DALLAS - Increased funding for regional transportation infrastructure serving major cities would provide more economic benefits than the current broad-based geographical approach, according to a recent study by the Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase.
Some 80% of all goods traded in the U.S. in 2010 --$16.2 trillion of the $20 trillion gross domestic product -- started off or ended up within the 100 largest metropolitan areas that serve as trading and distribution hubs for the nation, the report said.
Increasingly these shipments are delayed due to inadequate road and rail networks that are congested and create delays, as well as other economic frictions that hinder movement of goods and people, said study authors Adie Tomer, senior research associate and associate fellow at Brookings, and senior policy and research assistant Joseph Kane.
"These hubs are crucial access points to the country's most valuable trade corridors, and the operational efficiency of their freight infrastructure should be a national priority," the two said in "Mapping Freight: The Highly Concentrated Nature of Goods Trade in the United States."
The report identifies some 88,000 trade corridors in the national network, with the top 10% accounting for nearly 79% of the goods moved. Shipments are concentrated in the largest metropolitan areas, with just 888 of the corridors contributing nearly 38% of goods traded.
"Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles are the clear hubs of the national network, while other large metropolitan areas like Houston and Detroit are centralized traders based upon specialties," Tomer and Kane said.
Federal regulators and lawmakers must realize that trade bottlenecks in one part of the country can affect transportation patterns across the entire nation, they said.
With more than 77% of all goods crossing state lines or international borders, it is the duty of the federal government to develop a comprehensive, national freight strategy for significant infrastructure investments, Tomer and Kane said.
"Critically, it is the federal government's responsibility to reasonably protect local congestion from interfering with interstate commerce," the authors said. "It is essential that federal policymakers consider how transportation problems in distant hubs like Los Angeles and New York can impact Iowa's industries."
The report recommends development of a targeted infrastructure investment program, with dedicated funding for infrastructure developments in critical metropolitan hubs and trade corridors.
"The lack of a well-defined, networked approach to freight infrastructure continues to hold back needed projects and hinder long-term economic growth," the two authors said.
The proposed funding should be immune from annual appropriations battles and dedicated to regional programs rather than specific projects, they said.
"Even an emphasis on megaprojects may not be enough to solve a region's problems," the two said.
The 18-member Freight Stakeholders Coalition sent a letter to congressional leaders in September asking for dedicated federal funding of road, rail, port and freight projects in the next multi-year surface transportation bill.
President Obama's four-year, $302 billion Grow America Act transportation proposal would provide $10 billion of federal grants for freight-related projects.
Local and federal freight plans and infrastructure investments should focus on the most important trade corridors wherever they are found, Tomer said. That will involve key congressional committees and the Transportation and Commerce departments as well as shippers and state and local transportation experts, he said.
"Moving forward, firms and metropolitan areas need freight policies that better reflect how trade flows like a hub-and-spoke network," he said. "National and local leaders must recognize that investments in priority markets have the potential to benefit all regions of the country and keep our metro areas' goods trade competitive in the global market."
