Best Practices in Freight Planning

Freight planning is now a required part of transportation planning. State departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) are all struggling with how to include meaningful freight information in their transportation plans. In many cases, their efforts are frustrated by the lack of critical information on freight movements, the lack of control over major freight modes, or the lack of a model for how good freight planning should be done. This effort, which was sponsored by the Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE) and the Mississippi Valley Freight Coalition (MVFC), is an attempt to provide some framework and ideas on how to begin freight planning. This guide was prepared after reviewing many state and MPO plans and after talking with many people who were involved in those plans. The ideas contained within are largely those of planners who have had some success in doing freight work. In some cases they draw on other research efforts. In still others, they are the product of the researchersʼ efforts to synthesize from a range of experiences.