The U.S. transportation system serves more than 321 million Americans—including those who may not own a vehicle or rarely travel. Transportation allows us to commute to work, obtain goods and services, call on family and friends, and visit distant places. It also drives our economy, connecting 7.5 million businesses with customers, suppliers, and workers [USDOC CENSUS SUSB 2016]. The system allows almost 75 million foreign visitors to travel to our country (see chapter two of this publication), resulting in a sizable contribution to the U.S. economy. The system serves a large and diverse set of users, as highlighted throughout this report.

This chapter examines both the extent and condition of the principal transportation modes, including infrastructure, vehicles and control systems, and the estimated cost of keeping or bringing the system into a state of good repair. Interconnections that link one mode with one or more other modes are also important system elements, but a lack of public data on these connections prevents meaningful analysis of their condition.

Assets and Investments

Transportation capital stock includes structures (e.g., roadways, bridges, and stations) and equipment (e.g., automobiles, aircraft, and ships). According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. transportation capital stock was valued at an estimated $8.1 trillion in 2014, an increase of about $1.2 trillion (17.7 percent) over 2010 estimates.¹ Table 1-1 shows the estimated value of transportation capital stock increased steadily from 2000 to 2014.

Transportation assets are owned by both the public and private sectors. Freight railroad facilities and equipment are almost entirely owned by the private sector, while state and local governments own highways and bridges, airports, seaports, and transit structures. In total, publicly owned transportation accounted for slightly over one-half of transportation capital stock; public highways and streets accounted for the largest share (41.8 percent) of this stock and much of the growth over the past few years. “Other” publicly owned transportation, such as airports, seaports, and transit structures, accounted for 8.7 percent.

In-house transportation is the largest category among the private-sector businesses. It accounted for 16.1 percent of transportation capital stock in 2014, most of which was highway related (e.g., truck fleets owned by grocery chains). Railroads, the next largest private sector category, accounted for 5.0 percent of U.S. transportation capital stock, followed by air with 3.1 percent. Motor vehicles owned by households and individuals, some of which are used for business purposes, accounted for 18.0 percent of capital stock.

The total value of public and private sector transportation construction put in place in 2015 was about $134 billion. Transportation construction of publicly owned transportation accounted for about $121 billion, or about 90 percent, of spending on transportation infrastructure [USDOC CENSUS 2016]. Approximately three-quarters of governmentfunded investment was for highways; the remainder supported the construction of transportation facilities and infrastructure, such as airport terminals and runways, transit facilities, water transportation facilities, and pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure. In 2015 private transportation construction was about $13 billion, or about 10 percent, of spending on transportation infrastructure. Chapter 5 details transportation infrastructure spending and the revenues generated by each transportation mode.

Roads, Bridges, Vehicles, Parking, and Traffic Control Systems

Roads

Public roads, including interstate highways, other major arterials, and local routes, totaled 4.2 million miles in 2014, changing little from 2010 (as shown in table 1-2). Lane-miles increased slightly more than 2 percent over that period. Local roads are by far the most extensive, amounting to 2.9 million miles (69.5 percent of total system-miles). However, interstate highways, which accounted for almost 48,000 miles (1.1 percent of total system miles), handled the highest volumes of traffic as measured by vehicle-miles traveled—24.8 percent in 2014 [USDOT FHWA 2015a]. Large Western and Midwestern states, such as Texas, California, Illinois, Kansas, and Minnesota, have the most public road mileage.² The District of Columbia, followed by Hawaii, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Vermont, had the lowest public road and street mileage [USDOT FHWA 2015a]. Figure 1-1 shows the annual average daily traffic on the National Highway System.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT’s) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reports the International Roughness Index (IRI), which measures the smoothness of pavement and is a key indicator of the condition of highways and bridges.³ Table 1-3 provides summary data on the percentage of rough surface mileage for different functional classes of highways. The physical deterioration of roads and bridges typically does not produce abrupt failures; rather, continued rough riding produces repetitive and gradual increases in vehicle maintenance and other highway user costs.

