Multimethod simulation approach for capacity design of a truck parking area in city ports

The port induced freight can cause traffic congestion problems in city ports if road freight transportation is used. The secondary congestion problem arises from the pooling of the trucks at the port gates because of the delays of the port operations. The absence of the truck parking areas inside the port causes additional truck trips between the port and auxiliary truck servicing areas around the port. For reducing the impacts of the associated problems of the port induced truck traffic, truck parking areas can be used as buffer zones between the port and city. The purpose of this study is to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) with using multimethod simulation and cost optimization model for the capacity design of a truck parking area for a city port. The preliminary design of the parking area is used to estimate the development cost and outputs of the simulation model is coupled for the capacity optimization for truck arrival scenarios. The methodology is implemented for a case study of the İzmir city port in Turkey. The results of the study indicated that significantly different parking area capacities are required for different truck dwell times for the time restricted and unrestricted truck arrivals