 Freight impacts every aspect of our lives. Food, clothing, cars, raw material, it all flows into and through our communities as freight. Manufactured items, agricultural products, and a host of finished goods flow back out to the world. The efficiency with which freight is transported into and out of rural and urban areas is of vital economic importance to our country. Freight shapes our economy and associated growth and development decisions. Our economy depends on an intermodal transportation system to bring us textiles from India, fruit from Mexico, computer chips from Asia, engine pistons from Germany, and automobiles from Japan. Without efficient coordinated freight transportation, many goods and their associated services, on which the United States and our trading partners rely, would be unattainable at today's cost and quantity. Freight transportation affects the cost of goods, the efficiency of services, and decisions concerning logistics. On a typical day, nearly 11.1 billion tons of commodities are moved across the U.S. transportation system. Additionally, more than 6 million businesses rely on this transportation system to conduct local and interstate commerce as well as international trade activities. Importantly, the linkage between freight movement and the transportation system can play a significant role in determining the vitality and prosperity of a given area. Decisions about where and how goods move affects the local, regional, and national transportation systems and their communities. Therefore, better informed decision makers and strategic decision making relative to the freight and the transportation system it traverses is of critical importance. Both public and private stakeholders within the metropolitan and statewide transportation planning processes have the opportunity to seek ways to better integrate freight into the transportation decision making process. Federal legislation emphasizes intermodalism and the critical importance of an efficient intermodal transportation system. In particular, federal legislation calls for the consideration of projects and strategies that will support the economic vitality of the metropolitan area or state by enabling global competitiveness, productivity, and efficiency, increase the accessibility and mobility options available to people and freight, and enhance the integration and connectivity of the transportation system across and between modes for people and freight. The U.S. Department of Transportation is continuously examining freight transportation needs that include safety and security at the national level. The U.S. Department of Transportation is committed to shaping an accessible, affordable, reliable transportation system for all people, goods, and regions. When freight is not addressed in the metropolitan and statewide transportation planning processes, local, regional, and global economies are impacted and the transportation system does not operate at its optimum efficiency. As a result, the following may occur, deficient pavement conditions, congestion at borders, intermodal facilities and metropolitan areas, increased consumer costs, and environmental degradation such as air quality, quality of life, noise, and community disruption. In partnership, state departments of transportation, or DOTs, and metropolitan planning organizations, or MPOs, must recognize and consider that the movement of freight is an important component of a region's transportation system. The efficient movement of freight within and through a region is critically important to industry, retail, agriculture, international trade, and terminal operators. Here are some ideas for planners to consider as they address freight in the transportation planning process. Reach out to private sector freight carriers and shippers. Learn about freight. Active and sustained private sector involvement in the planning processes is key to effective transportation decision making including identifying freight transportation improvements. Contributions from the private sector can include data sharing, identification of issues, concerns and solutions, education about their industry, and possibly funding. Norfolk Southern recognizes that it's in our best interest to be part of the transportation planning process. If the public sector planning organization is to develop cost effective projects based on the needs of the community, it needs the support of the private freight companies. Communities and other public agencies now rely on the expertise of the MPO to identify needs, solicit private sector input, and bring public agencies and the private sector together. Whether you are a provider or a user of freight transportation, the transportation planning process should be viewed as an opportunity to be heard by the people who could affect your future. The MPO can serve as the framework for establishing a successful partnership that involves honest communication and the exchange of ideas. A freight advisory group is a good way to establish a working relationship with private sector freight stakeholders and to address their concerns in the transportation planning process. In Baltimore, as in most metropolitan areas, there are private sector groups that deal with transportation, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics issues. Attending the meetings of these groups is a good way to start to understand issues and identify relationships. On the public sector side, it's a good idea to meet with staff from the state DOT and local jurisdictions. Then, both sectors can come to the table with short and long-term issues and improvements. The Washington State