The era in which transportation professionals could merely conduct analyses of truck traffic volumes, their associated impacts, and routing strategies no longer exists. A much broader and interactive transportation system management approach must be employed, along with innovative analytical procedures and carefully considered recommendations to be compatible with unique situations in each area. Documentation of a recent study of this type that was conducted in Nashville, Tennessee, is presented. This research used visual overlay techniques, sensitivity analyses by computer modeling, and some sketch planning methods to investigate several system alternatives. From these and other analyses, a wide range of innovative recommendations was suggested. This departure from traditional thinking to meeting today's problems innovatively resulted in findings, conclusions, and recommendations that should assist other analysts faced with similar challenges. Increased use of the news media, using nonuniform traffic signs, using available traffic volume data as a surrogate for unavailable origin-destination data, reformatting existing data to increase their utility, studying the evolution of truck terminal operations, and presenting a noise prediction model that local planners can understand and use at public meetings are examples of the innovations presented.

Urban transportation planning is concerned with the safe and efficient movement of both people and goods within an urban area. Heretofore, planning efforts directed toward transporting people within Nashville and Davidson County have received far more attention than planning for the transportation of goods. This disproportionate planning emphasis on the transportation of individuals, however, is certainly not unique to metropolitan Nashville. The movement of people has traditionally received much greater attention in all urban areas throughout the nation. Urban transportation planners, however, have long recognized basic differences between goods movement and people movement. People make decisions as to how, when, and where they go, whereas goods do not. The parameters, explanatory variables, and associated interrelationships for goods movement are unique, and analysis techniques must be different from those used in passenger transport. A fundamental and primary reason for conducting this truck route study was to evaluate the performance of future systems, reduce accidents, improve arterial street operations, and minimize harmful environmental impacts by considering the possible designation of truck routes on Nashville and Davidson County highways and streets. Truck transportation handles the greatest tonnage of commodities into and out of Davidson County. Because of the ubiquitous nature of highways and streets, truck routing and truck terminal locations have a significant impact on the performance of these local highways and streets.