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

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 2 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.

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 3 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

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 4 Survey Findings: How High a Priority is Freight Transportation in Your Organization? FHWA Division Offices

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 5 MPOs and Regional Councils Survey Not Conducted with MPOs and Regional Councils in 2005 Survey Findings: How High a Priority is Freight Transportation in Your Organization?

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 6 Survey Findings: What High Priority Freight Issues Do You Foresee in the Next 5-10 Yrs?  Congestion  Commercial Vehicles  Rail  Intermodal Connections/ Planning/Facilities  Water/Ports  Congestion  Operations/Capacity  Commercial Vehicles  Security  Funding/Resources In Your State … For the Nation … FHWA Division Offices 2006/2007

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 7 Survey Findings: What High Priority Freight Issues Do You Foresee in the Next 5-10 Yrs?  Commercial vehicles  Congestion  Rail  Intermodal connections/ planning/facilities  Infrastructure  Operations/Capacity  Congestion  Operations/Capacity  Funding/Resources  Security  Commercial vehicles  Intermodal connections/ planning/facilities In Your Region/Locality … For the Nation … MPOs and Regional Councils 2006/2007

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 8 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

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 9 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

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 10 Survey Findings: Freight Leadership 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? FHWA Division Offices

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 11 Survey Findings: Freight Leadership 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? MPOs and Regional Councils

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 12 Freight Partnership II Meeting Freight Champions  Freight champion’s 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.

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 13 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.  MPO’s identified barriers to implementing projects  Limited funding/resources  Understanding of freight projects/needs  Sporadic freight industry involvement

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 14 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

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 15 National Freight Policy Framework

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 16 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.

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 17 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 weren’t planning on implementing activities as part of the policy framework.

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 18 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

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 19 National Freight Policy Framework – Common Tactics Tactic Number of Activities Identified Identified as Priority Issue in Survey? (NEW)- Establish a program for long-term truck parking facilities along the NHS. 8yes (NEW) - Develop a marketing and education campaign targeting community leaders – Focus on bottlenecks.4yes – Focus DOT attention on facilitating SAFETEA- LU designated “Projects of National or Regional Significance” likely to generate the greatest economic returns – Review public sector statutes, regulations, institutional arrangements and human capital for opportunities to improve freight operations – Improve analytical tools (e.g. Freight Analysis Framework, Freight Model Improvement Program). 4yes

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 20 National Freight Policy Framework – Discussion Items  Market the Policy.  Address funding in the Policy.  Continue to add to and enhance the Policy.

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 21 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.

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 22 Freight Partnership II Meeting Freight Professional Development  Top training needs identified:  Engaging with Freight Stakeholders…and 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.)

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 23 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

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 24 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

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 25 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.

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 26 Survey Findings: Next Steps for FHWA  Provide training/technical assistance/education/outreach  Provide support as needed  Promote networking with stakeholders  Assist with data collection efforts/ develop analytical tools

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 27 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

Federal Highway Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 28 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 s through the Freight Planning LISTSERV  Provide guidance for developing a freight plan - FHWA