For both urban and rural roads as the functional class decreases from interstates down to collectors the percentage of rough roads increases, and this is true over the entire time period shown. This is likely the result of road maintenance and rehabilitation programs and budgets that favor the higher throughput classes of roadway.

Bridges

About 610,750 highway bridges were in use in 2014, ranging in size from rural one-lane bridges crossing creeks to urban multilane and multilevel interstate bridges and major river crossings. Rural local bridges accounted for about 33.4 percent of the total bridge network. By comparison, bridges in the urban and rural interstate system accounted for about 9.3 percent of all bridges in 2014, but they carried the highest volumes of motor vehicle traffic. Texas had the most bridges, accounting for 8.7 percent of the entire U.S. bridge network, followed by Ohio and Illinois, each with about 4.4 percent [USDOT FHWA 2015a].

There has been slow but steady improvement in the condition of highway bridges, as shown in table 1-4.⁴ Two categories of bridge deficiency are tabulated: structurally deficient and functionally obsolete.

Structurally deficient bridges have reduced load bearing capacity due to the deterioration of one or more bridge elements. Such bridges are not necessarily unsafe, but they do require maintenance and repair to remain in service and will eventually require rehabilitation or replacement.

Functionally obsolete bridges, while structurally sound, often carry traffic volumes that exceed their design limits and may need to be widened or replaced. The percentages of both structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges declined from 2000 to 2015, with the largest declines recorded for rural bridges. Despite the improvement, 23.4 percent of urban bridges were functionally obsolete in 2015.

Figure 1-2 provides additional information on deficient bridges by age group, although age alone is not an automatic indicator of structural integrity. For example, the 133-yearold Brooklyn Bridge, due to consistent maintenance and several major rehabilitations, is still deemed safe for daily use, while the I-95 Mianus River Bridge in Connecticut collapsed in 1983 after only 25 years of service. The trend, however, is clear—the likelihood that a bridge will be found deficient increases with the age of the bridge. About 62 percent of deficient bridges are more than 50 years old, and nearly one-half of bridges 75 years or older are rated as deficient.

The more prevalent negative impact of bridge deterioration is the imposition of reduced load limits. In 2015 there were 69,417 bridges in the National Bridge Inventory with some type of load restriction, comprising 11.3 percent of all bridges listed [USDOT FHWA 2016]. These load limit reductions can cause commercial vehicle operators to either use trucks with smaller payloads or take circuitous routes, both of which increase delivery costs.

Vehicles

Government, businesses, private individuals, and nongovernmental organizations owned and operated about 260 million motor vehicles in 2014, up by 4.1 percent over the 2010 low, which occurred while the country was slowly recovering from the recession that began in December 2007 (table 1-5). [NBER 2012]

Motor vehicle registrations have grown at a faster rate than licensed drivers and the population since the 1960s (figure 1-3). This growth produced an increase in the average number of motor vehicles owned by households. However, compared to rapidly industrializing countries, U.S. vehicle registrations have changed relatively little since 2005. For example, vehicle registrations in China grew from 13.4 million to 120 million over the 2000 to 2013 period and presently account for about 10.4 percent of the world total, up from 1.8 percent in 2000 [USDOE ORNL 2015].

Increases in vehicle registrations from 2010 to 2014 varied widely by vehicle type. For example, among passenger vehicles, registrations for light-duty short-wheelbase vehicles⁵ decreased by 1.4 percent, while those for light-duty long-wheelbase vehicles⁶ increased by 31 percent. Motorcycle registrations rose by 5 percent, continuing a long-term upward trend. The numbers of single-unit and combination trucks registrations were up 1.3 and 1.0 percent, respectively, between 2010 and 2014. The number of buses increased by 3.1 percent between 2010 and 2014.

