Project Details

The NCDOT and the operations of the North Carolina Ferry Service (NCFS) provide seven service routes along the Carolina coast. These routes not only provide local commuters and North Carolina visitors with their public transportation needs, but also transport freight. Internal figures provided by NCDOT (NCDOT, 2018) indicates a reduction in ridership for Hatteras over the last 10 years.  Basic services for riders may be affected as the needs for additional freight deliveries increase. Oversized vehicles and freight delivery trucks can potentially displace passengers. But when considering customer services for those requiring deliveries, ensuring that these deliveries can be made on-time and in a planned manner is also important since delays may also impact the delivery of those services. The results of this study will assist in the planning for long-term congruence of both passenger and freight needs and will assist with the larger multimodal planning with the inclusion of the NCFS and their current and future expansion needs.

 For the NCDOT Ferry Service, the compatibility of freight carriers and passengers is difficult to reconcile, especially when considering larger freight carriers and rider displacement. Although the overall freight transported by highway is typically reported and studied, freight carried by ferry vessel is a neglected topic. This research offers a foundational view of freight traffic on ferry vessels. The results of the research suggest some additional data points to further analyze freight flows, which is discussed in detail as part of the Implementation Plan section of the report. Although there are suggested improvements, for the most part the results suggest that NCFS is meeting the primary needs of their commuters as well as their freight customers. There are opportunities discussed in the Recommendations section that suggests that NCDOT can utilize the new GIS maps and the new geodatabase for continued research regarding freight. Some of the implications stated in the report require additional years of data collection and analysis. The recommendations provide areas for consideration with regards to data collection. ​