A widespread network of freight hubs, including rail transfer facilities, rail yards, and truck-oriented warehouse and distribution facilities, helps get goods to and from our region’s customers and businesses. Trucks are a critical and necessary part of this system, but they are significant contributors to regional congestion and pollution. During 2020, NYMTC launched two studies reflecting the importance of freight in the tri-state region, that includes the planning areas of the nine metropolitan planning organizations and councils of government which comprise the Metropolitan Area Planning (MAP) Forum in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.

Clean Freight Corridors Study

Originating from NYMTC’s current  Plan 2045's Freight Plan, the Clean Freight Corridors Planning Study assesses opportunities for the designation and development of Clean Freight Corridors within the NYMTC planning area and across several states. The study is identifying a series of roadways to best advance high-efficiency, lowemission alternative transportation technologies for all types of vehicles that ship freight. The roadways to be assessed include high speed traffic highways, local roads that support the connection of two modes of freight, trucking “hubs”, and areas of concentrated goods movement activity.

Regional corridors are being analyzed as potential regional locations for the fueling and charging infrastructure necessary to support electric and alternative-fueled vehicles. Recommended corridors will have the best potential for accommodating these vehicles, based on current and future vehicle volumes, technology development trends, freight movement, and trip patterns and types. A series of workshops with key stakeholder groups will be scheduled during the summer of 2021.

Regional Freight Land Use Study

NYMTC’s Regional Freight Land Use Study, also recommended in the Regional Freight Plan, is collecting and analyzing freight and industrial land use data in the NYMTC planning area and larger multi-state metropolitan region. The study will use these data to define current, recent, and projected future land use designations and locations of freight businesses. The study is assessing potential changes in freight-related and industrial land uses across the region by developing a freight land use “typology” that identifies and describes key categories of freight land use. This typology also identifies examples across the region and describes trends and key issues specific to each category.