Moving Ahead with Freight: Integrating State and Regional Freight Development in a National Freight Planning Context.

The key freight planning advances recommended in MAP-21 include the development of state and national freight plans, and the collateral development of a national freight network as specified in the legislation. This research provides a three tiered approach to understanding how state freight planning can build to a national strategic freight plan, and how states can understand and frame their state and regionally important freight corridors within a national freight corridor network. The first component of the analysis consists of an inventory of the breadth and status of state freight planning activities in the 10 MAFC states and compares these efforts to those across the nation. Secondly, the research examines a national priority freight network from the MAASTO state and regional perspective and compares state and regional corridors and connectors with the national system. The assessment of the MAASTO state freight system, including both the planning efforts and the state and regional corridor networks, are then related to MAP-21 freight policy developments and strategies. Based on a gap analysis, development strategies and policy initiatives are identified to increase awareness of the MASTO regions’ freight resources in ongoing policy discussions, and to support the accommodation of the significant freight systems in the MAASTO states in national policy and network.