Comparative Study Of Freeway Transportation In China And United States

Freeway network is the backbone and artery of comprehensive transport network. It has an important role in raising the living standard and promoting economic growth. Now China’s freeway has been linking into a network. Its mileage ranked second in the world. The mileage and the network density of China’s freeway network are close to U.S. levels, so the public want to know if the transport output of China’s freeway network is also can be compared with the United States freeway network. This paper aims to do a comparative analysis between U.S. and China freeway transportation to better understand freeway transport output and characteristics of our country, but also to better understand the status of the U.S. freeway transportation.Since freeway transportation data sources of two countries have great difference, the freeway transport data sources of United States and China were analyzed and compared firstly. U.S. freeway transport data mainly derived from National Household Travel Survey and Commodity Flow Survey. National Household Travel Survey and Commodity Flow Survey were analyzed in detail; especially their advantages and disadvantages were analyzed. The data sources of U.S. passenger and freight transportation of were evaluated. Highway Performance Monitoring System and Freight Analysis Framework, which were the main source of traffic data and freight data on the Interstate Highway System respectively, were also expounded. In particular, sample errors and non-sample errors that may exist were pointed out.Transportation data of China’s freeway network is derived from China Freeway Transportation Survey. This survey gets transportation data through a complete survey of freeway toll data system, combining with sample survey on road. Based on transportation data collection methods analysis of the two countries, the differences in transportation data collection were compared. Differences were mainly in data sources, survey methods, survey respondents, and survey contents.According to transport data and vehicle operating data from transportation survey methods of two counties, transportation status on freeway network of two countries was compared, and the characteristics of passenger and cargo transportation on our country’s freeway network were identified. A main characteristic of China’s freeway transportation is the large proportion of trucks. Meanwhile, through comparison of freeway and rail transport between China and United States, the division of freeway and railway transport was analyzed, and trends of China’s freeway and railway transport were predicted in this paper.Finally, institutionalization suggestions of freeway transport statistics in China were proposed. That the freeway transport statistics should be included in the national road transport statistics system, and specialized agencies should be entrusted to carry out the national level statistics. From the content of transport statistics, further researches should be done on Origin-and-Destination data of passenger and freight, value and classification data of freight, transport reliability data, and so on.