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82 Port-Area and Port Access Congestion Port-area road capacity and congestion have become a serious problem, particularly where growth in both port traffic and surrounding urban traffic has outpaced road and highway capac- ity. Marine container terminals are typically established away from congested urban centers in areas with relatively little development. Over time, however, the area around the terminal fills in with industrial and commercial development. Both the marine terminal and the adjacent land uses generate a growing volume of traffic, and denser development makes road improvements more difficult and costly. Reliability and predictability of port-area road conditions and travel times also are a factor in min- imizing gate congestion and queuing. For example, a drayage driver facing a predictable 1-hour trip to a terminal gate that opens at 8 A.M. can leave at about 7 A.M. and arrive at the gate on time. If the drive takes anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes, however, the driver will have to leave at 6:30 A.M. and frequently will have to wait for the terminal gate to open. Container trucks are heavy. Roads serving marine terminals require heavier duty construc- tion and more maintenance than ordinary arterials. If they are not built and maintained to ade- quate standards, they will deteriorate rapidly. Many port and rail terminal access roads are inadequate for their current purpose, and create delays, damage, and safety problems for drayage operations. Congestion on urban arterials and freeways can affect any drayage move that extends beyond the immediate port area. The scope of the âimmediate port areaâ varies by port. Houston has two well-defined terminal areasâBarbours Cut and Bayport. In contrast, the âport areaâ for the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach covers a zone about 5 miles wide and 20 miles deep, about 100 square miles, in which port drayage trips are a permanent part of the surface traffic. As Figure 11â1 and Figure 11â2 illustrate, many port drayage trips extend far beyond the port area. The distribution for PANYNJ (Figure 11â1) reflects clustering of importers, exporters, and related drayage trip generators near the port and a broader hinterland about 200â300 miles away. The distribution for LALB (Figure 11â2) is much tighter, with around 60% of the trips contained within the 20-mile-deep port area, and most of the rest moving to and from other ports of Southern California. The difference is because most longer trips to and from LALB are made by rail; there are few significant population areas in easy trucking distance from the San Pedro Bay ports. The PANYNJ truckers making 200- to 300-mile trips to the hinterland will be using a mix of urban and rural highways and freeways, with a mix of more or less congested conditions. Trips to and from LALB, however, are almost all made over congested urban routes. C H A P T E R 1 1 Congestion on Streets and Highways
Congestion on Streets and Highways 83 Distribution of Containerized Trade within 50 to 400 Mile Radius from Port Elizabeth 1998/99 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 0-50 51-75 76-100 101-200 201-300 301-400 Radius (in Miles) M ar ke t % S ha re Imports Exports Figure 11â1. PANYNJ drayage distances. Figure 11â2. Port of LALB truck trips from survey. Other than the geographic location of most container ports in dense urban areas, there is noth- ing unique to drayage about congestion on urban roads and freeways. Any truck traveling to, from, within, or through those urban areas will experience the same delays. Broad national and regional estimates of the cost of congestion are applicable to port drayage. One potentially significant difference, however, is that drayage drivers are usually paid by the trip, receiving a percentage of the drayage companiesâ revenue from the customer. A drayage
84 Truck Drayage Productivity Guide driverâs income depends on how many trips the driver can make in working hours. Other inter- city truck drivers are more commonly paid by the authorized mile, regardless of how long the trip takes. The impact of congestion on the drayage driversâ income therefore depends on the ability of the drayage firm to reflect expected congestion impacts in its rate structure. Table 11â1 shows a ranking of the 30 worst U.S. freight bottlenecks, based on an FHWA/ATRI study of GPS data. A number of the bottlenecks shown are in port regions, notably Southern Cal- ifornia, Houston, and New York. The impact of port-area congestion is well documented in previous national reports. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics noted that a 2005 U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) report estimated that landside access challenges cost as much as $200 billion annually and wasted 2.3 billion gallons of fuel.5 The same study provided estimates of average annual peak-period traffic delays per traveler in major port regions (Table 11â2). The three case study areas for this project are at the top of the table, with averages of 56 hours for Houston, 72 hours for LALB, and 5Americaâs Container Ports, BTS, 2009. Source: Freight Performance Measures Analysis of 30 Freight Bottlenecks, ATRI, March 2009. Table 11â1. Ranking of freight bottleneck severity based on ATRI analysis.