Legislature created the Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board to advocate for statewide freight needs without regard to jurisdictional boundaries, recommend strategic freight mobility projects to be funded on a prioritized basis and work with project sponsors to develop strategic freight corridor solutions. The board has worked with both Railroad-Serving Washington State, the ports, steamship companies and trucking interests to create a public-private sector partnership developing strategic freight corridors, eliminating choke points and mitigating freight impacts on local communities. This open process provides the private sector with a voice in the project selection and a greater willingness to assist with funding. The board should be viewed as one more tool to help build successful freight corridors. Freight operations tend to concentrate at hub points where ports, railheads or highway interstate exchanges often exist. Ease of access, including properly signalized intersections, adequate turning radii and adequate killing space should characterize these key hub points. Otherwise, traffic becomes overly congested, cycle times are slowed and delivery vehicles spend more time idling. Chicago, often referred to as the third largest port in the world, is a vital intermodal connector and hub. Chicago connectors are critical to local, regional and to global trade. In this region since 1997, we have considered 65 intermodal needs improvements, vertical clearances, road rehabilitation such as the one-time poster child of connectors, Kedsie Avenue in Chicago, signal improvements, etc. and to date we have delivered on about 30 of those. Freight, goods and services mobility strategy plans help identify the local freight transportation network, including intermodal terminals such as airports, rail yards and port facilities and railroads and highways that carry freight, goods and services. This type of plan can promote the appropriate design of neighborhoods, streets, buildings and shopping centers which in return would allow for safe and efficient interaction between the movement of people, freight, goods and services. Metro Plan Orlando, the MPO for the Orlando metropolitan area, is conducting a study to develop a freight, goods and services mobility strategy plan for Central Florida. Metro Plan Orlando has developed a freight, goods and services mobility strategy plan that gives us a much clearer picture of what's actually happening on our transportation infrastructure and how the various elements of that infrastructure interact with one another. Better understanding results in better planning of a truly intermodal system. This benefits everyone and helps keep our economy strong. It provides better services, moves people, freight and goods safely and officially. The DOT in Maine developed an integrated freight plan that serves as the blueprint for future project programming and policy decisions that promote more cost effective and efficient freight transportation in Maine. The state of Maine developed an integrated freight plan to remove barriers from the state's freight system and create a more seamless system for our shippers. The multimodal freight jurisdiction within DOT has helped all the players get to the table at one time and work on a wide variety of issues. Our beneficiaries are the shippers, the truck, rail and marine carriers, ports, airports, the legislature, state agencies and of course the public. While it is clear that our nation at all levels needs to invest capital in improving the movement of freight across our transportation system, many modest investments can yield significant results. Here are some modest investments that can be made to the transportation system and promote the efficient movement of freight. Retiming signals at intersections where heavy truck traffic exists, repairing potholes, resurfacing highway and railroad grade crossings, installing directional signs, increasing turning radii, retiming traffic signals and striping pavement. In the Philadelphia Camden area, straightforward as a program we've developed for getting small projects done quickly, links the maintenance programs of the region's many transportation authorities and allows our MPO to be proactive and sensitive to operations issues. We moved a curb for greater turning radii, added port terminals to directional signs, rehabilitated a railroad siding and paved a grade crossing. Our MPO is committed to incorporating goods movement into our overall planning. Traffic crashes resulting in roadway congestion and delays are inevitable. However, experience has shown that aggressive system management can reduce the congestion and delays associated with such incidents. Communities with efficient system management and incident management plans help keep people and freight moving in a sustainable manner. The growth in freight traffic, especially intermodal shipments to and from marine ports and intermodal terminals, coupled with the pressure for improved transportation system performance, have triggered major concerns about the ability of the transportation system to handle the rapidly increasing volumes of freight traffic with existing capacities. Based on these trends, MPOs and state DOTs must ensure that transportation decision makers consider the growth and impacts of freight movement. Importantly, both MPOs and state DOTs must work closely together and in partnership with shippers, freight carriers and manufacturers, as well as local governments, to define short and long-term needs. If you have not already integrated freight movement into your area's transportation planning process, start now.