Monitoring Urban-Freight Transport Based on GPS Trajectories of Heavy-Goods Vehicles

Abstract

For designing transport policy measures, it is crucial to base decisions on evidence-based insights regarding transport flows and behavior. This article introduces practical indicators for urban transport, that can be derived from large collections of GPS trajectories of heavy-goods vehicles. The indicators framework enables cities, municipalities, and regions to gain insights in the urban transport activities in their region. We motivate our indicators based on the objectives and action plans described in the strategic plan for goods traffic of the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium. We provide a case study on data collected from on-board units of heavy-goods vehicles, which became mandatory in Belgium as part of its dynamic roadpricing scheme in 2016. This work contributes to the exciting new capabilities that are obtained through GPS trajectories data and the possibilities this offers for smart cities at the tactical, operational, and strategic level.

Truck Traffic Flow Prediction Based on LSTM and GRU Methods With Sampled GPS Data

“…GPS data has the potential to produce high prediction accuracy (Gong et al 2012). However, the prediction accuracy will vary based on the spatial coverage, sample size, and data quality (Hadavi et al 2018). Although GPS data come from a large sample of trucks, the data do not necessarily represent all trucks from any region (Laranjeiro et al 2019).…”

Freight distribution in urban areas: a method to select the most important loading and unloading areas and a survey tool to investigate related demand patterns

“…At the city level, instead, the evaluation of vehicles stops could be useful to classify them according to their purpose (work or non-work related) [20], for the optimization of the urban freight transportation system [21], for evaluating delivery performances (e.g. speeds, travel times, delivery times) and fuel consumption and emissions [22] or for the computation of practical indicators helping LAs to gain insights into the urban transport activities [23]. In the current work, GPS traces are instead analyzed to derive two pieces of information: 1) the time that each vehicle loses in congestion in each street that it travels through and 2) the identification of the stops that are made to pick up and deliver goods.…”

Analysis of Accuracy and Reliability of Different Types of GPS Receivers

“…The positioning accuracy of a GNSS, e.g., GPS, has also become critical for assuring the efficiency and safety of both people and cargo transportation [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. There are several known cases of positioning error, leading to serious consequences, sometimes deadly ones [ 6 ]. Therefore, obtaining precise positioning information by means of GPS receivers is paramount.…”

“…Whilst the suggested solution does improve the reliability of GPS receivers as a consequence of higher redundancy, it requires the expansion of the current infrastructure at high cost (for both initial investment and subsequent maintenance). In another paper [ 6 ], the authors discussed the importance of accurate GPS data for formulating transport policy, based on the example of Belgium and the Brussels capital region. They also proposed some indicators concerning with urban transportation, which can be extracted from a wide collection of GPS trajectories of lorries.…”