School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Ph.D. Thesis Defense Announcement

Integrated Modeling Framework for Sub-National Regulatory Impact Analysis of Sustainable Truck Freight Systems

By Caleb Weed

Advisor: Dr. Michael Rodgers (CEE)

Committee Members:

Dr. Randall Guensler (CEE) | Dr. Sofia Perez-Guzman (CEE) |

Dr. Richard Simmons (ME) | Dr. Abhilasha Saroj (ORNL)

Date and Time: May 2, 2024. 9:00 AM

Location: Clough Commons Room 146

The United States Department of Transportation stressed in their latest strategic plan the agency’s commitment to considering climate and sustainability impacts and to incorporating adaptation and resiliency actions into their policies, programs, and operations, including in its regulation of the national truck freight system. Truck freight is intricately linked with and has sizeable effects upon three aspects of sustainable development: the environment, with its large tailpipe greenhouse gas and criteria pollution emissions leading to future climate damages and more immediate costs to society in the form of detrimental public health impacts and risk exacerbation; the economy, with its critical role in supply chains and subsequent effects on job creation; and society, with many of the luxuries and bare necessities of modern life dependent on efficient movements of goods to service providers and consumers by truck and the daily interactions with trucks experienced by all users of our shared transportation systems. Integrating sustainability into truck freight system operations is critical to ensure the longevity, service efficiency, and resiliency of the system such that it may continue to promote economic development, reduce harm, and advance social equity far into the future. It is thus a primary responsibility of policymakers and transportation planners to mediate the dynamics between trucks and the environment, economy, and society by designing policy levers and
programs as well as planning and maintaining physical infrastructure that generates momentum towards the attainment of a sustainable freight system.
This dissertation research seeks to facilitate the navigation of these complex problems in three ways. First, it undertakes a systematic review of existing definitions, planning practices, and evaluation of truck freight system sustainability as well as the regulatory landscape at national, state, and municipal levels as it pertains to sustainable truck freight systems with a focus on fuel switching and zero-emission trucks. Second, it documents the development and integration of new technoeconomic models (NCST Total Cost of Ownership Spreadsheet Tool (TCOST); EVALUATE model) as well as real-world and projected data that complement each other to produce high-resolution energy consumption, emissions, and economic analyses. The models are presented as components of an overarching multiple criteria decision-making framework that was specifically designed for evaluating the effects of potential or existing sustainable truck freight policies and selecting the best regulatory approach from a set of alternatives. Finally, actionable policy insights and solutions are derived informed by the application of the integrated modeling approach in a case study evaluating the efficacy of a hypothetical, state-level clean trucks rule in the state of Georgia.