enables the model user to utilize the powerful tool of optimization to explore intermodal transportation options that quantify variances in emissions outputs, total travel time, and total travel cost. Furthermore, this model intends to demonstrate that the inclusion of environmental emissions in freight transportation planning is a useful, necessary, and beneficial tool in modern transportation decision-making.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Freight and freightage--United States--Environmental aspects; Transportation--Planning--United States--Data processing; Motor vehicles--Motors--Exhaust gas--Environmental aspects--United States; Interstate 95

Publication Date

8-1-2008

Document Type

Thesis

Department, Program, or Center

Department of Science Technology and Society/Public Policy (CLA)

Advisor

Foltz, Franz

Advisor/Committee Member

Corbett, James

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: HE199.U5 H38 2008

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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