Introduction

The U.S. economy is dependent on an efficient and reliable freight transportation system. Our highways, ports, waterways, railways, airports, warehouses, distribution centers, and intermodal and other facilities make up a complex system that shippers rely on to move products to markets. The performance of that system has direct implications for the productivity of the U.S. economy, the costs of goods and services, and the global competitiveness of our industries.

Over the past few years, transportation practitioners and decision-makers across the nation have recognized the need to mainstream freight considerations into the transportation decision-making process. When integrating freight into planning, programming, and project development, the unique environmental consequences of freight programs and projects must be accounted for and dealt with in a proactive fashion. Consequently, 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. Tony Furst, Director of the FHWA Office of Freight Management and Operations, kicked off the charrette by welcoming the attendees and stressing the importance of addressing environmental issues as they relate to freight transportation.

Table 1 - Charrette Attendees
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

Purpose and Need for the Course

To highlight the need for a course on freight and the environment, the attendees were given a brief overview of current freight transportation issues and relevant environmental considerations. The main issue noted was that demand is increasing across all modes, which in turn brings increased freight movement as described in the following statistics:

Truck traffic is contributing to worsening highway congestion at a faster rate than passenger traffic.
- Since 1993, truck traffic on urban highways has increased by more than twice as much as passenger traffic.
The capacity of the freight rail system has shrunk significantly.
- Since 1975, ton-miles moved has increased by nearly 100 percent, but road and track miles have decreased by over 40 percent.
Globalization is stressing the already over-burdened port system.
- From 1990 to 2000, tonnage at U.S. ports increased by approximately 14 percent, while capacity expanded only marginally.
Continued rapid growth in air freight could strain our aviation system.

The increase in freight movement is leading to a number of environmental issues. One such issue is increased diesel exhaust. This exhaust is a primary source of PM2.5, air toxic contaminants, and NOx emissions—one precursor to ozone—all of which are deemed to be major health threats, especially to children. Community livability and environmental justice issues also arise as a result of increased freight movement. Freight facilities are often built in or near minority and economically disadvantaged communities, leading to disproportional environmental impacts on these communities as more and more facilities are built. The need for these facilities also can lead to sprawl as they are built further from city centers. Other environmental issues that are coming into play are:

Noise.
- Rail and airport capacity expansion projects usually expose the surrounding communities to acute noise pollution.
Hazardous waste.
- Fill material produced by dredging could be contaminated, and dredging could cause re-suspension of contaminated sediment and destruction of wetlands and other habitat.
Hazardous materials.
- Increased risk of spills or releases.

Transportation practitioners and decision-makers are in need of tools and resources to help them better plan for freight transportation and mitigate associated environmental consequences. FHWA's Freight and the Environment course has the potential to help practitioners by:

Providing them with tools and resources to help them conform their transportation plans with air quality plans.
Helping them to understand the effectiveness of alternative mitigation strategies.
Making them aware of innovative tools and models for impact assessment and mitigation evaluation.
Educating them about environmental stewardship goals to ensure that freight capacity enhancement projects adhere to these goals.
Providing them with tools and resources to help them improve the timely delivery of needed projects.

Purpose of the Charrette

A charrette can be defined as a collaborative planning process that harnesses the talents and energies of all interested parties to create and support a feasible plan. In the case of the Freight and the Environment charrette, the feasible plan created was the framework for the course. While FHWA will ultimately decide on the content and format for this course, the outcome of the charrette will greatly help to shape the course curriculum.

FHWA recognizes that not all of the vast number of environmental issues surrounding freight transportation can be covered in one course. Therefore, the charrette was useful in helping FHWA to identify the priority issues that need to be covered. Attendees were also asked to:

Define the training needs relating to environmental issues facing freight practitioners (requirements for the course).
Confirm the course purpose, objectives, and scope.
Define the target audience for the course.
Define candidate topics for the course (lesson areas), learning outcomes for each lesson area, and relative priorities.
Identify (where possible) "notable" practices that relate to addressing environmental issues in freight transportation in a manner that is cost-effective and that supports mobility objectives.

The outcome of each of these activities will be used to develop a framework/curriculum for the course.

Process Overview

The agenda for the charrette was developed to have participants first develop a vision for the course and then to have them zoom in and focus on specifics. At the end of the day, participants were to take a step back and once again look at the course as a whole to determine if the framework that they created matched the needs that they had discussed at the beginning of the day. Throughout the day the attendees participated in a number of breakout session activities:

Envisioning
Establishment of scoping criteria
Identification of training needs
Testing of training needs
Development of lesson areas
Development of learning outcomes
Prioritization of training needs

The outcome of each of these activities is described in the proceeding sections of this report.

A mixture of "shared perspective" and "mixed perspective" breakout groups as well as large group discussions were used throughout these activities to elicit insights and perspectives from all participants to achieve the desired outcomes for the charrette. Attendees were broken into two shared perspective groups. One group was comprised of State DOT representatives and an EPA representative. The other group was comprised of planning organizations, a port authority representative, and an EPA representative. For the mixed perspective groups, attendees were broken into two groups comprised of people from each of the shared perspective groups.

The shared perspective groups were used to define issues and identify initial target audiences. It was assumed that the issues and audiences would likely be associated with specific organizational perspectives. By using shared perspective groups, FHWA was able to first get a better idea of what issues are important to what types of professionals and which of those ideas also apply to a broad range of transportation professionals. However, since the course will most likely target multiple perspectives, mixed perspective groups were used to develop the issues into lesson areas with specific learning outcomes. Throughout the day, the outcome of each breakout session was presented to the large group and at the end of the day the lesson areas were prioritized by the large group.

Definitions

Throughout the charrette and throughout this report, a number of terms are used in reference to planning for the course. These terms are defined below.

Course Outcomes: The measurable results that the course as a whole will be designed to deliver to students.

Issue: Challenges faced by participants in the course of their job as transportation professionals that relate, in this case, to planning or implementation of freight projects and the environmental considerations pertinent to such projects. These form the basis for the requirements for the course and "Lesson Areas."

Learning Outcomes: The measurable results that each Lesson Area will be designed to deliver to students.

Lesson Area: The defined training need, impact of the need on defined transportation professionals or projects, description of resources that can be of assistance, and knowledge of how the resources can assist transportation professionals.

Training Need: Those issues for which participants believe that greater knowledge about available resources, references, tools, techniques, or notable practices can materially assist transportation professionals.

Target Audience: The specific types of professionals that the course will be designed to target—i.e., be most practically useful to. This should be defined as specifically as possible in terms such as job type (planner, project manager, etc.), level (Federal/State/Local, etc.), and professional experience.

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