Bus registrations grew from 2000 to 2010 and, after a temporary dip, now stand at their highest level over the period shown. Buses owned by schools, churches, and other groups accounted for 74 percent of the registrations in 2014 [USDOT FHWA 2015a]. About 3,600 carriers operated 36,500 motorcoaches (or over-the-road buses) in the United States and Canada in 2014 [ABA 2016]. The motor coach industry is discussed further in chapter 2.

While total vehicle registrations increased by 4.1 percent from 2010 to 2014, highway travel did not quite keep pace. Person-miles of travel (PMT) increased by 3.0 percent, and vehiclemiles of travel (VMT) increased by 2.0 percent over that period. And while commercial vehicles (trucks and buses) were only about 4.5 percent of the registered vehicles, they accounted for between 9.7 and 10.1 percent of the VMT. Both PMT and VMT are discussed in more detail in chapter 2.

There is no organized database on the operating condition of vehicles traveling on the Nation’s highways. Table 1-5 shows that the average age of the light-duty vehicle fleet increased by 28 percent over the 2000 to 2014 period and stood at about 11.4 years in 2014. The commercial truck fleet is even older. The average age of the commercial trucks was 14.8 years in 2015, up from 12.5 years in 2007 [IHS 2015].⁸ However, age is not necessarily an indicator of vehicle condition.

Parking

The parking infrastructure in the United States is both vast and largely unmeasured. 7 IHS Automotive acquired R.L. Polk & Co. in 2013 and continues the former Polk automotive registrations proprietary data series. Parking spaces range from a single driveway or curbside spot adjacent to a private residence, up to thousands of spaces in large parking structures at high-density developments such as urban centers, airports, and universities. While there is no official estimate of the number of parking spaces in the United States, a recent research paper employs a number of scenarios to reach a mid-range estimate on the order of 800 to 850 million spaces [CHESTER 2010].

One reason that national estimates are lacking is that parking is inherently a local, mostly private sector enterprise that is within the purview of land developers, businesses, and individual drivers. There are, however, some national or state level transportation issues that require data on parking supply. For example, adequate truck parking along major freight corridors to help commercial vehicle operators obtain adequate rest while adhering to Federal hours of service regulations is a major highway safety concern. In a recent FHWA parking survey, more than 75 percent of truck drivers reported having difficulty finding safe and legal parking during mandatory rest periods, and that number increased to 90 percent at night when drivers must wait for their destination to open and accept deliveries [USDOT FHWA 2015b]. This topic is discussed in chapter 6, box 6-D.

Traffic Control Systems

Traffic control features, such as traffic signs, signals, and pavement markings, are an important element of the highway system, but there is no national database on traffic control systems and their condition. An estimated 311,000 traffic signals have been installed in the United States, with an aggregate public capital investment of $83 billion [NTOC 2012]. There are no comparable estimates of the numbers of other types of traffic control devices.

Public Transit

Public transit provided 10.5 billion unlinked trips in 2014, up by 1.8 billion (20.5 percent) over the 2000 total. Over 850 urban transit agencies and more than 1,700 rural and tribal government transit agencies offer a range of travel options, including commuter rail, subway, and light rail; transit and trolley bus; and ferryboat. Buses accounted for nearly half (about 47.3 percent) of the 132,000 transit vehicles in 2014 (table 1-6). In 2014 these transit agencies operated over 5,200 stations, 78 percent of which comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (Pub.L. 101-336), and 1,700 maintenance facilities. Transit agencies vary widely in size, ranging from 1 to 12,500 vehicles (e.g., the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority) [USDOT FTA 2015]. Box 1-A shows the 69 U.S. cities with bike-share systems, which often extend the reach of existing public transit systems (bus, ferry, and rail). Bike-share systems are discussed further in chapter 2.

