Time Savings for Freight Transport in Urban Area

Time savings through use of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and priority for freight transport in urban areas has been sought after by transport companies. In this paper the authors discuss both the possibility to give priority to freight transport and to what extent the transport companies are willing to pay for this potential time savings. Two studies have been carried out to examine the potential time saving in urban areas: priority of freight vehicles in dedicated lanes and priority of freight transport in traffic lights. Both of these initiatives were expected to result in time savings for freight transport and ITS can be an important tool for accomplishing both. In most travel studies the value for an hour spent is considered to be highest for freight transport while private cars and passengers with public transport has a considerably lower time value. In both of the time studies, the time savings were expected to be small, but adding them and potentially expand the effected area would possible result in higher time savings. PRINT has also included a survey to detect the time value estimates from transport companies by interviewing freight transport companies based in Oslo. In this article the authors are also making a brief discussion if several small time savings for freight transport be valued in the same manner as for private and public transport. Will freight vehicles be able to utilize time savings and are they willing to pay for it?