| Freight transportation is essential to economic health in the United States in that it transports all types of goods and materials that support commerce and meet consumer demands. However, the literature strongly suggests that the demand for freight transportation is expected to increase, and at a rate that exceeds the capacities to support such demand. The national highway network was built to accommodate a far smaller national population, and its limited capacity and expansion, coupled with a strong and steady population increase over the last century has borne a myriad of congested highways, increased travel time, increased transportation costs, and significant amounts of harmful air pollutants emitted into the air. Furthermore, the literature also calls for increased inclusion of environmental interactions in transportation decision-making; and this thesis attempts to contribute to that field.;This thesis centralizes on the development of a network flow model that utilizes optimization to achieve minimization of travel time, travel costs, and emissions of six ambient air pollutants associated with freight transportation within the I-95 Corridor Region. This model utilizes the Microsoft Excel application and the Premium Solver Platform, and it enables the model user to utilize the powerful tool of optimization to explore intermodal transportation options that quantify variances in emissions outputs, total travel time, and total travel cost. Furthermore, this model intends to demonstrate that the inclusion of environmental emissions in freight transportation planning is a useful, necessary, and beneficial tool in modern transportation decision-making. |
