Integrating heterogeneous freight performance data for smart mobility

Transportation performance measures are defined as quantitative and qualitative indicators that rely on data or information to explain mobility, traffic congestion, safety, environmental sustainability and other factors. Although performance measures have been used for freeways and other highways, not many have been specified and applied to the freight transportation system. Under the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), state transportation agencies and metropolitan planning organizations in the United States are implementing freight performance measurement systems for performance assessment. This research aims to expand the existing freight performance measures and organize them into a integrated framework. The proposed framework consists of four criteria: safety, mobility, traffic congestion, and environmental sustainability. Each criterion consists of several qualitative and quantitative indicators. To address the challenge of integrating freight data of different sources and formats, an ontology-based approach has been proposed, implemented and. The Freight Performance Ontology was created using a bottom-up, data-driven approach, that included an initial concept map used to verify the conceptualization with domain experts before formalizing it in an ontology. The proposed ontology framework addresses specific metrics for the U.S. - Mexico border region in El Paso, TX. However, the proposed framework is generic and can be extended to integrate and aggregate data on a larger scale such as a state or country. Freight Performance is a foundational piece of Smart Mobility, and by integrating heterogeneous data, it provides a way to evaluate and improve services in Smart Cities.