The average age of transit vehicles over the 2000 to 2014 period is shown in table 1-6. Commuter rail passenger coaches had the greatest increase in average age of all rail vehicles over that period and are among the oldest of all transit equipment. The heavy-rail car fleet age decreased by 2.5 years between 2000 and 2014, but was still 20.4 years old on average. Light-rail vehicles maintained an average age of less than 17 years and transit buses 7 to 8 years over the reporting period, indicating that many transit agencies retired and replaced older vehicles on a regular basis or added new vehicles to the fleet. As would be expected, the transit bus fleet remained considerably newer than the rail fleet, which has locomotives and cars that typically last for decades. The average age of ferry boats dropped by 1.8 years, but they remained the oldest part of the transit vehicle population.

In 2014 transit riders made 10.5 billion trips and traveled 57.0 billion miles, which were increases of 5.5 and 8.2 percent, respectively, since 2010 (table 1-6). Rail transit (heavy, commuter, and light rail) comprised only 15.3 percent of the transit vehicles, but captured 46.6 percent of the trips and produced an even greater 57.2 percent of the person-miles of travel. Buses recorded the highest share of transit trips, 47.9 percent, and 37.9 percent of the person-miles. The nature of demand response systems, which are largely social service agency trip providers, is clearly shown in the table. These systems operated 23.8 percent of the transit vehicles in 2014, but provided 1.0 percent of the trips and 1.5 percent of the person-miles.

According to USDOT’s biennial conditions and performance report, the current total investment across all transit systems is $16.5 billion annually. Bringing all systems to a state of good repair would require an increase to $18.5 billion per year. However, increasing system capacity to accommodate higher transit ridership would require an estimated $22.0 billion to support a 1.4 percent annual ridership growth rate versus an estimated $24.5 billion to support a 2.2 percent annual ridership growth rate [USDOT FHWA and FTA 2013].

Aviation

The main elements of the aviation system include airport runways and terminals, aircraft, and air traffic control systems. Table 1-7 shows that in 2014 the United States had about 19,300 airports, ranging from rural grass landing strips, to urban rooftop heliports, to large paved multiple-runway airports. Most of the 5,145 public-use facilities are general aviation airports, serving a wide range of users. In addition, there are almost 14,000 private airports, which are relatively small. Figure 1-4 shows the passenger boardings at the top 50 U.S. airports in 2015. These airports accounted for 81.0 percent (about 686 million) of the U.S. passenger enplanements in 2015 [USDOT BTS 2016a]. The number of U.S. airports with nonstop international service increased from 72 in 1993 to 128 in 2015, offering more locations throughout the country with commercial air service to the world [USDOT BTS 2016a].

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) compiles data on runway pavement conditions, which are presented in table 1-6. Most airport pavements (commercial service, reliever, and select general aviation) were in good condition between 2000 and 2014, with only 2 percent rated as poor. There are no similar data for other elements of aviation infrastructure.

Table 1-7 shows average ages of U.S. commercial airline aircraft in 2000, 2010, 2013, and 2014. The aircraft flown by the major and national airlines are roughly half the age of the smaller planes used by regional airlines. Overall the aircraft fleet became a bit younger between 2013 and 2015. There are no public data to indicate the physical condition of the aircraft fleet.

The FAA is in the midst of a major effort to upgrade the U.S. air traffic control (ATC) system to increase its capacity. Current efforts are focused on developing the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), which will utilize GPS satellite technology and related communications and information technology improvements. A major reason for this effort is that the ATC system relies on ground-based radar and voice communication technologies, some of which date back to the 1940s, limiting its ability to increase capacity in keeping with increasing air traffic demand. U.S. airports handled about 5.8 million commercial airline flights in 2015, about the same number as in 2014.

New approach procedures using the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) increase access to general aviation airports, especially during low visibility. The FAA has published 3,534 WAAS-enabled approach procedures at 1,725 airports as of April 2015 [USDOT FAA 2015].

