United States-European Commission Urban Freight Twinning Initiative: Compendium of Project Summaries
Overview of Second Annual Urban Freight Roundtable at 2017 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting

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Policy

Regional Plans

United States

Regional Freight Plan of Memphis, Tennessee

The Memphis metropolitan area is a major transportation and logistics center, hosting the world's second largest air cargo airport, five Class I railroads, an inland water port, and hundreds of trucking terminals. The region is covered by two metropolitan planning organizations: the West Memphis MPO covers one county in Arkansas; and the Memphis Urban Area MPO (Memphis MPO) covers two counties in Tennessee and two counties in Mississippi.

The Memphis MPO is developing a regional freight plan that will enhance the mobility of people and goods, while addressing the unique characteristics of the region and encouraging economic development.

Memphis metropolitan area showing the Class 1 rail network, Interstate highways, and arterial connectors.
Source: Memphis MPO.

Project Type

Metropolitan Plan

Period of Performance

June 2016 - August 2017

Project Site(s)

Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization's planning area

Website

http://memphismpo.org/project/regional-freight-plan

Contact

Pragati Srivastava
Director
Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization
(901) 576-7190
Pragati.Srivastava@memphistn.gov

Challenges Addressed

• Road design (in relation to freight)
• Traffic modeling
• Parking
• Land use
• Innovative finance
• Economic competitiveness

Expected Outcomes

The regional freight plan will:

• Identify freight routes with poor curb/road geometries and create a priority list of projects to improve intersections and lane widths.
• Assess the future traffic impacts of various land development patterns.
• Examine the current and future supply and demand for truck parking areas.
• Analyze the supply and demand for industrial land over the next 20 to 30 years.
• Identify investment needs for the regional freight transportation system.
• Analyze future threats to the economic competitiveness of freight in the region.

This plan will align with other regional freight and modal transportation planning efforts. It will also provide a framework to measure progress and identify tradeoffs for the region.

Stakeholder Involvement

Numerous meetings will be held with various stakeholders from the region's public and private sectors to gather feedback on freight movement, operations, and transportation infrastructure.