North American Free Trade Agreement Trucks on U.S. Highway Corridors

Abstract

The increasing number of trucks that transport U.S.–Mexico and U.S.– Canada trade on U.S. highways has stimulated a strong interest among state departments of transportation and federal highway officials in the location and truck densities along these highway corridors. In many cases, public advocacy groups seeking corridor-related economic development have been formed to promote one or more highway trade corridors. Most of these groups advocate a north-south route through the United States between Canada and Mexico that follows the alignment of an existing federal highway number. Because of the interest in and promotion of highway trade corridors in the United States, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century includes authorizations for a discretionary program for the development, study, and construction of highway trade corridors. This places a serious burden on state and federal highway administrators to define, plan, and upgrade these corridors adequately. Earlier work that defined U.S. highway trade corridors for U.S.–Mexico trade is extended by including U.S.-Canada trade and total North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) trade. Results indicate that U.S.-Mexico trade transported by truck primarily affects the highway corridors in southern border states such as Texas, California, and Arizona. U.S.–Canada trade primarily affects highway trade corridors in the northern border states of Michigan, New York, Ohio, Illinois, and the states along 1-80 from Salt Lake City to Chicago. Interestingly, there are no significant north-south NAFTA highway corridors with a single Interstate or U.S. Highway number.