Railroads

The United States had almost 140,000 railroad route-miles in 2014 [AAR 2015], including about 94,400 miles owned and operated by the seven Class I railroads.8 Amtrak, local, and regional railroads operated the remaining 45,000 miles. Class I railroads owned and operated over 25,000 locomotives and 372,000 freight railcars (table 1-8).

Over the past 50 years, Class I railroads and connecting facilities have developed increasingly efficient ways to carry and transfer cargo (e.g., double-stack container railcars and on-dock rail), allowing more cargo to be carried with fewer railcars. Figure 1-5 shows that the system mileage of Class I railroads in 2015 was less than one-half the mileage in 1960. However, freight rail tonmiles nearly tripled to 1.8 trillion during the same period (despite a decline during the last recession).

Intercity Passenger Rail

The National Rail Passenger Corp. (Amtrak) is the primary operator of intercity passenger rail service in the United States. Amtrak operated 21,300 route miles in 2015 and more than 500 stations that served 46 states and Washington, DC. Figure 1-6a shows the top 25 stations by ridership across the country, and figure 1-6b shows the stations by ridership in the Northeast Corridor (NEC). Ridership was also high around Chicago as well as at several locations in California and the Pacific Northwest.

Amtrak owns a small fraction of its route miles, primarily 363 of the 456-mile NEC between Boston, MA, and Washington, DC, plus three other shorter segments totaling 261 miles [Amtrak 2016]. The vast majority of passenger train services outside the NEC are provided over tracks owned by and shared with the Class I freight railroads. Hence, the condition of the infrastructure Amtrak uses is largely dependent on the condition of the host railroads, with the exception of the NEC.

Freight Rail

The U.S. freight rail system is privately owned and operated, and rail carriers are under no obligation to report freight track conditions to public sector agencies. Thus universal track condition reports are unavailable. Railroads regularly inspect their track and perform necessary repairs to ensure track safety. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) regulations require railroads to maintain track inspection records and make them available to FRA or State inspectors on request. The FRA’s rail safety audits focus on regulatory compliance and prevention and correction of track defects. Presently there is no regular program for assembling and analyzing the many thousands of inspection reports that are prepared each year.

There is, however, one FRA program that generates systematic data on track condition. The Automated Track Inspection Program (ATIP) utilizes a small fleet of highly instrumented track geometry inspection cars to survey tens of thousands of miles of high traffic density and other high priority routes each year. Table 1-9 provides a summary of track inspection results for the years 2004 to 2015. Of the eight track inspection exceptions that are monitored, the incidences of gage, cross-level, warp, and limited speed have generally tended to decrease over time. The FRA implemented upgrades to the inspection and collection technology in the ATIP fleet in 2013, which allowed for increased sensitivity of exception detection, so results before then may not be comparable to those for the most recent years. Inspection locations vary by year due to the limited number of surveying cars and are prioritized by factors such as safety risk analysis and operation types.

The installation of new rail and crossties is one indicator of how track conditions are maintained and improved. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported that the Class I railroads installed 673 thousand tons of rail and 15.4 million crossties in 2014, which is more than the annual average of 546 thousand tons of rail and 13.4 million crossties from 2001 to 2005 (table 1-8) [AAR 2015].

The AAR also provides data on the age of the seven Class I railroad locomotive fleets. [AAR 2015] The fleet has become slightly newer overall since 2000. The percentage of locomotives that were less than 10 years old was 28 percent in 2014, versus about 33 percent in 2000, but the median age decreased from 17 to about 16 years. No comparable compilation of the age distribution of railcars is available.

Table 1-8 shows railroad capital expenditures, which totaled $15.1 billion in 2014, about 2.5 times the spending in 2000. In contrast, revenue ton-miles increased 26 percent over that period. Freight rail is a profit-making enterprise that self-funds its investments, and carriers have a strong incentive to maintain, rehabilitate, and upgrade their systems as needed to remain competitive in the market place and earn returns for their investors.

