University of California Transportation Center

As California has become increasingly congested, the importance of addressing freight transportation as a public concern has grown. Most visible in our urban areas is the competition for road capacity between trucks and personal vehicles, especially during commute hours, and the public health and safety concerns associated with the transport of hazardous materials. These issues, along with California's role as a principal transhipment point for trade between the U.S. and the other Pacific Rim nations, combine to create a freight transportation problem of immense proportions, one which is aggravated by the difficulty of implementing new infrastructure improvements.