A group of cargo experts representing a wide variety of freight and community interests who met recently at California State University, Long Beach, for a "Delivering the Goods: Good Environment, Good Technology, Good Economy" visioning dialogue forum is recommending ways to revolutionize freight systems across Southern California. The group had been tasked to re-think the goods movement problems of the Los Angeles basin. They concluded that to deal with competing economic and environmental issues such as air pollution and congestion that result from the flood of imports and exports crisscrossing the area, it is time for a new vision and new leadership. Their collaboration on a series of visions and constraints, which they hope will transform the region's approach to goods movement, is summarized below
  • Southern California Needs a Single, Motivating Vision of Better Freight Technology. The group cited the Interstate Highway System launched in the 1950s and the more recent Alameda Corridor as good examples of the motivating vision that could inspire the development of a new technology which would simultaneously benefit the environment and the economy.

    According to Dr. Phil Borden, a moderator of the discussion, such vision requires strong, consistent leadership.

    "In the past," summarized Borden, "short-term thinking and attempts to simply mitigate environmental problems-rather than truly solve them-have resulted in increasing fragmentation of the community and the freight industry. This has increased the vulnerability of the local ports to economic downturn. Instead, we need a vision that organizes both current and emerging technologies in support of large scale solutions."

    Such a vision would ideally be supported by a comprehensive policy for freight, at least at the regional level, and preferably national or international, concluded the group, with standards that allow local ports to compete on a level playing field, based on competitive advantages.

  • The Environmental Pendulum May Have Swung Too Far in Southern California. Rather than inspiring collaboration of public and private interests, the group felt the momentum of the environmental movement against freight has caused fragmentation and balkanization. Instead, this group said enlightened businesses recognize that promoting good environmental impacts is "good business," and there is wide room for cooperation.
  • "Our litigious society," said Borden, "means that stopping progress is easier than pushing it forward. But the tensions can be eased by involving all stakeholders as early in the process as possible and by maintaining a high sense of transparency."
  • New Technologies Must Replace Old Modes, But We Need a Method for Evaluating the Most Applicable, Useful, and Beneficial. A major conclusion by the group is that there is presently no mechanism for deciding which freight technology systems to "push" via grants or via competitive selection. Instead, the process of technology promulgation and adoption is fragmented and "irrational."

    Concluded Borden on behalf of the group, "We need a single disinterested/objective evaluative entity for potential technologies, including a process of peer review, and a method of cost/benefit analysis to make wise technology investments." Any new Southern California freight system will cost billions of dollars, so the stakes are huge.

    At the same time, these experts stressed that a new goods movement technology should be paid for by the private sector, perhaps through a "cap-and-trade" process.

    "Technologies require commercialization to become useful," said Borden. "Technical innovations generate little impact until converted into concrete, commercial products.

  • Younger Generations Will Embrace and Implement The New Approach. The group concluded that younger people are more likely to be comfortable with an integration of competing interests in this arena, but that all parties-regardless of age-can be educated to understand and accept it through education.