Ports and Waterways

There were more than 8,200 U.S. water transportation facilities, including cargo handling docks, in 2014. Of these facilities, 2,000 handled both foreign and domestic cargo, less than 80 handled foreign cargo only, and nearly 6,100 handled domestic cargo only. About 69 percent of cargo-handling facilities are located on the coasts— Gulf coast facilities accounted for 26.2 percent of the total, followed by the Atlantic coast (21.8 percent), and the Pacific coast (20.6 percent). The remaining 31.4 percent of cargo-handling facilities are situated along the Great Lakes or inland waterways. These facilities are served by a fleet of 40,000 domestic vessels—31,000 barges and 9,000 self-propelled vessels, including almost 3,000 towboats used to move the barges [USACE IWR NDC 2015].

Dams and navigation locks are two of the principal infrastructure features of the U.S. domestic waterway transportation system. They enable shallow draft operations on most rivers. The principal exceptions are the Lower Mississippi River and the Missouri River, which are free-flowing but still require some types of hydrologic structures, such as large rock and concrete groins and revetments, to manage the flow of the river and preserve navigation. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) owns and operates 239 lock chambers at 193 sites, which account for most of the U.S. inland navigation locks. The average age of all locks is over 63 years (table 1-10). A recent Transportation Research Board (TRB) report [TRB 2015] shows that, when adjusted for the dates of major rehabilitation projects, the effective average age of locks is about 10 years less, but that still puts the average age at over 50 years. The USACE maintains comprehensive data on lock traffic, lockage time and delay, and lock outages for waterway performance analysis.

Table 1-11 provides data on representative locks throughout the inland waterway system. These data show some of the relationships between lock age and performance factors, such as tow delay and lock chamber downtime. For example, the Emsworth Lock on the Ohio River is one of the oldest structures in the system and is considered functionally obsolete. It has lock chambers designed for vessels of an earlier era and has lengthy out-of-service delays. The newer locks on the Ohio River, such as John T. Myers, are larger and have relatively low average tow delays and only short-duration service outages. Lock 52 on the Ohio River is the busiest and also one of the oldest with chambers that are 47 and 88 years old, respectively. It had one of the higher average tow delays in the entire inland waterway system in 2015, 7.7 hours per tow.

On the Upper Mississippi River, the Melvin Price Lock has the two newest lock chambers listed in table 1-11. It passes over 50 million tons of freight per year with moderate delay and downtime. Just 15 miles downstream, Lock 27, with two identical size but much older chambers (63 years), has an average tow delay that exceeds 3 hours. The Inner Harbor Navigation Lock, in New Orleans, is one of the principal bottlenecks in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The small chamber size of the 93-year-old lock results in an average tow delay of more than 17 hours.

Shallow and deep-draft ports and channels are other important infrastructure elements of the waterway system. There are several thousand inland river ports and terminals, the vast majority of which are privately owned and serve specific cargo-handling needs (e.g., coal loading and petrochemical transfers). Deep draft ports are large and capital-intensive facilities, typically with extensive docks, wharves, cranes, warehouses, and other cargo transfer equipment and intermodal connections that integrate ocean transport with inland connectors. Private terminal operators do not routinely release data publicly on the condition of their facilities. The USACE maintains an extensive database of marine terminals, both shallow draft and deep draft, but it is largely static and does not include condition or performance data and summary tabulations.

Many of the coastal seaports are served by post-Panamax vessels⁹  that continue to increase in size. Containerships calling at U.S. ports had an average capacity of 3,542 TEU (20-foot equivalent units) in 2013 [USDOT MARAD 2015]. Today’s largest containerships can carry upwards of 18,000 TEU. Larger vessels afford greater economies of scale and cost savings. However, they require investments in U.S. ports, such as increasing bridge clearances, channel depths, landside access, and port and terminal infrastructure [USACE IWR 2012].

