Thursday, March 13, 2003
FHWA 5-03
Contact: Jim Pinkelman
Tel: 202-366-0660
Transportation Secretary Mineta Announces New State Freight Profiles To
Assist State and Local Groups to Examine Freight Movements
U.S. Transportation
Secretary Norman Y. Mineta today announced the release of State Freight
Profiles, a series of short reports that provide a snapshot of freight flows,
including maps, and expected forecasts of tonnages and traffic patterns in each
state.
“America’s freight network is a lifeline for our
nation’s manufacturers, farmers and businesses,” Secretary Mineta said.
“Understanding the nature of freight flows will help ensure our ability
to remain competitive in the global marketplace and to continue to meet the
economic and transportation challenges of the 21st century.”
USDOT estimates that America’s transportation system by 2020 will
handle cargo valued at almost $30 trillion, compared with $9 trillion today.
Volumes, in tons, will increase by almost 70 percent over current levels
of 15 billion tons. The department also says that international freight volumes
will almost double by 2020. As a
result, each state will experience large freight volumes on its transportation
infrastructure over the next 20 years, with the potential for increased
congestion and greater inefficiencies throughout the nation’s transportation
system.
By using the State Freight
Profiles, state and local decision-makers can determine which transportation
corridors are experiencing, or will experience, large freight volumes.
State and local agencies then can select the appropriate congestion
alleviation strategies or develop targeted multi-state or regional approaches to
help reduce bottlenecks and improve freight operations.
The information in the State Freight Profiles was developed using the
Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) databases. USDOT in 2002 created the Freight
Analysis Framework (FAF), a collaborative effort of the department’s
Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal
Maritime Administration, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and the
Secretary’s Office of Intermodalism.
The FAF is a policy analysis tool aimed at helping decision makers to
understand the geographic relationships between domestic and international trade
flows and the nation’s intermodal transportation system.
The FAF examines four key transportation modes: highway, railroad, water, and air. To evaluate the effect of
expected volumes on the transportation network, FAF includes economic forecasts
for 2010 and 2020. It translates
these economic data into transportation demand and then assigns that demand to
the networks.
The
state profiles are posted at http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/state_profiles.htm.
Some of these images are online, and the rest will be posted soon.
Additional information on the Freight Analysis Framework is available at
the Office of Freight Management and Operations website, http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight.
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