Monday, January 28, 2019
The FDOT Forecasting and Trends Office recently developed a new add-on tool for the Florida Statewide Model called the Freight Transportation Economic Impact Kit. This FreightTEIK tool combines the statewide model’s Freight Supply-chain Intermodal Model (FreightSIM) with a multi-sectoral input-output model. The economic impacts of efficiencies gained through freight transportation improvements are conveyed in terms of changes in vehicle hours traveled (VHT), vehicle miles traveled (VMT), gross domestic product (GDP), employment, and monetized impacts.
To support this new FreightTEIK tool, we will be conducting an eight-hour training course in two locations in South and Central Florida. The course will be offered free of charge in Fort Lauderdale February 27-28 and in the Orlando area March 20-21, 2019. Both trainings will be held on a Wednesday afternoon (1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M.), continuing the following morning (Thursday, 8:00 A.M. to 12:00 noon).
In this class you will learn how economic benefits stemming from freight transportation are an accumulation of a multitude of business and transportation activities. The process illustrates how transportation network changes ripple through different levels of the economy to yield total cumulative economic effects. Economic impacts, in turn, might be the driving force to stimulate a business to grow, which may result in increasing employment or income. These impacts are captured by a variety of economic indicators such as gross domestic product.
This hands-on training will be taught by the research team that created FreightTEIK, Dr. Zhong-Ren Peng and PhD candidate Haitao Yu. Prior modeling exposure is encouraged, but not required. Due to limited seating, please register in advance for this class at http://www.fsutmsonline.net/modeling_training.aspx.