Evaluation of the Performance of an Urban Freight System Using a Multi-use-Lane Arterial
Résumé
Even if urban logistic has been extensively investigated in the literature, its effects on traffic flow dynamics remain mostly unknown. This paper aims to introduce a general methodology to anticipate and evaluate the impacts of urban logistics and associated city logistics actions on the global performance of a transportation network. This first study focuses on urban arterial level and investigates the possible benefits of a multi use lane strategy deployment. Influence of such a solution in favor of urban freight activities must be carefully and deeply studied before implementation. To this end, the authors resort to a theoretical but realistic urban arterial to compare the deployment of a multi use lane strategy with the classical mixed lane case. The systematic and gene ral methodology proposed in the paper makes it possible to identify optimal domains of applications, Le. traffic conditions and urban freight characteristics, where a dedicated lane for deliveries may be efficient and simultaneously maintains a satisfactory global performance of the arterial.