As a sub-consultant to Gannett Fleming, Metro Analytics led development of a freight profile for the Erie Regional Planning Commission (ERPC), the Metropolitan Planning Organization for northwest Ohio’s Erie County. The profile drew on datasets from the Federal Highway Administration Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Census.gov, the Ohio Department of Transportation, and Erie and Lorain Counties, among others, including roadway, railroad, and airport information, multimodal and intermodal facilities, county industry information, aggregated FAF5 commodity flow data, pavement conditions, truck parking information, and land use and zoning data.
This data was used to identify key freight assets such as the region’s roadways, rail lines, airports, and intermodal facilities, and to identify major industrial employers using freight-reliant industry descriptions from Transport Ohio, the state’s freight plan. Metro Analytics also analyzed freight’s role in the Erie regional economy, comparing regional GDP to nearby counties and the state, and analyzed truck and commodity flows from FHWA FAF5 data to identify top commodities by tonnage and value for each mode.
The study reviewed infrastructure capacity and conditions, including bridge and pavement conditions, existing and future traffic and truck volumes, and level of service, along with ODOT crash data to identify safety concerns, and reviewed multimodal freight systems including rail, air cargo, and Lake Erie ports. The study concluded with a review of planned and programmed freight-related projects from the MPO’s Long Range Transportation Plan, providing ERPC with a clear profile of its freight assets, capacity, multimodal capabilities, issues, and planned projects, and a basis for incorporating a freight perspective into its transportation planning process.
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