Synthesis Framework for Generating County-Level Freight Data Using Public Sources for Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis

Abstract

Current publicly available national commodity flow databases have been restricted to the metropolitan level [e.g., freight analysis framework (FAF), Commodity Flow Survey, etc.], which is of little use to regional freight planning. Some local agencies have conducted regional surveys to obtain freight data in areas as small as the travel analysis zone or ZIP code level, but high costs and uncertainties associated with these surveys are hindrances to the availability and usefulness of the data. This paper presents a framework to synthesize high geography resolution freight outbound and inbound shipment data using the publicly existing commodity flow data, primarily FAF. Furthermore, the paper investigates the cross-county interdependency and spatial clusters of shipment generation in terms of spatial autocorrelation by using the generated county-level inbound and outbound flows. The outcome of this study is of two significances: (a) to provide an applicable data synthesis framework that generates the high geography resolution commodity flow data with acceptable accuracy; and (b) to understand the spatial characteristics of commodity flow across counties nationally.