Jean-Claude Thill, Hyunwoo Lim, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, USA
Transportation Cost Advantages in Foreign Trade - The Case of Intermodal Infrastructure in the United States (assigned to theme
Intermodalism has become one of the most significant transformations of freight transportation in the United States over the past two decades. The space-time articulation of transfers from one mode to another has enabled shippers to fully realize the respective time and costs advantages of various modes. With intermodalism, new significant nodes have emerged on the transportation map of the nation. The opportunity to take advantage of intermodalism when shipping manufactured goods overseas may provide an essential competitive edge to a company or to an entire region. The change in the freight accessibility map of the United States imputable to intermodal infrastructures has so far not been studied. With the help of a geographic information system, this paper analyzes this transformation in the Unites States by mapping integral place accessibility measures of five-digit zip code areas with respect to “ports of entry” for manufactured goods, especially containerized freight. The paper discusses regional winners and losers in the new national freight transportation system and presents a statistical model of the changes in accessibility imputable to intermodalism.
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(copyright Gunther Maier) |