RECORD OF MEETING
FREIGHT TASK FORCE
DATE/TIME/PLACE: Monday, April 24, 1995; 2 PM;
CDTC Offices, Colonie
ATTENDANCE: Dick Corp (NYSTA), Ted Thompson and Dick
Carlson (NYSDOT Region One), Tom Magliocca (Port), Denny Cotrell (NYSDOT
Commercial Transport), Carl Belke (CP Rail Systems), Kristina Younger (CDTC)
DISCUSSION SUMMARY: Status Reports: Contact with new New York State Motor Truck
Association Director, Daniel McCormack has yielded a commitment to
participation in ongoing CDTC goods movement planning activities. The Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce is
also going to be reviving its Transportation Committee in the near future, and
has requested ongoing coordination with CDTC efforts to prevent duplication of
efforts. EZPass on the Thruway is now
being implemented. It is expected, after
start-up glitches are resolved, that this will significantly help with toll
collection-related delays.
Traffic Primer: Review of the
Scenic Hudson Traffic Primer that the Arterial Corridor Management task force
will be using as a basis for a Capital District-specific manual occured. Major points included:
* Primer does not adequately address
truck delivery concerns. In general, the
deliveries need to be planned for through site design considerations. The conceptual site plan on page 20 was cited
as inadequately considering truck access, in particular.
* In general, truck deliveries, particularly
at retail establishments, need to be physically separated from passenger
activity, particularly transit vehicles.
This is NOT necessarily in conflict with access management concepts,
such as shared driveways. It really is
more of an architectural and site layout concern -- providing an adequate
number of loading docks for anticipated deliveries, adequate pavement to
allowing backing up into delivery areas without blocking streets, and adequate
height/width of loading bays for the size of trucks that will be making
deliveries.
* The provision of service roads in
commercial areas was strongly supported.
Commercial parking (loading zones) provision in more dense urban areas
was also emphasized as needing more attention.
* There was a debate about truck size
that should be provided for. There was
an argument that there is a limit to how accommodating local facilities should
be for large vehicles. The counter
argument regarding trends in the industry and changes in the trucking industry
that have lead to the use of larger vehicles (driver shortage, etc...) was also
presented.
Additional resources on
desirable accomodations for truck delivery access should be located (UPS
Foundation, ATA Foundation, TRB Freight Community, ITE) and forwarded to the
Arterial Corridor Management task force together with these comments.
Roundtable Evaluations and Results: Draft report
was reviewed and corrections and edits were offered. The conclusion offered on page 19 were
supported. A suggested re-working of the
Vision Statement to incorporate Roundtable feedback was discussed and
endorsed. The discussions of intermodal
connections highlighted the need to have more input from shippers (as opposed
to carriers), differing public/private roles in providing such connections, and
the importance of the lack of downstate linkages to the volume of freight
moving through the Capital District.
When forwarding the results to Roundtable
participants, the main point to emphasize is the influence that the Roundtable
is having on policy and the importance of ongoing participation.
ACTION ITEMS:
* NEXT
MEETING: Monday, May 22, 1995, 2 - 4:30
PM, CDTC Offices. Agenda to
include: Re-worked vision statement,
actions/strategies discussion, performance measures, plan for ongoing industry
involvement
* Kristina to
forward Traffic Primer concerns to Arterial Corridor Management Task Force,
together with any industry resources on access and site design that can be
found.
* Kristina to
re-do Vision Statement, reflecting discussion points.