Executive Summary
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is in the process of developing a training course on Freight and the Environment. As a first step, FHWA held a one-day, invitation-only charrette (structured brainstorming session) to determine the most pressing environmental issues faced by freight-oriented practitioners at all levels of government so that the course curriculum can be developed. The Freight and the Environment charrette was held on February 9, 2005, at the U.S. Department of Transportation Headquarters in Washington, DC. Fourteen professionals from around the United States, representing a variety of freight interests, attended the charrette. The attendee composition is shown in Table 1.
| Attendee Type | Number of Attendees |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) | 6 |
| State Department of Transportation (DOT) | 5 |
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | 2 |
| Port Authority | 1 |
Vision for the Course
The first activity of the day was a breakout session in which participants were asked to envision what people would be saying about the course two years from now. From this exercise, the participants identified their expectations for the outcomes of the course which can be summarized as follows:
- Promote the reality that making freight projects environmentally friendly is good business and good politics.
- Gain widespread recognition and attention for crossing barriers and aligning perspectives toward shared goals/higher ground among previously "opposing views."
- Promote and develop role models who will extend these practices in their communities.
- Address public and private sector needs/perspectives.
- Enhance a more positive public perception of freight transportation.
Guidelines for Course Development
In the next exercise, the participants were asked to think of criteria, or guidelines for course development to be to be used in considering candidate topic areas for the proposed course based on the vision themes that were previously defined.
Perhaps one of the most common themes heard in this session and throughout the day was that the course must present a "big picture" overview to get all students on the same page. This big picture overview should give students an awareness of the high-level environmental issues relevant to freight movement across all modes as well as the stakeholders and key players and their processes, constraints, and shared goals. With this in mind, course attendees would then be able to understand more clearly the issues discussed during the course, and when they return to their workplace, they would, hopefully, have a better understanding of how best to work with other stakeholders to mitigate environmental issues.
Many other ideas were also voiced during this session and the identified criteria were summarized into the guidelines for course development shown in Table 2.
| The course should… |
|---|
| Provide a big picture overview. |
| Include the public and private sectors. |
| Identify and promote win-win solutions. |
| Address practical and solvable issues. |
| Be action-oriented and enable application of what was learned to an actual project. |
| Address priority issues. (However, what is considered priority may depend on the geographical area.) |
| Address multimodal issues. |
A listing of all of the criteria comments heard during the breakout session is included in Appendix B.
Training Needs and Target Audience
As a first step toward shaping the framework for the course, the attendees were asked to identify training needs and target audiences for each of the identified needs. Overall 17 needs or issues were identified. These issues and the related target audiences are included in Appendix C.
State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) emerged as the key target audience groups for the course. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was also identified as a key public sector audience. In addition, as the charrette participants repeatedly expressed the need for the course to bring together the public and private sectors, a number of private sector groups were also identified as target audiences. This includes:
- Port Authorities and terminal managers (rail and air)
- Rail and trucking associations and providers
- Shipping logistics managers
- Universities
A full list of identified course audiences is included in Appendix D.
After all issues were identified and discussed, they were consolidated into eight issues. For each issue, the participants were asked to identify potential lesson content and learning objectives for the course. The lesson content consisted of resources, tools, techniques, references, and notable practices that could be used to assist course participants with mitigating the issues. By identifying lesson content and learning objectives, the charrette attendees developed an initial curriculum for the course. A table showing the issues, lesson content, and learning objectives can be found beginning on page 8.
As it is understood that the course will not be able to encompass all issues discussed in the charrette, the participants were asked to vote on the priority issues. The issues and their vote counts are shown in Table 3. Understanding air quality issues and understanding the impacts of land use/consumption, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), mode shift, and congestion emerged as the training needs of the highest priority.
| Issue | Votes |
|---|---|
|
10 |
|
10 |
|
5 |
Note: May need to define what types of things need this funding… |
4 |
|
3 |
|
1 |
Note: except for Ports, this isn't a very broad freight issue |
0 |
Note: All modes have noise issues but the issues are different among modes. |
0 |
Additional Training Needs
Several participants suggested additional training needs that were not discussed during the charrette. These needs should also be considered for inclusion in the course:
- Transportation professionals need to understand the water quality impacts of freight, such as wet lands and storm water runoff impacts, as well as regulations meant to mitigate these impacts.
- Transportation professionals need to develop an understanding of the critical importance of community involvement and participation in the planning and implementation process. The course needs to provide positive examples and tools to accomplish this.
- Transportation professionals need to develop an understanding of Federal and State project environmental review processes (e.g., NEPA, CEQA) and, most critically, ways to expedite these processes without alarming the community that requirements are being bypassed ("streamlining").
- Safety and Security – Transportation professionals need to be able to assess vulnerabilities in the transportation network, especially for a State's major freight movements, and plan to create better redundancy to mitigate these vulnerabilities. For example, there are a limited number of Mississippi River crossings. Eliminating one of these crossings could affect shipment of California agricultural products to the eastern U.S. The solution should be not only in surveillance, but also in planning for alternate routes. This requires an understanding of vulnerable locations and an understanding of what types of freight would be interrupted and the time sensitivity of these shipments.
Course Format
Throughout the day, a number of comments were heard regarding potential formats for the course. While FHWA may be limited to specific formats due to NHI requirements, these suggestions will remain under advisement:
- Begin the course with a big picture overview of the environmental issues involved with freight movement.
- Allow a group working on a project together to take the course together. They should walk away from the course with an action plan for their specific project.
- Hold two different courses: one for executives focusing mainly on a big picture overview, and one for practitioners.
- Create the course in a modular format, with modules oriented to either the public or the private sector. Both sectors could go through the same exercises, but would attend the course in separate sessions.
- Make the course area specific. The issues faced on one geographic area may be different from the issues faced in another area. The course should be customizable.
Charrette Outcome
As a result of the charrette, an initial framework has been developed for the freight and the environment course. This framework will prove to be extremely useful as FHWA moves forward in the development of the course.
It was noted that it is difficult to have a course on the environment without saying something about water, i.e., wetlands and storm water. This was not a topic of focus during the charrette, but it was agreed that it is important for inclusion in the course. As there are other courses that do address this issue, the freight and the environment course may not need to focus a whole lesson on this topic, but it should point students to the other available environment courses as potential resources.
