Freight group behavior under freight traffic restriction policy The case of Beijing city distribution

Purpose – Many cities implement freight traffic restriction policy (FTRP) intending to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. At the same time, city distribution had some negative effects. The purpose of this paper is therefore to study the freight group behavior under FTRP, and to provide some recommendations for the government. Design/methodology/approach – This paper establishes a city distribution system model built by a simulation method of Agent, which includes the complex adaptability of freight individual, event of restriction policy, the influence factor of freight group behavior and its changes from the perspective of restriction policy. The rules of microscopic freight group behavior to macroscopic freight group behavior, the effects on freight group behavior exerted by restriction policy and the dynamic mechanism of freight group behavior are all studied. The model is also simulated with the traffic data of Beijing in China. Findings – Theoretical results ensure that restriction of the passport is not the sole reason that may produce illegal trucks, and other measures need to be taken to solve the traffic problems. And in the long run, increasing fines has a greater effect than strengthening supervision frequency on illegal trucks reduction. Originality/value – From city distribution perspective, this paper studied freight group behavior under FTRP. This paper also applied the Agent modeling method to build a model of urban distribution system in the FTRP.