Abstract: Since 2000, the amount of trucks transporting freight has increased nationally. Truck traffic creates externalities, among them congestion, air and noise pollution, and wear and tear on roadways. While communities may benefit from access to goods, and truck traffic can indicate gains in employment, community planners must make decisions about this new traffic, often without full knowledge of traffic volumes or impacts. Better information about truck traffic could enable planning that makes communities safer and healthier.

This project will create a toolkit which centralizes relevant information about truck traffic. It will be designed to enable planners to access and visualize information about truck traffic in their communities. With many planning departments in Chicagoland operating with few staff members, the toolkit can simplify time-consuming tasks like information gathering and data visualization. 

The project started with a review of literature on truck traffic and its impacts. Since Chicagoland planners are the target audience for this toolkit, the second stage of the project was identification of the Chicagoland communities with the highest truck traffic. Once communities were identified, researchers reached out to planners for interviews about the design and uses of the toolkit. A representative group of planners was interviewed. Researchers have begun designing, piloting, testing, launching, and finally disseminating the toolkit.