In recent years, the reduction of freight truck trips has been a common policy goal. To this end, policies aimed at influencing load consolidation, load factors and increasing maximum truck weight limits have been suggested and implemented, resulting in higher gross vehicle weights.The purpose of such policies has generally been to mitigate congestion and environmental impacts. However, trucks cause most of the damage incurred by highways pavements. The supply chain associated with pavement maintenance and construction releases significant air emissions, raising the question of whether increased vehicle weights may cause unintended environmental consequences. This paper presents case examples with estimated emissions resulting from shifts in load consolidation and increased maximum weight. These examples indicate that increased load factors in local and long-distance freight movement can cause significant increases in emissions of certain pollutants. Emissions associated with pavement construction are also found to increase as a result of pavement design specifications that account for heavier trucks.
In recent years, the reduction of freight vehicle trips during peak hours has been a common policy goal. To this end, policies have been implemented to shift logistics operations to nighttime hours. The purpose of such policies has generally been to mitigate congestion and environmental impacts. However, the atmospheric boundary layer is generally more stable during the night than the day. Consequently, shifting logistics operations to the night may increase 24-hour average concentrations of diesel exhaust pollutants in many locations. This paper presents realistic scenarios for two California cities, which provide exhaust concentration and human intake estimates after temporal redistributions of daily logistics operations. Estimates are made for multiple redistribution patterns, including from
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.