By: Cynthia Kurtz
Posted 3/20/2013
Trains, planes and automobiles - we need all kinds of transportation to meet the challenges of moving goods and services. This is especially true in Southern California where 40 percent of the containerized goods that enter the U.S. destined for places throughout the country comes through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Last week while
visiting officials in Washington
D.C., I had an
opportunity to learn more about what the federal government is thinking regarding
goods movement. There are issues that transpose party lines. While the
political parties don’t agree on much and the likelihood of a federal budget
remains slim, everyone I spoke to agreed that there is a critical need for
investments in infrastructure. Among the most pressing is the need for
improvements in transportation systems particularly those used extensively for
moving products from where they are produced or imported to the customers and
users.
The first step
in the federal legislative process is setting policy. When the topic is
transportation that means including the item in the national transportation
act. The latest transportation act, “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st
Century" or "MAP-21” for short, passed in October 2012. It represents
a significant change in thinking about goods movement.
Map-21 is the
first national transportation act to recognize the importance of freight. It
establishes a National Freight Policy, calls for investments in transportation
and operational improvements, and requires the federal Department of
Transportation to define "primary" and "rural" networks of
roads that are essential in freight movements.
Map-21 also
encourages States to develop their own freight strategic plans and advisory
committees. The committees are to be broad reaching and include representatives
from ports, shipping, carriers, freight associations, state transportation
departments and state and local government.
While there are
great advances in planning for freight, in its current form the freight policy
and essential networks are defined exclusively around the highway system. Those
of us here in the SGV know freight rail, which carries 42 percent of the
nations ton-miles, is also a critical part of the goods movement system. If all
of the freight that crosses the SGV were in trucks, our congestion would be
unmanageable. The Alameda Corridor East along with its safety improvements and
22 grade separations needs to be regarded with the same high priority as our
interstate system.
That's why this
month's introduction of the "Multimodal Opportunities Via Enhanced (MOVE)
Freight Act of 2013" is such encouraging news. The Freight Act focuses on
creating a national freight plan for moving goods by road, rail, water and air.
Introduced by Congressmember Sires from New Jersey,
it has five co-sponsors including the San Gabriel Valley's
Congressmember Grace Napolitano and Southern California Congressmember Janice
Hahn.
Freight volumes
are expected to more than double by 2040. This makes an inclusive policy that
expands the definition of national freight network and makes financial
investments in a multimodal integrated system key to developing the most
effective and efficient system for goods movement. Now everyone in the SGV
should get behind this important piece of legislation and help lift it over the
finish line.
