National Academies Press: OpenBook

A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276 (2003)

Chapter: Study Committee Biographical Information

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Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." Transportation Research Board. 2003. A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10793.
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Study Committee Biographical Information

Arnim H. Meyburg, Chair, is Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, where he has been a faculty member for more than 30 years. He is also Director of the Transportation Infrastructure Research Consortium of the New York State Department of Transportation, a position he has held since 1995. Dr. Meyburg’s research interests include the development and use of models for planning passenger and freight movements; improved methods for surveying travel behavior intended for the development of travel behavior models; and the economics of transportation regulations, infrastructure, and systems management. He is a member of the National Research Council (NRC) Committee to Review the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ Survey Programs and recently prepared the conference synthesis for the November 2001 meeting, “Data Needs in the Changing World of Logistics and Freight Transportation,” held in Saratoga Springs, New York. Dr. Meyburg holds a B.A. (equivalent) from the Free University of Berlin, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University.


Paul H. Bingham is a principal with Global Insight, Inc., where he manages consulting work for the company’s global trade and transportation group. He has 19 years of experience in economic analyses of domestic and international freight transportation and is a specialist in freight transportation data. His work for public- and private-sector clients has included studies on the evolution of freight markets, patterns of international trade flows, and the economics of transportation infrastructure projects. He has managed freight forecasts for more than a dozen state departments of transportation or port authorities and several large metropolitan planning organizations. Mr. Bingham chairs the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Freight Transportation Data and was a member of the NRC Committee for the Study of Freight Transportation Capacity for the Next Century. He holds a B.S. in economics.

Page 111
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." Transportation Research Board. 2003. A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10793.
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Kenneth D. Boyer is Professor of Economics at Michigan State University, a position he has held since 1984. His current research focuses on the economics of transportation, the economics of antitrust and regulation, and the measurement of the costs and benefits of activity within geographic networks. His recent publications include papers on truck-ing deregulation, the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and spatial techniques for analyzing transportation demand, and a textbook, Principles of Transportation Economics. Dr. Boyer is a member of the Industrial Organization Society and the Transportation and Public Utilities Group of the American Economic Association. He has served on several NRC committees, including the Committee for the Study of Public Policy for Surface Freight Transportation, which prepared the report Paying Our Way: Estimating Marginal Social Costs of Freight Transportation (TRB Special Report 246). He holds a B.A. from Amherst College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan, all in economics.


Robert Costello is the Chief Economist and Vice President for the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the national trade association for the trucking industry. In this position, he manages all ATA’s collection, analysis, and dissemination of trucking economic information, including several monthly trucking economic indicators, motor carrier financial and operating data, and an annual freight transportation forecast. He also conducts economic analyses of proposed regulations and legislation affecting the trucking industry. Prior to joining ATA, Mr. Costello was an economist with Joel Popkin & Company in Washington, D.C., an economic consulting firm specializing in the analysis of wages, inflation, and macroeconomic trends. He holds a B.A. degree from Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota, and a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa.


David L. Ganovski is Director of Rail Freight Services with the Maryland Department of Transportation. He administers statewide railroad issues and is the state’s primary consultative resource on matters relating to freight movements, particularly by rail. He served on the Maryland Governor’s merger task force that managed the recent breakup of Con-

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Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." Transportation Research Board. 2003. A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10793.
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rail. Mr. Ganovski has participated in several United States–European Union intermodal summit meetings on rail movement and infrastructure planning; he also cochairs the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ rail subcommittee infrastructure task force. Before joining the Maryland Department of Transportation, Mr. Ganovski held management positions with CSX Transportation in Baltimore, Richmond, Pittsburgh, Houston, and Jacksonville. He was responsible for a range of sales, marketing, operations, and operations planning activities, and for many years he was involved in the CSX “Total Quality Process.” Mr. Ganovski majored in transportation law and regulation at the University of Baltimore and holds a Certificate of Transportation Management, also from the University of Baltimore.


J. Susie Lahsene is transportation planning manager for the Port of Portland, Oregon. She manages transportation and logistics planning, transportation capital planning, and resource acquisition for the port’s surface transportation system. She chairs the TRB Committee on Urban Freight Transportation and is a founding member of the Portland Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar. Ms. Lahsene holds a B.A. in urban studies and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning, both from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and an M.B.A. from the University of Portland.


Catherine T. Lawson is Assistant Professor in Geography and Planning at the State University of New York at Albany, and Interim Director of the university’s Master’s Program in Urban and Regional Planning. Her research and teaching interests include freight and archived intelligent transportation systems, geographic information systems, transportation planning, and spatial analysis and statistical applications. She recently completed a project for the Oregon Department of Transportation on the development of an effective methodology to survey the freight community and is currently working with the Washington State Department of Transportation on the formulation of performance measures for freight movements in the I-5 corridor using In-Transit Visibility tech-

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Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." Transportation Research Board. 2003. A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10793.
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nologies. Dr. Lawson holds a B.A. in economics and accounting from Western Washington University, master’s degrees in applied economics and urban and regional planning from Portland State University, and a Ph.D. in urban studies and regional science, also from Portland State University.


