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OCR for page 63
Urban Freight Transportation
Mark Griffin, Southern California Association of Governments
David Levinson, University of Minnesota
Martin Ruesch, Rapp Trans AG, Switzerland
MOVING THE GOODS IN LOS ANGELES international logistics industry are working to increase
the region's share of freight movements. For example,
Mark Griffin the effect of "load centering" can be discerned in the
increasing market share of Asia-related trade being cap-
The six-county region of Southern California represented tured by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach rela-
by the Southern California Association of Governments tive to other West Coast ports, as well as by the greater
(SCAG) serves as a crucial node of international and proportion (more than double) of Asia trade handled by
national commercial flows. Commercial movements in West Coast ports as a group relative to what would oth-
and through the region contribute a significant amount of erwise be expected given their local populations and lev-
economic activity across the nation. For example, the els of economic activity. In addition, the practice of
Southeast region of the United States, inclusive of Miami, "transloading," whereby international goods are
recorded slightly more than $87 billion worth of commer- repackaged from 40-foot international marine contain-
cial movements with the SCAG region in 2000. ers into 53-foot domestic containers and trailers, has
The SCAG region connects with the rest of the nation been identified as a key characteristic in the shaping of
via a freight infrastructure system that reaches by rail regional commercial flows.
and road to every part of the contiguous states. This The combined effects of load centering and
connectivity sustains certain levels of economic value transloading are expected to impose significant new
nationwide, and the level of activity indicates the mag- demands on the goods movement infrastructure of
nitude of "value added" attributable to the goods move- Southern California. In light of these developments,
ment infrastructure in Southern California and the SCAG is targeting pricing schemes that are consistent
nation. with the development of greater goods movement
In return for accommodating these international and capacity in the region.
national commercial flows on its regional freight infra- To build needed new capacity, new sources of revenue
structure system, the SCAG region receives (and distrib- must be found, and pricing mechanisms of one sort or
utes) a lot of freight. This load negatively affects air another are the most likely candidate. The updated 2004
quality and transportation congestion in the SCAG Regional Transportation Plan for the SCAG region,
region and thus diminishes the region's quality of life. presently out in draft for public comment, identifies user-
The volumes of freight handled by the region are fee supported revenue bonds as the primary financial
forecast to double or triple by 2030, depending on the strategy for developing greater goods movement capacity.
mode of transportation considered. In addition to a Revenues raised from commercial flows in the region
local population of 17 million and a regional economic would be used to create new, special-purpose infrastruc-
product in excess of $600 billion, several trends in the ture capacities. Examples of special-purpose facilities
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