The main characteristic of navigation channels that relates to condition is whether the authorized depth is actually available. Nearly all channels need periodic dredging to maintain the authorized depth. Most channel dredging occurs under the auspices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 2014 the USACE’s and contractor’s dredges removed 186 million cubic yards of material, down from 197 million in 2013. Maintenance dredging accounted for 81.5 percent of the removed material; the average cost per cubic yard increased 20 percent to $5.33, bringing the 2-year increase in dredging cost up to 34.2 percent [USACE IWR NDC 2015]. This was the second consecutive year of decrease from the 238 million cubic yards dredged in 2012, representing a drop of 22 percent in just two years. Decreased dredging of navigation channels could reduce their depth to a point where operators would need to reduce the tonnage loaded into vessels in order to maintain safe operations. The USACE maintains detailed dredging data, but it does not produce summary tabulations that differentiate the work by deep or shallow draft channels.

U.S. flag vessels operate on both shallow and deep draft waterways, and numerous foreign flag vessels call at deep draft ports. Table 1-10 provides age distributions of U.S. flag vessels for the 2000 to 2014 period. The fleet got a bit younger over that period. The percent of vessels younger than 16 years increased from 34 to 44 percent. Inland waterway towboats and barges account for the largest share (85 percent) of U.S. vessels. Towboats are the oldest vessels in this assemblage; 68 percent are older than 25 years [USACE IWR NDC 2015]. In contrast, barges are among the youngest vessels due to a combination of retirement and replacement of older dry cargo barges and acquisition of new tank barges. This is largely in response to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-380) that decreed tank barges and vessels must have double hulls by January 1, 2015.

In 2013 U.S. ferries carried an estimated 115 million passengers and over 30 million vehicles [USDOT BTS 2016b]. There were 124 ferry operators working in 38 states, 2 in U.S. territories and 2 between U.S. and non- U.S. locations (e.g., Canada).¹⁰  The U.S. ferry fleet comprised 499 vessels, 476 of which were in active service. California had the most ferry vessels with 53, followed by Massachusetts (49), Washington State (46), and New York (45). Nearly all of the vessels carried passengers (95.0 percent), while just under half (47.1 percent) carried vehicles, and less than a quarter carried freight (22.2 percent). Operators participating in the 2014 National Census of Ferry Operators reported that there were 441 terminals in the U.S. ferry system in 2013. Nearly two-thirds (65.8 percent) had parking onsite or nearby, and nearly one-third (30.8 percent) were accessible by local bus service.

Pipelines

Natural gas was transported via about 320,000 miles of natural gas transmission and gathering pipelines and over 2.1 million miles of natural gas distribution main and service pipelines in 2014 (table 1-12). These pipelines connect to 67 million households and 5 million commercial businesses as well as the 1,900 electrical generating units that supply approximately 25 percent of U.S. electricity [AGA 2016]. There were over 199,000 miles of crude/refined oil and hazardous liquid pipelines in 2014, and this system carried over 2.4 billion barrels across the United States [USDOE EIA 2016a].

In 2015 U.S. natural gas production reached 28.8 trillion cubic feet (tcf). Pipelines deliver about 35 percent of natural gas production to power plants to produce electricity, 27 percent to the industrial sector, and nearly 17 percent to homes for heating [USDOE EIA 2016b].

Natural gas can be converted to a liquid by cooling to a temperature of -260 degrees Fahrenheit. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) is 1/600th of its gaseous volume, making it easier to transport by vessel over long distances. LNG vessels are double-hulled and specifically designed to handle LNG’s low temperature, prevent damage or leaks, and limit LNG evaporation. Short LNG pipelines are used to move the product from the vessel to special LNG terminals. Alaska has been the primary U.S. LNG exporter, primarily to Pacific Rim countries, but the volume has been small. EIA reported that the first LNG export shipment produced in the lower 48 states was shipped on February 24, 2016, from the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana. LNG also can be transported by cryogenic tanker trucks and railway tanker cars [USDOE EIA 2016c].

