AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE
1.0 Introduction
The movement of freight across town, across the nation or around the globe, relies on the joint effort of the public and private sectors. The United States transportation system is arguably the largest in the world with assets estimated at more than $8.0 trillion in 2014: “Transportation assets are owned by both the public and private sectors. In total, publicly owned transportation accounted for slightly over one-half of transportation capital stock; public highways and streets accounted for the largest share (41.8 percent) of this stock and much of the growth over the past few years.”
Freight plans are critical blueprints for how the public sector will develop, manage and maintain public elements of freight networks. These formalized planning documents describe the stakeholders, commodities, trip metrics and geographic operations that utilize a particular freight transportation network. A well-designed freight plan allows a state or region to accurately understand the movement of goods within the larger geographic and economic framework, and speculate on future trends – aiding a government’s ability to make sound decisions in public infrastructure. Freight plans also provide an understanding of how safe, efficient, and productive freight systems benefit local and state economies and help meet local, regional, and national goals for safety and productivity.
Recognizing that seamless, interstate freight movement is critical to the nation’s economy and quality of life, the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI’s) Research Advisory Committee (RAC) identified in 2016 a research objective to improve and standardize freight plans throughout the country.
For much of the 20th century, public sector transportation planning focused on passenger movement. Not until 1991, when Congress the passed the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), were public sector agencies encouraged to plan for the movement of freight. However, ISTEA and several subsequent transportation reauthorization bills passed by Congress failed to provide state and local agencies with freight-specific funding. The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) passed in late 2015 established both formula and discretionary grant programs to fund critical transportation projects that benefit freight. For the first time in U.S. history, the FAST Act provided a dedicated source of federal funding for freight projects, including intermodal projects.
While many reports, articles, and case studies have been published discussing the freight planning process, few examples exist in the literature of specific best practices that can be derived from existing freight plans. In order to address this gap in freight planning research, ATRI conducted this research to identify freight plan “best practices” which go beyond compliance with federal mandates to implement innovative and creative strategies for responding to a rapidly changing freight environment. Since the FAST Act requires that freight plans must be updated every five years, this report is intended to provide a baseline for how freight plans are evolving as well as future guidance in freight plan best practices.
Freight movement within the U.S. is vital to the continued success of the national economy. According to the Draft National Freight Strategic Plan from the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), the U.S. economy is projected to double in the next 30 years driven largely by a population increase of more than 65 million by 2040. In order to keep up with this growing consumer demand, freight movements are expected to increase by approximately 42 percent. Public sector agencies undertake long-range planning efforts for the purpose of defining goals, identifying problems, evaluating alternatives, and identifying project investments that will prepare the transportation system for the future needs of passengers and freight.
In 1991, as the U.S. was firmly on a path toward a more trade-focused national economy, Congress passed ISTEA which redefined the focus of U.S. transportation policy:
The National Intermodal Transportation System shall consist of all forms of transportation in a unified, interconnected manner, including the transportation systems of the future, to reduce energy consumption and air pollution while promoting economic development and supporting the Nation’s preeminent position in international commerce. (P.L. 102-240, Sec. 2)
In response to this change in focus, transportation and economic development agencies across state and local governments showed new interest in freight planning. However, with no clearly defined goals and no funding sources, few agencies planned with freight investment goals in mind. A 1996 General Accounting Office (GAO) review found, “The total amount of funds obligated for intermodal freight projects through roughly the first 4 of ISTEA’s 6 fiscal years … equals … less than 1 percent of ISTEA funds apportioned to the states during that period …”
In 1998, Congress passed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), which added freight shippers to the list of specifically identified stakeholders that must be afforded an opportunity to comment on state and metropolitan planning organization (MPO) plans. The Act also created several broad factors to address freight, either specifically or by default, which states and MPOs were to consider in their planning efforts:
- Support the economic vitality of the U.S., the states, and metropolitan areas, especially by enabling global competitiveness, productivity, and efficiency;
- Increase the accessibility and mobility options available to people and for freight;
- Enhance the integration and connectivity of the transportation system, across and between modes throughout the state, for people and freight.
