Part 1: 2005 Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lecture: Sparking the Globalized Trade and Transportation Connection: Supplying Freight System Responses to Global Trade Demands

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the U.S. government and private industry have actively worked to promote global trade. However, sufficient attention has not been paid to updating and improving the corresponding national transportation assets required to take full advantage of the economic opportunities in today's dynamic world market. This paper reviews the growth trends in international trade, including major shifts in the sourcing and distribution of U.S. goods from overwhelmingly domestic systems to increasingly global ones. It highlights the great stresses that these changes in freight movement place on all transport modes, especially those at international gateways, where the modes interface. The paper then examines several structural, conceptual, and funding barriers that the American private and public sectors face in framing an effective response. These transportation and trade conditions are aptly called wicked problems, complex problems that sow confusion and fragmentation wherever they arise. The ...