Key Freight Transportation Challenges

Planning

Both public and private sectors do planning for freight transportation infrastructure and operations improvements. Planning for publicly funded improvements follows a structured process with lengthy time lines and prescribed involvement by a broad array of stakeholders, including state and local governments, transit authorities, and the public, among others. In contrast, private sector planning is based on market trends, largely without external involvement, and requires a timely response, sometimes within three to six months. Not surprising, these differences in approaches to planning can make it difficult to develop private/public partnerships to move freight projects forward.

The degree to which freight is considered in the public transportation planning and programming process ranges from being fully integrated with substantial freight transportation projects prioritized and funded to minimal consideration of freight, if at all. Typically, freight in the public arena is a minor constituency relative to passenger and other transportation interests. The challenge is to change this behavior so that both freight and passenger mobility are considered in a balanced way. Education, improved freight data, and the use of quantitative planning tools to assess the needs for and benefits of freight improvements are important mechanisms for fully integrating freight into the planning process.

In today's global economic environment, many freight movements encompass interstate and international travel. Yet, public decisionmaking affecting these moves tends to occur at the State and MPO levels. For several reasons, MPOs tend to give less attention to freight investments than might be warranted. These include 1) limited resources, 2) a frequent lack of communication with freight interests on shipper and carrier needs, 3) the perception that freight projects have limited benefit for the MPO population as a whole, 4) costs borne locally, but benefits accruing more widely, and 5) the perceived priority needs of passenger-related projects (Gayle 2001). Local planning processes tend to focus on commuter and livability issues rather than on freight congestion relief and economic improvement (USDOT FHWA 1999).

Several states and MPOs have elevated freight needs in their overall discussion of, and planning for, infrastructure investments, but "most others continue to struggle" (USDOT FHWA 2000a). States that have been very successful in promoting freight transportation improvements, such as Maine, Washington, and Florida, have had legislature and gubernatorial backing. MPOs that are most successful at engaging the private sectors are those that plan and program needed improvements quickly, especially those projects that are in the low to moderate cost range and greatly enhance system performance.

In recent years, multijurisdictional coalitions have emerged as effective partners in dealing with regional, corridor, and binational trade transport development that cannot be easily addressed using traditional planning approaches. The I-95 Corridor Coalition and the Latin American Trade and Transportation Study group are two examples of multijurisdictional alliances that have been successful in addressing freight issues. Pooled resources, improved understanding of partners' concerns, and enhanced communications are important benefits of these alliances.

Given the importance of freight to the economy and projected growth in freight traffic, a dynamic and responsive transportation planning process is needed to address deficiencies in the freight transportation system. Likewise, reconciling the vastly different timeframes used in planning by the public and private sectors, encouraging private sector involvement in state and MPO processes, and facilitating multijurisdictional cooperation and coordination are critical to ensuring that freight perspectives are included in planning and programming major transportation improvements.

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