National Freight Strategic Plan takes a forward-looking approach to U.S. Freight Movement

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By Jeff Berman, Group News Editor
October 20, 2015

In this space, the concept of “good ideas,” when it comes to ways of improving and sufficiently funding the nation’s transportation infrastructure has received a good amount of attention. Well, brace yourself, because there is some more coming along those lines below.

Late last week, the U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx issued a draft National Freight Strategic Plan (NFSP), which is open for public comment and comprised of specific policy proposals and solutions to address the growing challenges of moving freight in the U.S., according to DOT.

A major driver for the NFSP stems from the evident pace of domestic freight growth, with the DOT pointing out that in the next 30 years the U.S. population is expected to increase by 42 percent or 70 million people, while freight traffic is pegged to increase by 42 percent by 2040. Staggering numbers to be sure.

The DOT’s first of its kind draft Plan is replete with proposed “solutions and strategies to address the infrastructure, institutional, and financial bottlenecks that hinder safe and efficient movement of goods,” said DOT, while also identifying successful programs already in place to improve freight planning and investment, proposing new programs and ideas making progress more possible, and, last but certainly not least, pays heed to the importance and benefits of a strong freight program (and emphasis) in the next transportation reauthorization, which hopefully is long-term and sufficiently and realistically funded.

DOT outlined various aspects of the NFSP. A top-level list is below and more information is available here:
-ensuring dedicated freight funding;
-identifying major trade gateways and multimodal national freight networks/corridors (DOT said it is releasing a draft Multimodal Freight Network map to inform planners, private sector stakeholders, and the public about where major freight flows occur and where special attention to freight issues may be most warranted);
-facilitate multijurisdictional, multimodal collaboration and solutions;
-ensure availability of better data and models: U.S. DOT will continue to develop and deploy newer and more advanced freight data resources to the planning community and advance the measurement and analysis of transit times for different commodities from a multimodal, origin-to-destination perspective;
-improve safety and support the adoption of new transportation technologies; and
- develop the next generation freight transportation workforce

The impetus for the NFSP comes from the current transportation authorization, MAP-21, which directed DOT to develop a National Freight Strategic Plan that provides, basically, a game plan to best meet National Freight Policy goals designed to improve U.S. freight movement, noted DOT.

The NFSP received kind words from Leslie Blakey, president of Washington, D.C.-based Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors. 

“The call to make freight infrastructure investments is a unifying message. The House of Representatives, Senate and Administration are all proposing creation of a robustly-funded multimodal freight program, the centerpiece of which is a competitive grant program,” said Blakey. “The draft NFSP adds context to this discussion, explaining where our nation’s economic opportunities exist. I commend U.S. DOT for organizing a comprehensive plan that guides strategic decision making, ensuring public investment will produce a high return.”

Newsroom Notes also commends the plan as well. While progress on the surface relating to freight transportation and infrastructure often looks muted, work is being done to get it the attention, and capital investments that are needed and required to keep things humming, productive, and efficient, while at the same time helping to alleviate the unwanted things like never-ending traffic and delayed projects that can help remedy the current situation we have been in for more than a while.