Data collection for understanding urban goods movement: comparison of collection methods and approaches in European countries

This chapter addresses the topic of urban freight data collection. Survey work was carried out with experts in eleven European countries to describe and compare urban freight transport data collection efforts to better understand what currently takes place and to identify examples of good practice. The extent of urban freight data collection varies significantly between the European countries surveyed. Much of the existing urban freight data comes from the disaggregation of national survey results. The chapter identifies the most commonly identified gaps in data collection, as well as the need for greater standardisation in data collection methods and in analysis and reporting of this data.