Reduce highway problems with more intermodal transportation
At the recommendation of Supervisor Pat Loe, the SBCBOS (11/27/07) unanimously included "truck-only" lanes in its approval of VTA's northern most alternative for strategic improvements for regional highways, i.e., "East-West Connector." While the Southern California Association of Governments had previously endorsed the same concept, the nation's commerce and industry have been using a better form of freight transport – i.e., intermodal service. The 75 percent fuel savings, lower freight rates, and highway congestion and maintenance reductions, at truck-competitive service on trans-Mississippi loads induced U.S. industry to switch from trucks to intermodal even before fuel prices reached their current levels. Even the nation's largest truckers have been tendering truckloads to railroads for longhaul moves, improving their bottom line.
