AASHTO-FHWA Freight Partnership II Survey and Meeting: FHWA Perspective

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AASHTO-FHWA Freight Partnership II Survey and
MeetingFHWA Perspective
Tony Furst, FHWA-Office of Freight Management
Operations April 18, 2007
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Meeting Overview

• February 13-16, 2007 in Natchez, Mississippi
• Over 100 State DOT, FHWA, MPO and Private Sector
  participants
• Meeting purpose
• Develop an understanding of the institutional and
  organizational changes needed to establish
  permanent freight capacity within organizations.
• Understand the role of a freight champion.
• Understand modal and private sector
  issues/concerns.
• Develop strategies and tactics to advance the
  National Freight Policy.
• Identify future Freight Professional Development
  needs and delivery mechanisms.

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The Freight Survey

• Purpose
• Prepare for the Freight Partnership II Meeting
• Compare to 2005
• Gather information to share with Freight
  Stakeholders.
• Responses
• State DOTs - 45
• FHWA Division Offices 52
• MPOs and Regional Councils 85

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Survey Findings How High a Priority is Freight
Transportation in Your Organization?
FHWA Division Offices
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Survey Findings How High a Priority is Freight
Transportation in Your Organization?
MPOs and Regional Councils
Survey Not Conducted with MPOs and Regional
Councils in 2005
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Survey Findings What High Priority Freight
Issues Do You Foresee in the Next 5-10 Yrs?
FHWA Division Offices 2006/2007
In Your State
For the Nation

• Congestion
• Commercial Vehicles
• Rail
• Intermodal Connections/ Planning/Facilities
• Water/Ports

• Congestion
• Operations/Capacity
• Commercial Vehicles
• Security
• Funding/Resources

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Survey Findings What High Priority Freight
Issues Do You Foresee in the Next 5-10 Yrs?
MPOs and Regional Councils 2006/2007
In Your Region/Locality
For the Nation

• Commercial vehicles
• Congestion
• Rail
• Intermodal connections/ planning/facilities
• Infrastructure
• Operations/Capacity

• Congestion
• Operations/Capacity
• Funding/Resources
• Security
• Commercial vehicles
• Intermodal connections/ planning/facilities

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Freight Partnership II Meeting Freight
Priorities/Issues

• Issues heard during modal and private sector
  panel discussions
• Growth in Freight Volumes
• Capacity / Efficiency / Reliability
• People/Drivers
• Intermodal Facilities
• Rail
• Highway
• Congestion
• Security
• Globalization/Changing Network
• Fuel/Environmental Concerns
• Modal/jurisdictional silos

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Freight Partnership II Meeting Freight
Priorities/Issues

• Resolutions
• Systems Perspective
• Develop a multimodal infrastructure
• Plan for multi-jurisdictional freight movements
• Develop and nurture partnerships
• Education
• Staff
• Political leaders
• General population

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Survey Findings Freight Leadership
FHWA Division Offices
Does your organization have an individual in a
leadership position who actively advances
priority freight initiatives?
Does the leadership in your organization
recognize the importance of freight
transportation needs in your State?
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Survey Findings Freight Leadership
MPOs and Regional Councils
Does your organization have an individual in a
leadership position who actively advances
priority freight initiatives?
Does the leadership in your organization
recognize the importance of freight
transportation needs in your region or locality?
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Freight Partnership II Meeting Freight Champions

• Freight champions role is evolving
• Qualities of a freight champion
• Passionate
• Persistent
• Visible
• Knowledgeable
• Able to build relationships
• Influential
• Having a champion and establishing institutional
  capacity provides a place for partners to connect.

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Survey Findings Freight Planning from
MPO/Regional Council Responses

• 55 of MPO respondents have a freight plan or a
  freight element in their long range plan.
• 64 of MPO respondents move less than half their
  freight projects to implementation.
• MPOs identified barriers to implementing
  projects
• Limited funding/resources
• Understanding of freight projects/needs
• Sporadic freight industry involvement

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Freight Partnership II Discussion Freight
Planning

• Freight is multi-jurisdictional by nature.
• Funding is an issue,
• innovative financing needs consideration
• Need to stop operating in stovepipes
• Need assistance developing freight plans

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National Freight Policy Framework
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7 Objectives

• Improve the operations of the existing freight
  transportation system
• Add physical capacity to the freight
  transportation system in places where investment
  makes economic sense
• Use pricing to better align freight system costs
  and benefits and encourage the deployment of new
  technologies
• Reduce/remove statutory, regulatory,
  institutional barriers to improved freight
  transportation performance
• Proactively identify and address emerging
  transportation needs
• Maximize the safety and security of the freight
  transportation system
• Mitigate and better manage the environmental,
  health, and community impacts of freight
  transportation.

