Technical Memorandum: Freight Measures for Transportation System Resilience
Author(s):
X. Kong, K. Jha, J.R. Wallis, W.L. Eisele
Publication Date:
August 2021
Abstract:
Disruptions that slow the movement of traffic are bound to happen on the highway network from time to time. Recurring congestion, crashes, weather, special events, or even natural disasters have negative economic, environmental, and other societal impacts. A resilient system is critical to minimize the effects of these events. Transportation agencies implement transportation system management and operational strategies for the most common disruptions and prepare, plan, and build for the most extreme circumstances. Decision makers need valid and reliable data first to know how resilient their system is and then to measure the effects of their mitigation strategies.
Most related research about resilience in transportation systems concentrates on defining the term 'resilience' and identifying its properties. A limited amount of literature focuses on resilience quantification methodologies. Resilience has a broad array of definitions across many subject areas. This paper considers only those with a transportation perspective. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and Transportation Research Board (TRB) Transportation & Security Summit defined transportation resilience as "the ability of a system to provide and maintain an acceptable level of service or functionality in the face of major shocks and disruptions to normal operations" (1). An alternative definition offered in academic work is "the ability for the system to absorb the consequences of disruptions, to reduce the impacts of disruptions, and maintain freight mobility"(2). Minor practical differences between practitioners are expected but the common theme across these definitions is recovery after an event.
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