Investigating the Impact of Buffer Stacks with Truck Restriction Time Window Policy on Reducing Congestion and Emissions at Port of Izmir.

Urban traffic congestion is a critical problem for port-city areas. The truck restriction time window (TRTW) aims to curb congestion by restricting truck use on city roads during peak hours. But TRTW can cause congestion at ports after the restriction ends, leading to economic losses and higher emissions. This paper proposed a buffer stack model to reduce truck delays and emissions from TRTW at port-city areas. The model was implemented for Port of Izmir with using Discrete Event SimulationF (DES). A cost model was used for evaluating DES results. The results showed that buffer stack reduced truck delays by 28.1–43.9% and gate queue lengths by 31.2–43.2% in high and low truck traffic scenarios. The congestion costs (NO_X, CO₂ PM_2.5, emission, and truck delay costs) were also reduced by 35.8–43.9% and the total cost including the buffer stack operation was reduced by 25.6–36.3% for high and low truck traffic. The comparison between buffer stack and chassis exchange terminal (CET) system showed that both systems had comparable emission reduction values, however, CET had a higher reduction in truck delays (83.8% compared to 28.0%). Results showed buffer stacks are effective and affordable solution for ports to mitigate the impact of peak truck traffic resulted from TRTW, lower truck emissions, and reduce the logistics cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]