The recession and truck traffic on the Long Beach Freeway in Los Angeles

The U.S. economic recession in 2007 coincided with rising oil prices and an overall decline in traffic volume nationwide. This paper examines how the economic downturn, diesel prices, and other factors affected truck traffic on the Long Beach Freeway, which connects the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest container port complex in the United States, to railyards and other freeways. Findings show that a one percentage point increase in the manufacturing sector industrial production index is associated with a one percent increase in truck traffic, but truck traffic is relatively inelastic with respect to diesel prices, at least in the short run. Truck flow also decreased when the Clean Trucks Program, which banned high emission trucks, was implemented at the ports.