Freight Transportation Planning Practices in the Public Sector

Book excerpt: This synthesis describes the process by which state departments of transportation and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) integrate freight planning into the surface transportation planning process. It will be of interest to state and MPO planners, port planners; traffic engineers; and to the trucking, rail, and shipping interests in both the public and private sectors. This report of the Transportation Research Board discusses the requirements for freight planning resulting from the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) with particular emphasis on the development of an intermodal management system (IMS). In addition, that act narrowed the application of the congestion management system (CMS), which is also discussed in the synthesis. Since enactment of that legislation, another act, the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 was passed and makes the IMS optional rather than mandatory. This has not changed the philosophy or the intent of these planning applications, but it has changed the implementation aspects. Many agencies, however, are continuing with the IMS and CMS planning process. This report describes the methods used by selected agencies for forecasting freight flows, data collection practices, and the techniques for integrating freight planning into the established surface transportation planning processes at the state and regional levels.