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Survey Findings National Freight Policy
Framework - MPO/Regional Council Responses

• 60 of the MPO/Regional Council respondents were
  not aware of the policy framework.
• 76 of the MPO/Regional Council respondents
  werent planning on implementing activities as
  part of the policy framework.

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Freight Partnership II Meeting National Freight
Policy Framework

• Workshop to identify activities that advance the
  policy framework.
• Participants organized into groups by region
• Participants collectively identified
• 2 new objectives.
• 1 modification to an objective - separating
  safety and security (objective 6) into 2
  objectives
• 19 new strategies
• 29 new tactics 10 revised tactics
• 55 new activities

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National Freight Policy Framework Common Tactics
Tactic Number of Activities Identified Identified as Priority Issue in Survey?
6.4.1 (NEW)- Establish a program for long-term truck parking facilities along the NHS. 8 yes
7.2.5 (NEW) - Develop a marketing and education campaign targeting community leaders 5
1.1.1 Focus on bottlenecks. 4 yes
2.1.1 Focus DOT attention on facilitating SAFETEA-LU designated Projects of National or Regional Significance likely to generate the greatest economic returns. 4
4.1.2 Review public sector statutes, regulations, institutional arrangements and human capital for opportunities to improve freight operations. 4
5.1.4 Improve analytical tools (e.g. Freight Analysis Framework, Freight Model Improvement Program). 4 yes
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National Freight Policy Framework Discussion
Items

• Market the Policy.
• Address funding in the Policy.
• Continue to add to and enhance the Policy.

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Survey Findings Freight Professional Development
from FHWA and MPO/Regional Council Responses

• Engaging the Private Sector is the top training
  need
• 55 of the FHWA Division Office respondents feel
  they need beginner level training
• 89 of the MPO/Regional Council respondents feel
  they need intermediate to advanced training.
• Respondents prefer
• in-person workshops and seminars,
• peer to peer exchanges,
• web-based training, and
• conferences/seminars.

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Freight Partnership II Meeting Freight
Professional Development

• Top training needs identified
• Engaging with Freight Stakeholdersand Keeping
  Them Engaged
• General Freight Planning
• Freight Forecasting
• Freight Data and Performance Measures
• Financing Freight Projects
• Freight 101 course discussed by several groups.
• Basic freight education with high level training
  on the various freight topics (planning,
  financing, data, etc.)

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Freight Partnership II Meeting Freight
Professional Development

• Preferred delivery mechanisms
• In-person workshops
• Peer exchanges
• Web-based training
• Computer-based training
• Primers, brochures, presentations
• Best Practices

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Freight Partnership II Meeting Freight
Professional Development Cont.

• Alternative delivery mechanisms
• Regional multi-modal field trips.
• Two to three month executive exchange
• Expose leaders to other organizations and bring
  learning back to the home organization.
• Short executive-level freight movie.
• Video for general audiences.
• Sharing across state boundaries

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Freight Professional Development Discussion Items

• More marketing/outreach needed on Freight
  Professional Development opportunities that
  exist.
• Start an understanding of freight movement early,
  at the grade school level.
• Offer Freight 101/Introductory level Freight
  Course to State DOT and MPO staff.
• Consider requiring Freight training as a
  requirement for advancement.
• Conduct regional freight scans to complement
  national and international scans.
• We need tools to help us educate others about
  freight.

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Survey Findings Next Steps for FHWA

• Provide training/technical assistance/education/ou
  treach
• Provide support as needed
• Promote networking with stakeholders
• Assist with data collection efforts/ develop
  analytical tools

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Next Steps Partnership II Meeting

• Freight Policy Framework
• Continue to identify strategies, tactics, and
  activities All Stakeholders
• Develop strategies, tactics, and activities that
  were started in Natchez Meeting Participants
• Commit to implementing identified activities
  Meeting Participants
• Input Freight Policy Framework information into
  online database- FHWA
• Hold regional web conferences/roundtables for
  states/regions to do further work on identifying
  strategies, tactics, and activities FHWA
• Hold follow up outreach for the State DOTs and
  MPOs who did not get an opportunity for input
  into the strategies, tactics, and activities
  FHWA AASHTO

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Next Steps Partnership II Meeting

• Freight Professional Development\
• Address freight professional development needs
  that were identified during the meeting FHWA
  AASHTO
• Develop channels of communication to share
  information about freight professional
  development opportunities - FHWA AASHTO
• Develop marketing materials to advertise freight
  professional development opportunities FHWA
• Comprehensive course catalogue
• Brochures/Fact Sheets
• More comprehensive online information
• Quarterly emails through the Freight Planning
  LISTSERV
• Provide guidance for developing a freight plan -
  FHWA