Goods Movement

Freight transportation has emerged as a significant national policy issue.  The reliability and productivity of the nation’s freight system are declining because of increasing demand and deteriorating capacity. The Pinellas MPO is continuously working to address goods movement issues at the local and regional levels, in an effort to provide for the safe and efficient movement of goods.

Pinellas County MPO Truck Route Plan

The Pinellas County MPO maintains a Truck Route Plan map to identify those roadways where heavy trucks must travel and highlight those routes that have time-of-day restrictions. The MPO works with each municipality and the County to identify roadways appropriate for through-truck movements and to develop ordinances regulating truck traffic, in an effort to maintain consistency across jurisdictional boundaries. In Pinellas County, trucks are required to use designated trucks routes up to the point closest to their destination.

Tampa Bay Regional Goods Movement Study

In early 2010, the Florida Department of Transportation District 7 began a study to assess the regional freight network in the Tampa Bay Area. Together with representatives from the freight community, the individual MPO’s in the region, FDOT District 1, and the major municipalities in the region, the Study identifies operational problems related to the region’s freight distribution network. The Study also includes a database for local and regional agencies to access information on problems within their jurisdictions so that as improvement projects are planned, freight operational issues are taken into consideration. Road, rail, port and aviation facilities are also being analyzed to identify where areas of conflict or operational deficiencies exist and strategies or specific projects are being recommended to improve them.

As of October, 2011 , completed acitivities in the Study included an analysis of District 7 counties (Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas). This effort is being expanded to incorporate some District 1 counties (Manatee, Polk and Sarasota). This expansion will provide for a better analysis of the freight network in the Tampa Bay region, given the presence of a port and major freight distribution centers within these District 1 counties. FDOT is anticipating completion of this Study by December, 2011.

Pinellas County MPO Goods Movement Study

In 2008, the Pinellas County MPO completed the development of a Goods Movement Study. The objective of the study was to develop a safe and cost effective Goods Movement Routing Plan that represents the community consensus of a balanced approach between economic development and the environmental and livability concerns of the community. The process to design that approach included traffic engineering, community values and economic concerns. Interest groups representing those concerns were asked to participate in designing the criteria to designate truck routes.