How can you evaluate transportation policies' impact on freight movement?

1 Define the objectives and scope

The first step in evaluating transportation policies' impact on freight movement is to define the objectives and scope of the analysis. What are the main goals and criteria that you want to achieve or measure with the policy? For example, do you want to reduce congestion, emissions, accidents, or costs related to freight transportation? Or do you want to improve accessibility, reliability, efficiency, or competitiveness of freight transportation? How do these objectives align with the broader vision and strategy of your city or region? Also, what is the spatial and temporal scale of the analysis? Do you want to focus on a specific corridor, mode, sector, or commodity? Or do you want to capture the whole freight system and its interactions with other modes and activities? Defining the objectives and scope will help you narrow down the relevant policy options, indicators, and data sources for your evaluation.

2 Review the existing policies and data

The second step is to review the existing policies and data related to freight movement in your city or region. What are the current regulations, incentives, programs, or projects that affect freight transportation? How are they implemented and enforced? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they compare with the best practices or benchmarks from other cities or regions? You can use various sources of information, such as official documents, reports, surveys, interviews, or stakeholder consultations, to gather this information. Also, what are the available data and methods to measure and monitor freight movement? What are the data sources, quality, coverage, and frequency? What are the methods and models to estimate and forecast freight demand, supply, performance, costs, benefits, and externalities? You can use various tools, such as freight surveys, traffic counts, GPS data, network models, economic models, or environmental models, to collect and analyze this data. Reviewing the existing policies and data will help you identify the gaps and opportunities for improvement in your freight transportation system.

5 Communicate and disseminate the results and recommendations

The final step is to communicate and disseminate the results and recommendations of your evaluation. You need to prepare and present the results and recommendations in a clear, concise, and convincing way, using various formats and channels, such as reports, summaries, graphs, tables, maps, or infographics. You also need to tailor the results and recommendations to different audiences and stakeholders, such as policy makers, planners, operators, shippers, receivers, or the public, and address their needs, interests, and concerns. You also need to solicit and incorporate their feedback and suggestions, and foster dialogue and collaboration among them. Communicating and disseminating the results and recommendations will help you inform and influence the decision making and implementation of the transportation policies on freight movement.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?