AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
America faces a freight transportation capacity crisis. Our highways, railroads, ports, waterways, and airports require investment well beyond current levels to maintain—much less improve—their performance. All systems are aging and stretched to capacity. The collapse of the economy in late 2008 temporarily reduced demand at seaports, and reduced truck and rail freight volumes. The time it takes for the economy to recover will give highway, rail, and port systems a breather before the capacity of the freight system will again constrain U.S. economic growth. During this period, decision makers will need to find a way to fund the improvements needed to improve the national freight system.
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BLUEGREEN ALLIANCE & ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE
Economic models estimate about 7,800 green jobs are created for every billion dollars of freight rail capital investment. Furthermore, the industry has nearly doubled the amount of goods it has shipped without increasing fuel consumption over the past three decades, and creates a fraction of the pollution of other transport modes such as trucking and aviation. Its continued growth will generate green jobs, reduce dependence on foreign oil and contribute to solving climate change.
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RESEARCH AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY ADMINISTRATION
BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS
To move large quantities of goods across the country and around the world, Americans depend on the Nation’s freight transportation system—a vast network of roads, bridges, rail tracks, airports, seaports, navigable waterways, pipelines, and equipment. Today, U.S. households can buy fresh fruits and vegetables in mid-winter, expect fast and reliable next-day deliveries of Internet purchases, and use electronic appliances manufactured thousands of miles away, often in other countries. Because economic activities worldwide have become more integrated and globalized, more goods produced by U.S. factories and farms are bound for export, and imports originate from more than 200 countries. This pace of trade Americans have become accustomed to is made possible by the complex intermodal transportation network that blankets the country and links the United States with world markets.
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According to a U.S. DOT Report on freight traffic, the number of trucks on our highways will more than double by 2035. Inland waterways, or “marine highways,” could reduce congestion by taking on some of the freight burden.
To make the port-and-waterway system more familiar, the U.S. Maritime Administration offers an interactive map, with information on current maritime infrastructure projects around the U.S. The map also shows inland waterways, interstate highways, railroads, and port locations around the country.
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Kathryn Phillips is the Director of the California Transportation and Air Initiative at Environmental Defense Fund. Before joining Environmental Defense, Kathryn was the senior policy advisor at the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT) in Sacramento, and a lobbyist for V. John White Associates. Kathryn also worked for nearly 20 years as a journalist. She wrote for newspapers and magazines on a range of topics, specializing in the later years on science and environmental issues. She is the author of two books about environmental issues.
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ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND
Trade is the lifeblood of the global economy, but it comes at a high price for the environment and local communities. Moving freight creates traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, toxic air pollution and noise in local communities. Without thoughtful infrastructure and operations improvements, projected increases in trade threaten to make these problems worse and place greater strains on the nation’s aging infrastructure.
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