Discovering the origins of freight demand: An empirical investigation of spatial heterogeneity in the generation of heavy-duty truck trips

Abstract

In recent years, the environmental externalities of diesel truck activities on urban life have garnered increased attention. Therefore, many cities are exploring freight transportation infrastructure planning and management measures that minimize disruption to urban living spaces. However, progress remains limited due to an insufficient understanding of the driving factors behind truck travel demands within the city. To address this issue, this study focuses on the generation of heavy-duty truck trips and explores its spatial heterogeneity, which is of particular interest to multiple stakeholders seeking fine-grained freight traffic management. We used continuous trajectory data to extract heavy-duty truck trips and integrated multiple data sources to identify the driving factors behind urban heavy-duty truck trip generation. Results from statistical models revealed that the density of industrial, transshipping, and warehousing enterprises, along with freight hub accessibility, are influential factors in determining heavy-duty truck trip generation. Furthermore, we compared and analyzed heavy-duty truck trip generation intensity across different geographical zones and discovered that the generation intensity was unevenly distributed across space. We also found that the impact of resource processing and large logistics enterprise density on heavy-duty truck trip generation is spatially heterogeneous, with a weaker influence on producing and attracting heavy-duty truck trips in the urban core area. These findings can help local authorities in formulating fine-grained freight traffic management policies based on the freight trip generation mechanism to avoid imposing excessive burdens on logistics enterprises. This work also contributes to the development of sustainable urban freight service systems and help address the potential environmental and social issues arising from heavy-duty freight activities in suburban areas.