Integration of a Freight Module in a Transport Modelling Approach for the Evaluation of Global Planning Scenario

Urban freight transport represents one of the major issues of mobility policies for the coming years. It represents a performance indicator for major European cities and a criterion of competitiveness for local companies. As of now, local institutional stakeholders would like to extend the ex-ante evaluation to transport projects and policies related to the transport of goods. This preoccupation is even bigger in the Marseille stakeholders’ minds who are concerned by both urban and seaport issues in relation with goods transport. The current model developed in the Marseille area only simulates light vehicles movements. So, to deal with this problem, the first piece of work consists in integrating a freight module in this transport model in order to simulate flows of vehicles transporting goods. The city of Marseille and its seaport provide a relevant case of application for this exercise. The objective of this work is to improve the consideration of goods transport issues: its knowledge, its integration in modelling and the ex-ante evaluation of global transport projects and policies (inc. cars and trucks). Three main steps have structured the authors work. The first one involves becoming familiar with the movement (pickups and deliveries) of heavy goods vehicles. This step allows estimating travel demand related to goods transport using an urban freight transport model. Secondly, the freight transport demand matrix is integrated as input data for the model. The last step consists in evaluating planning scenarios through the “complete model” by analysing the impacts of each one of them (in terms of traffic, emissions, noise, etc.) and choosing the most suitable scenario. At this stage, and in regards to the results of the application case, the aim is to highlight the limits and possibilities of such a model for a potential use by various transport stakeholders. This paper describes the first coupling test between urban freight transport model and a passenger model. Adding a component “freight transport” to the model allows the testing of supply scenarios from both passengers and freight points of view, and leads consequently to a more integrated approach to urban freight.