Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
• data about freight and logistics infrastructure to and from which urban freight
activity takes place
• data about loading and unloading operations
and infrastructure for goods
vehicles
• geographical data about goods vehicle trips in urban areas
• data about trips carried out by consumers for the purposes of shopping
• speed and route data for goods vehicles
• data for non-road modes
It should be noted that some of these data gaps exist at the national and regional
as well as the urban scale. In some countries efforts are being made to fill some of
these gaps through national freight data collection (e.g. the KID survey in
Germany and the Company Van survey in the UK to collect data about light goods
vehicle operations). Depending on the sample sizes involved, it may be possible to
disaggregate these national surveys in order to obtain some urban data. In other
cases, specific urban surveys can help to address some of these gaps (such as the
surveys carried out by LET in France during the 1990s).
It would appear that in general there is little resource or desire among local,
regional and national government officials in several of the countries surveyed to
extend urban freight data collection at present. However, this is not the situation in
all countries and cities. In London, for example, Transport for London has
recognised the importance of freight transport in the city and is now making
greater resources available for freight transport initiatives and data collection. The
Transport for London example suggests that senior personnel in government need
to be persuaded of the importance of urban freight transport and, linked to this, the
need for urban freight data collection.
At present, there is a lack of co-ordination between different tiers of govern-
ment in thinking about the collection of urban freight data. By working more
closely together it would be possible for these governmental organisations to
achieve more with their existing resource.
The survey work carried out as part of this report has identified that some urban
freight data publications and reports contain relatively little information about
how the data was collected and processed, and about the reliability of the data.
This can be overcome through ensuring that freight data collection exercises are
well documented. Improved information would assist others in using the data to
make comparisons with data collected in other urban areas (both nationally and
internationally).
It is important to recognise that urban freight data is required for different
purposes. It can be required: (i) to provide an understanding freight operations and
to monitor the effects of policy measures, and (ii) for forecasting with the help of
urban freight models. The use for which the data is required can affect the data
collection methodology, and the quantity of data required. In some urban areas
sufficient urban freight data has been collected in order to have some under-
standing of freight operations, in other urban areas too little data has been collected
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