Description

The Multi-County Goods Movement Action Plan (MCGMAP or Action Plan)
represents an unprecedented partnership between county, regional, and state
transportation agencies to address the goods movement challenge faced by the
Southern California counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino,
San Diego, Ventura, and Imperial (See Figure 1). Collectively, these counties
comprise the United States’ premiere international commerce gateway, handling
44 percent of the Nation’s containerized imports. This preeminence reflects
Southern California’s competitive advantage derived from its unique combination
of large deep-water ports, the California/Mexico border crossings, the West
Coast’s largest population concentrations, one of the Nation’s largest densities of
transloading, consolidation, and distribution warehouses, and intermodal facilities.
The region also has unparalleled connectivity by all-weather Interstate freeways
and transcontinental rail lines to all points within the United States.
However, the rising tide of goods moving through the region imposes multiple
mobility, environmental, and community impacts that degrade the region’s quality
of life and threaten the continued growth of the Southern California freight movement industry on which most of the nation relies. The
MCGMAP identifies actions to be undertaken by the partner agencies, together with state and federal agencies and the private sector, to
maintain Southern California’s role as a center for international trade, commerce and manufacturing by planning for freight growth while
simultaneously and aggressively mitigating environmental and local community impacts. The Action Plan sets forth a way to structure and
understand the issues and defines actions that should be taken to address infrastructure needs, environmental concerns, and community
impacts within the context of that structure. It incorporates and builds on existing studies and initiatives already in progress, and from them
develops an integrated, comprehensive, regional approach.
This Executive Summary provides an overview of the region’s goods movement challenges, the MCGMAP vision, principles, plan approach,
and recommended actions. Also included are the lists of goods movement projects needed to maintain mobility in the face of forecasted
demand. Specific and detailed information is contained within the topical chapters of the Action Plan. Additional information is also
provided within the contents of technical appendices and memoranda (Tech Memos) prepared throughout the course of this effort, which
are available on the project website (http://www.metro.net/mcgmap).