Robert E. Martínez is Vice President, Marketing Services and International with Norfolk Southern Corporation, which owns Norfolk Southern Railway Company, a major freight railroad. From 1994 to 1998, Dr. Martínez was the Secretary of Transportation in the Commonwealth of Virginia with oversight responsibility for the development and implementation of Virginia’s transportation program. He also had management and budgetary responsibility for the commonwealth’s Department of Transportation, Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Aviation, Department of Rail and Public Transportation, and Port Authority. His previous positions include Manager of Strategic Planning at Norfolk Southern Corporation and Associate Deputy Secretary of Transportation with the U.S. Department of Transportation. Dr. Martínez holds a B.A. degree from Columbia University, an M.A. degree in international relations from Yale University, and a Ph.D. degree in political science, also from Yale.


Robert Tardif is a senior planner with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation in Downsview, Canada. He has 17 years of experience in transportation planning, with emphasis on demand forecasting and strategic studies. In recent years, his work has focused on the conduct and analysis of commercial vehicle surveys, and he was the project manager for Ontario’s 1999 Commercial Vehicle Survey. This activity involved developing partnerships with New York and Michigan through the Eastern Transportation Border Coalition to jointly fund data collection at international gateways. Mr. Tardif has developed models for forecasting future freight flows to assist the Ministry of Transportation in its planning and capital allocation processes. He holds a diploma in civil engineering technology from Humber College and has completed several transportation planning courses at the University of Toronto.

Page 114
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." Transportation Research Board. 2003. A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10793.
×

C. Michael Walton is Professor of Civil Engineering and holds the Ernest H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas. He also has a joint academic appointment in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Dr. Walton is actively involved in developing and defining transportation policy through his research, publications, and national service to government and industry. He has contributed to more than 200 publications in the areas of intelligent transportation systems; freight transport; and transportation engineering, planning, policy, and economics. He is a founding member of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and currently serves as Chair of its Board of Directors. Dr. Walton is a past chair of the TRB Executive Committee and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He holds a B.S. from the Virginia Military Institute and master’s and Ph.D. degrees from North Carolina State University, all in civil engineering.

Page 110
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." Transportation Research Board. 2003. A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10793.
×
Page 110
Page 111
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." Transportation Research Board. 2003. A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10793.
×
Page 111
Page 112
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." Transportation Research Board. 2003. A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10793.
×
Page 112
Page 113
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." Transportation Research Board. 2003. A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10793.
×
Page 113
Page 114
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." Transportation Research Board. 2003. A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10793.
×
Page 114
A Concept for a National Freight Data Program: Special Report 276 Get This Book
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TRB Special Report 276 - A Concept for a National Freight Data Program calls upon the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and its Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) to take the lead in coordinating freight data collection in the United States. Citing the need for accurate goods movement data in order to make informed decisions related to congestion, economic competitiveness, safety and security, and the environment, the TRB report recommends the development of a national freight data framework.

The report's conceptual framework focuses on increasing the linkages between different sources of data and filling data gaps to develop a comprehensive source of timely and reliable data on freight flows. The national freight database aims to fulfill the major needs of a wide variety of users by capturing the important characteristics of freight movements--namely, shipment origin and destination; commodity characteristics, weight, and value; modes of shipment; routing and time of day; and vehicle or vessel type and configuration. The database also forms a foundation on which users can build their own more specialized data sets.

In its eight recommendations, the report's study committee offers the U.S. DOT and the BTS specific guidance on developing a multiyear program to implement the framework concept. In particular, the committee strongly recommends that a freight data advisory committee composed of stakeholders and experts drawn from both the public and the private sectors play a key role in guiding program development and implementation. The proposed initiative will require a sustained effort over many years and involve many technical and organizational challenges. The amount of data required is large, and some of the information needed by decision makers has not previously been collected in the United States. The report highlights the development of innovative, low-cost methods for data collection and of procedures to protect the confidentiality of data providers as critical to a successful final outcome.

Demands on the U.S. transportation system continue to evolve in response to changing patterns of goods movement and passenger travel and heightened concerns about transportation security. In the case of freight, the growth of international trade, the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, deregulation, and the advent of freight logistics have all resulted in changes in the nature and volumes of goods shipped and the origins and destinations of shipments. At the same time, growing congestion on the nation's roads and at transportation hubs, such as ports and airports, not only inconveniences travelers but also threatens to undermine the reliable and timely movement of goods so critical to the national economy and quality of life.

The effectiveness and efficiency of the freight transportation system are heavily dependent on reliable data to inform a range of decisions at all levels of government and in the private sector about economic and infrastructure investments and policy issues. Data on goods movements are needed to identify and evaluate options for mitigating congestion, improve regional and global economic competitiveness, enable effective land use planning, inform investment and policy decisions about modal optimization, enhance transportation safety and security, identify transportation marketing opportunities, and reduce fuel consumption and improve air quality. While data alone cannot guarantee good decisions, informed choices are not possible without good data.

Data on goods movements are collected by federal agencies and other public- and private-sector entities that monitor or analyze transportation and trade activities on a regional, state, national, or international level. Because these data collection efforts are not coordinated, the resulting data sets are of varying quality and reliability and provide an incomplete picture of the universe of freight movements. Furthermore, difficulties in combining data from the diverse sources limit the usefulness of current data sets for the purposes of freight transportation analyses. To remedy these deficiencies, a national freight data framework is needed.

A four page summary of the report was published in the July-August 2004 issue of the TR News.

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