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...recent national studies show that the financing and management the freight infrastructure in the nation is at a critical juncture. Roads, airports, rail systems and ports in the United States are operating at a demanding capacity which has various economic and social implications. Moreover. as the nation increasingly shifts to an import economy, managing the pressures on the nation's transportation infrastructure will be crucial to sustaining America's competitiveness and economic well-being.
A recently published Brookings Institute report, Principles for a U.S. Public Freight Agenda in a Global Economy, co-authored by Martin Robins and Anne Strauss-Weider, explains that the amount of goods moving through the country is on the rise. Public sector agencies managing aspects of transportation infrastructure at the state and federal level have some catching up to do as demands for services steadily grow.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), on a typical day in 2002, about 53 million tons of goods valued at about $36 billion moved on the nation's multimodal transportation network. That's 19 billion tons of freight, valued at $13 trillion over the course of the year. One of 10 freight shipments is related to international trade, according to the BTS study, Freight in America.
"Rather than the Balkanized approach of the past, a systems-based and multimodal agenda for the nation's freight needs, involving regional coordination, public-private partnership and federal funding recognition of the same, is necessary to maintain America's competitiveness," wrote Robins, director of Rutgers University's Transportation Policy Institute.
The data and recommendations in recent reports are important for policymaking in the ERC jurisdictions, which rely on virtually every method of shipping--truck, train, ship and plane. State and federal lawmakers...
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