Today, we released The Good Haul, a report that highlights how clean freight innovations improve reliability, while also reducing freight-related health and environmental risks.
The U.S. freight system needs to be modernized in a way that reduces environmental impacts. The Good Haul [PDF] profiles 28 projects, programs, and technologies around the U.S. and internationally that do just that. That is, they have simultaneously increased freight reliability while lowering air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
These cases studies include practice changes, like eco-driving, as well as new technologies, like the Port of Virginia’s hybrid diesel locomotive. The case studies also include large, planned freight hub clean up projects, such as the CREATE program in Chicago and the Clean Air Action Plan at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
None of the projects highlighted in The Good Haul are industry standards or have been adopted broadly, but they ought to be.
Funding is one of the barriers to widespread adoption of these practices, technologies and projects. Smart, directed, public investments that demand a better freight transportation system that also reduce pollution, can chip away at this barrier. The federal transportation bill now being drafted by Congress is one place to begin this smart approach.
Freight is the fastest growing transportation sector, and as we discussed in a post last week, pollution from freight—everything from trucks to tugboats to rail locomotives—is a huge health and environmental challenge.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll profile several of the innovations highlighted in our report. Stay tuned for examples that prove that that U.S. freight system can be cleaner and more efficient at the same time.