Table 11â2. U.S. port activity and urban traffic delay, 2007. Congestion on Streets and Highways 85
86 Truck Drayage Productivity Guide 46 hours for NYNJ. It is likely that those figures underestimate the impact on drayage operations that make multiple daily trips in the most congested areas. A 2003 MARAD survey highlighted common congestion at large strategic ports (Table 11â3) and pinpointed some of the features that contribute to the congestion (Table 11â4). The increasing congestion on port access routes is symptomatic of broader nationwide infra- structure issues. As the United States falls further behind in building and maintaining the roads and highways needed to support a growing population and economy, ports and the drayage firms that serve them, suffer along with most other sectors. With state, local, and federal highway and road expenditures far below sustainable levels, port drayage needs must compete with com- muters, domestic truckers, and every other road user for limited funds and capacity. Road and Highway Congestion Solutions Infrastructure Project Participation Although the scope of regional or even local highway infrastructure projects is often outside the influence of port drayage stakeholders, port-area improvements should provide opportuni- ties for involvement. In the study teamâs experience, however, infrastructure planners rarely reach out to working truckers for their input. Congestion on urban streets and highways is ordinarily beyond the control of terminals or truckers, but port authorities may have some influence. Extended gate hours (early morning and late evening) can assist truckers in avoiding the worst peak traffic hours and can push some port- related traffic to less congested periods. When designing programs to shift dray traffic to off-peak periods, it is important to first understand the network of pickup and delivery points served by Source: Intermodal Access to U.S. Ports Report on the 2002â2003 Survey Findings, MARAD, 2003. Table 11â3. Below-average traffic flow at key ports. Source: Intermodal Access to U.S. Ports Report on the 2002â2003 Survey Findings, MARAD, 2003. Table 11â4. Reasons for below-average port-area traffic flow.
dray trucks. If the warehouses and distribution centers only work during the normal work day, late terminal hours are not likely to produce significant shifts. If, however, the majority of deliv- eries are to 24-hour distribution centers, then expanded terminal hours can be effective in less- ening the conflicts between dray trucks and passenger vehicles. Planners also should be cognizant that imports and exports sometimes follow distinct patterns of activity. For example, a greater percentage of imports may be tied to large 24-hour import distribution centers while exports are driven by a network of smaller shippers that are only open during the work day. Furthermore, under the owner-operator model, the majority of trucks will work the same number of hours as their respective drivers. Thus, in order for a driver to choose to shift hours to off-peak, the driver must be guaranteed a utilization rate equal to the forgone daytime hours. Finally, in all but the largest ports, the percentage of the total traffic mix represented by dray trucks will drop rapidly outside of the immediate port area. Therefore, it is important not to overstate the likely conges- tion benefits that might be attained by shifting a percentage of trucks to the evening hours. The Barbours Cut Boulevard project in Houston is an example of the jurisdictional complex- ity that can create barriers to stakeholder involvement. Although highway departments, regional planning agencies, municipalities, and even port authorities may have staff dedicated to such projects, truckers and terminal operators do not. It can be a daunting task for drayage firms, owners, or managers to attend multiple meetings over the course of several years. The key to successful participation in planning efforts is proactivity. The Port of Oakland was highly successful in the post-earthquake rebuilding of adjacent freeways and on-/off-ramps start- ing in 1989. The port had begun closer ties with local and regional planners in conjunction with dredging and military base redevelopment efforts, and continued that working relationship after the Loma Prieta earthquake. Port representatives were already known in the planning commu- nity, and the port was duly notified of meetings, comment periods, etc. As a result, the new free- way provides much better port access than the previous structure. The formation of regional associations such as the Bi-State Truckers in NYNJ and similar organizations in Southern California and elsewhere offers a means of claiming âa seat at the tableâ and sharing the burden across multiple firms. Congestion on Streets and Highways 87