While ISTEA and TEA-21 encouraged freight planning from a policy perspective, neither act provided funding. The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), signed into law in 2005, put renewed emphasis on expanding freight capacity through planning at the state and national levels, and created several small freight funding opportunities. These included an expansion in bonding authority to include private activity bonds for surface freight transfer facilities and made freight projects eligible under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovations Act (TIFIA). SAFETEA-LU also established a freight research program, a Freight Planning and Capacity Building Program, and authorized $25 million over five years to improve truck parking on the National Highway System.
The expanding emphasis on freight has continued with each subsequent transportation reauthorization. Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), passed in 2012, established the first real funding incentive for states to undertake freight-specific planning. In the Act, Congress directed the U.S. DOT to allow a maximum federal share of 95 percent (versus 90 percent) for an Interstate System project, or a maximum federal share of 90 percent for a non-Interstate System project (versus 85 percent) if the project made a demonstrable improvement in the efficiency of freight movement and was identified in a state freight plan. In essence, states that completed a compliant freight plan were provided a slightly higher federal share of funding on freight-related highway projects. Compliant state freight plans must include the elements shown in Figure 1 below.
Additionally, MAP-21 encouraged states undertaking a state freight plan to develop a freight advisory committee (FAC) to act in an advisory role in regards to freight-related priorities, issues, projects, and funding needs. The committees, whose membership was recommended to be comprised of public and private sector stakeholders from ports, shippers, carriers, associations, and state and local transportation agencies, were also encouraged to serve as a forum for freight-related discussions, communicate and coordinate regional priorities with other organizations, promote the sharing of freight information between the private and public sectors, and also participate in the development of the state freight plans.
MAP-21 also established performance and outcome-based goals in order to support investment in surface transportation projects with a freight focus. At the national level, MAP-21 required the U.S. DOT to develop a National Freight Policy, and also mandated the identification of a national Primary Freight Network. Following the passage of MAP-21, the U.S. DOT published draft guidance detailing the implementation of state freight plans (Federal Register, Volume 77, No. 199 / Monday, October 15, 2012).
The U.S. Congress included the first-ever dedicated freight funding program at the federal level in its 2015 highway reauthorization, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act). The FAST Act contains two major freight programs:
- The National Highway Freight Program provides $6.3 billion in formula funds over five years for states to invest in freight projects on the National Highway Freight Network. Up to 10 percent of the funds may be used for intermodal projects.
- A discretionary grant program (originally called FASTLANE Grants, recently renamed INFRA Grants) that provides $4.5 billion over 5 years. Similar to the popular Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program, the discretionary grants under the FAST Act are available to states, MPOs, local governments, tribal governments, special purpose districts and public authorities.
To be eligible for the programmatic funds offered by the FAST Act, states were required to complete a freight plan, including a fiscally constrained investment plan element, by December 4, 2017, with the exception that the multimodal component may still be in progress. The FAST Act requires States to update their freight and investment plans at least once every five years.
Compliant freight plans must meet the six criteria established in MAP-21, as well as four additional criteria identified in the FAST Act (Figure 1).
The FAST Act also encourages the development of a state FAC comprised of public and private sector freight stakeholders. According to the FAST Act’s language, the plans should provide a 10-year outlook for projects as well as articulate relevant funding sources for said projects. A FAST Act addition is a focus on innovative technologies and operating strategies that ought to be considered by states as part of their forward-looking planning agendas.7
In 2016, the U.S. DOT published final guidance in the Federal Register (Federal Register, Volume 18, No. 199 / Friday, October 14, 2016). This final guidance provided a template for states to meet the minimum requirements for state freight plans established by the FAST Act, as well as optional recommended elements to include in state freight plans.
Download full version (PDF): Identifying State Freight Plan Best Practices
About the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI)
atri-online.org
The American Transportation Research Institute has been engaged in critical transportation studies and operational tests since 1954. ATRI, a member of the American Trucking Associations Federation, is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit research organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with offices in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Sacramento, and New York. ATRI’s primary mission is to conduct transportation research with an emphasis on the trucking industry’s essential role in a safe, efficient, and viable transportation system.
Tags: American Transportation Research Institute, ATRI, Freight, Identifying State Freight Plan Best Practices, Trucking
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Thank you for the feature !!!