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) collects annual report data from pipeline operators, covering their system mileage, commodities transported, and inspection activities, but there is no publicly available database that tracks pipeline condition. A serious failure, such as the Santa Barbara, CA, crude petroleum pipeline failure in May 2014, serves as a reminder that this part of the transportation system has the same problems with aging infrastructure as the other modes profiled in this chapter [USDOT PHMSA 2015].

Challenges

With the largest transportation system in the world, the United States faces a continuing challenge of maintaining system conditions in sufficiently good shape to meet the enormous mobility requirements of the American economy and society. As indicated earlier, the condition of transportation infrastructure is improving, but additional improvements are needed. The average age of all inland waterway navigation locks is more than 50 years, and 9.6 percent of highway bridges are considered structurally deficient. If these and other condition issues are not addressed, they could affect system performance and safety in the coming years.

References

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—2016c. Today in Energy. “Growth in domestic natural gas production leads to development of LNG export terminals.” March 4. Available at http://www.eia.gov/ as of May 2016.

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—2016a. Office of Airline Information (OAI). Airlines and Airports. Available at http://www. bts.gov/ as of May 2016.

—2016b. National Census of Ferry Operators (NCFO). Available at http://www.bts.gov/ as of May 2016.

 U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 2015. Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Quick Facts. Available at http://gps.faa.gov as of October 2015.

U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Federal Highway Administration (FHWA):

—2016. Bridges & Structures; Tables of Frequently Requested NBI Information. Available at www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/britab. cfm as of June 2016.

—2015a. 2014 Highway Statistics. Available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ as of May 2016.

—2015b. Jason’s Law Public Truck Parking Survey and Comparative Analysis. Available at www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov as of April 2016.

U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA). 2013 Status of the Nation’s Highways, Bridges, and Transit: Report to Congress (Washington, DC). Available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ as of May 2016.

U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Federal Transit Administration (FTA). 2015. National Transit Database: 2014 Data Tables. Available at http://www.ntdprogram.gov/ as of May 2016.

U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Maritime Administration (MARAD). 2015. 2013 Vessel Calls in U.S. Ports and Terminals. Available at http://www.marad.dot.gov/, as of May 2016.

U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). 2015. Serious Pipeline Incidents. Available at https://hip. phmsa.dot.gov/ as of May 2016.

¹ Subtracted out from the reported totals are the amount of depreciation of aging equipment and structures and the value of assets taken out of service.

² Alaska, the largest state by land area, has relatively few miles of roads, which reflects the lightly populated and relatively undeveloped character of the large landmass that lies outside of the Anchorage to Fairbanks corridor.

³ A highway that has a roughness rating greater than 170 inches per mile is considered in poor condition.

⁴ Bridge inventory and condition data were available through 2015 [USDOT FHWA 2016], so that year is included here. There were about 611,840 bridges in operation in 2015.

⁵ Light-duty short-wheelbase vehicles includes passenger cars, light trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles with a wheelbase equal to or less than 121 inches (e.g., Ford Explorer).

⁶ Light-duty long-wheelbase vehicles includes large passenger cars, vans, pickup trucks, and sport/utility vehicles with wheelbases larger than 121 inches (e.g., Dodge Ram Pickup).

⁷ IHS Automotive acquired R.L. Polk & Co. in 2013 and continues the former Polk automotive registrations proprietary data series.

⁸ Includes BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Grand Trunk Corp. (Canadian National operations in the United States), Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Soo Line (Canadian Pacific operations in the United States), and Union Pacific.

⁹ Vessels exceeding the length and width of the lock chambers in the Panama Canal. The Canal expansion project is scheduled to be completed in 2016, so vessels that exceed its new larger lock chamber size are referred to as “new Panamax.” The Panama Canal expansion and its impacts on U.S. trade and port infrastructure are discussed in detail in chapter 3.

¹⁰ The total number of operators in 2013 was actually larger than the 128 stated here. This number represents those who responded to the census.