Knowledge CentreTechnical Resources SearchConference PapersWhat Can We Do to Improve Urban Goods Movement Data Collection in Canada? (Findings of the TAC Project on the Framework for the Collection of High Quality Data on Urban Goods Movement)

What Can We Do to Improve Urban Goods Movement Data Collection in Canada? (Findings of the TAC Project on the Framework for the Collection of High Quality Data on Urban Goods Movement)

Abstract

Urban goods movement contributes significantly to a region’s economic development and wellbeing. However, much less attention is paid to this contribution, and to goods movement’s impact on urban transportation problems and solutions, than to passenger movement. Related to this is the relative paucity of data that characterize urban goods movement. To this end, in 2006 the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) initiated a project that aims to develop a framework for collecting “high quality” urban goods movement data. The work was divided into two phases. Phase 1, completed in late 2007, reviewed existing data sources and identified needs as expressed in the literature. One key finding is that although the focus of the research is on urban goods movement, there is a strong interaction with inter-urban freight transportation, and so it is necessary to consider both. Despite the availability of several sources, a second key finding was that these data are disparate and often incompatible. Thus there are both many gaps and a lack of a single, nationwide source of data: to this end, Phase 1 also developed a user needs survey. Phase 2 was initiated in late 2008. It administered the user needs survey to Canadian governments, participants in the supply chain and selected academics and others who are involved with urban goods data. Phase 2 also followed up with some recent developments in Canada and overseas, in order to develop the final study product: [a] a framework for collecting high quality urban goods data, and [b] a strategy for implementing the framework. The framework is a practical adaptation of a concept that has been proposed for the United States. At the core of the framework and the strategy is the need for a nation-wide commodity flow survey (CFS), which is intended [a] to meet a significant gap while [b] complementing existing urban and inter-urban data surveys within the context [c] of a systematic data collection framework. Phase 1 was reported at the October 2007 TAC Annual Conference. This paper reports on the key findings of Phase 2, specifically, the framework and the strategy for implementing it. The paper considers the proposed CFS, but – given the comprehensiveness of a CFS and the need for some preparatory work – also identifies immediate, relatively low-cost actions that could do much to improve the state of urban goods movement data quickly and broadly.  

Conference Paper Details

Session title:
URBAN FREIGHT MOVEMENT AND TRADE GATEWAYS: CHANGING THE PARADIGM
Author(s):
David Kriger
Matthew McCumber
Kornel Mucsi
Topics:
Transportation planning
Year:
2016