Integrative Freight Demand Management in the New York City Metropolitan Area

Previous Research

The proposed work built upon four important projects: "Evaluation Study of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Time of Day Pricing Initiative" (Holguín-Veras et al., 2005a); the "Evaluation Study of the New Jersey Turnpike Pricing Initiative" (Ozbay et al., 2005) the NYSDOT's "Potential for Off-Peak Deliveries to Congested Urban Areas" project (Holguín-Veras et al., 2005b; Holguín-Veras, 2006); and the "Advanced Travelers Information System." Although they are discussed in "Related Proposals," it is important to summarize key findings because they provided the scientific support for the proposal.

The PANYNJ project conducted the evaluation of the impacts of the 2001 toll increases at the PANYNJ facilities on the behavior of both passengers and freight. The data gathered about the behavioral impacts on freight were the only data available in the world about this important subject. The research highlighted that freight pricing, in isolation of other policies, is of limited effectiveness in moving truck traffic to the off-hours. This is because the price signal reaching receivers is of no significance when compared to the marginal costs of moving to the off-hours. Since receivers are the carriers' customers, it is impossible for the carriers to switch to the off-hours without receivers willing to accept deliveries beyond their regular hours.