Centre for Urban Freight Analysis

The Centre for Urban Freight Analysis is a multi-purpose facility for the advancement of freight research. The Centre consists of the following new physical infrastructure:

  • A dedicated space in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Centre & Testbed at the University of Toronto, featuring a new interactive video wall for the display of real-time truck location data
  • A series of 30 “Base-stations” installed on traffic camera poles along freeway corridors throughout the Toronto Area. These units receive route tracking and engine information from 20,000+ trucks enrolled in the fleet management program of Turnpike Global Technologies, a project partner. This large number of base-stations will result in truck location data that is very close to “real-time”
  • Electronic links to the ITS Centre & Testbed for the transmission and integration of real-time “public-sector” traffic flow information with real-time “private-sector” truck routing information.

The Centre performs the following functions:

  1. Gathers and archives real-time truck location and engine data
  2. Provides real-time GPS-based traffic information to the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario
  3. Provides an interactive space for research

Principal Investigator:  M. J. Roorda