Heather Tat

Assignment 1: Beyond Traffic Part 1

How We Move
The Beyond Traffic report investigates the United States transportation system
today, as well as the factors that may force changes that will come to the system in the
coming decades. In the How We Move section, the reading describes the demographic,
economic, geographic, and cultural trends that affect everyday travel for Americans. It is
known that people move around in order to travel to their jobs, homes, supermarkets, and
loved ones. To get to their destination, a vast majority use vehicles to commute and air
travel for long distances. However, currently Americans are undergoing a change in travel.
Many are choosing to walk, bike, or use public transportation more than before.
Furthermore, why Americans travel are beginning to change as well. People are working
from home, socializing online, and e-shopping. Thus, with the rise of technology, already
trends in travel and needs to travel are adapting as people are in favor of more reliable on
convenient alternatives.
It is expected that in the coming 30 years, the American population will grow by
about 70 million people. Thus, there are issues in keeping up the capacity of transportation
to accommodate the increase of commuters in the future. Either the nation must find ways
to add more capacity, or come up with better solutions that will result in more efficient use
of existing capacity. Today, approximately half of all Americans live in the suburbs and
nearly four in ten of all commutes begin and end in suburbs. Over the next thirty years,
most of the nation’s population growth, and job growth, will take place in regional clusters
of metropolitan cities. Thus, the need for congestion solutions will eventually heighten
within the coming decades. Furthermore, in the next 30 years it is predicted that hub
airports will face severe congestion, aging dams and locks for water navigation will raise
the price of moving freight and fuel along waterways, and ports and transit systems will
need major maintenance to sustain jobs and the economy.
One fact that took me by surprise in this reading was that the annual cost of
congestion in delays and lost fuel is $160 billion dollars. I’ve honestly never put much
thought or realized just how much time and energy was wasted each year just because of
congestion. I think in the past, I have just come to accept that congestion is a part of
everyday life, rather than realizing that there can be actual sustainable solutions
implemented in the nation’s transportation infrastructure and people’s mindsets. In fact,
after this reading, I feel it is now more critical than ever to take a look at what the nation
can do to solve this problem instead of waiting for the problem to worsen.

How We Move Things

Five Facts/Statistics/Trends about Freight Transport
1. About 50 million tons of freight move across our nation every day
2. As our economy grows, truck and rail freight movements are expected to increase by
more than 40%. Overall, the volume of imports and exports transported by our freight
system are expected to more than double in the next 30 years.
3. Freight transportation is involved in approximately 13 percent of all transportation
fatalities.
4. Crude oil production is up 74% since 2008. Rail carried 493,146 carloads of crude oil in
2013, 52 times the 9,500 carloads of crude oil in 2008.
5. Since 1990, greenhouse gas emissions from trucking have increased five times faster
than emissions from passenger travel.

I’ve always known that cars and other modes of travel contribute significantly to air
pollution, but I have never given much thought to just how much more trucking and freight
movement contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. It definitely makes sense that heavier,
larger cars emit larger amounts of pollutants such as hydrocarbons, particulates, and
nitrogen oxides. However, the fact that heavy diesel fueled trucks emit 50% more
hydrocarbons per mile than the average passenger car definitely strikes me as an issue that
needs to be addressed in the upcoming years. This is definitely something that engineers
can look at in increasing efficiency and sustainability. Other solutions could include getting
more of these trucks off the road and having “freight sharing” much like that of Uber for
passengers.
Overall
Ultimately, from reading the first two sections of the report, I feel that our current
transportation system is inadequate and will continue to worsen in the future if solutions
are not carefully analyzed now and implemented in the future. I noticed in both readings
that congestion, freight demand, and needs for solutions are concentrated in metropolitan
population centers with dense populations. There are severe issues in accommodating
millions of Americans who commute largely in suburban areas, as well as difficulties in
“first mile” and “last mile” freight movements. It was shocking to realize how connected
transportation of goods and people are, and their direct correlation to congestion and road
conditions. With growing populations in the coming thirty years, both the transportation
and freight system will further feel the burden of transporting people and goods every
year. Currently, approximately 63 tons of goods are moved per American each year and this
year, the average driver in a city or suburb will spend an entire work week sitting in traffic.
Furthermore, aging locks and dams are raising the cost of freight and fuel along water ways
and transit systems are faced with $100 billion in maintenance in the upcoming years. As
we look to the future, we must consider changing driving habits, land use, innovations in
transportation, safety, and policy implications. After reading the report, I feel that the
impending transportation issue of both humans and goods has a high risk of affecting the
nation’s economy, public safety, and environment. It is certainly a problem when the
numbers are gathered and you realize that $160 billion dollars are lost to congestion in
delays and lost fuel alone. Declining infrastructure affects the entire nation and is one of the
most expensive, and critical issues facing society today and in the many years to come.