Comparison of Technological and Operational Strategies to Reduce Trucking Emissions in Southern California

This study compares the cost-effectiveness and the emission reduction potential from selected trucking strategies in Southern California. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will have to accommodate substantial traffic growth in the next decades because of Asia Pacific corridor trade growth. Not only will California have to improve capacity and avoid gridlock, but it will also have to develop strategies that reduce emissions from goods movement. The Southern California Association of Governments and other agencies are developing major plans for goods movement infrastructure investments as well as technological and operational strategies that account for environmental performance. Beside future improvements in trucking emissions due to new emission standards, additional trucking strategies are evaluated in this analysis. They include truck replacement, truck repowering, truck retrofit with particulate matter control devices, and two operational strategies—a virtual container yard and an expanded incident management program that tackles incidents involving heavy-duty diesel trucks.