The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) recently released a report providing recommendations for freight-planning best practices on a state level.
The ATRI compiled the best practices by asking for state freight plans. The top plans were used to form a checklist by which other plans were assessed. The plans also were compared to the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act’s required and recommended components.
This process created minimum freight planning requirements and innovative practices.
Texas had the highest ranked freight plan, based on the state’s detailed freight flow and commodity data as well as its Freight Advisory Committee involvement in the planning process.
“We are excited to be able to contribute our knowledge base to this important effort, and even more flattered that we were chosen by our peers as a model freight plan,” Caroline Mays, director of the Texas Department of Transportation’s Freight Office, said. “That said, our freight work has really just begun.”
The other top states were Georgia, California, Mississippi, Iowa, Florida, Washington, Michigan, Ohio, Nevada, Maryland, and Alabama.
The report will be used by departments of transportation and their consultants to assist them in complying with freight planning elements that departments of transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, and state trucking associations find critical.