Goods Movement

Goods movement is critical to a strong economy and to a high quality of life in Alameda County. Goods movement activities create a diverse array of jobs, provide residents and businesses with the products they need, and generate tax revenues to support crucial public investments. Despite tremendous benefits to residents and businesses, goods movement activities also have environmental and community impacts that must be considered and mitigated.

Alameda County is a goods movement hub for Northern California — serving as a gateway to the world for goods from the county, Bay Area, Northern California and even the Western U.S. — and supporting the local economy. Goods movement facilities in Alameda County include:

  • The Port of Oakland and the Oakland International Airport.
  • An extensive network of interstate freeways and arterial roads.
  • Two major Class I railroads.
  • A variety of industrial, manufacturing, warehousing and other land uses.
  • The largest number of transportation-related jobs of any county in the Bay Area.

Alameda CTC is leading a Bay Area Goods Movement Collaborative, which brings together partners, community members and stakeholders from across the county and region in an organized structure to understand goods movement needs and identify, prioritize and advocate for short- and long-term strategies to address these needs in Alameda County and the Bay Area. For detailed information on the Collaborative, go to the tab below. Alameda CTC also developed a Goods Movement Plan that outlines a long-range strategy for how to move goods efficiently, reliably and sustainably within, to, from and through Alameda County by roads, rail, air and water.

Integrated Countywide and Regional Approach

Because goods movement markets and supply chains frequently cross county lines, Alameda CTC has partnered with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to jointly develop the Alameda County Goods Movement Plan and the Regional Goods Movement Plan. The joint long-range plan development will ensure consistency between plans and enable outreach to a wider range of stakeholders from around the region and megaregion to provide a more complete picture of the goods movement system in Alameda County and the Bay Area.

Regional, State and Federal Goods Movement Planning

Alameda CTC coordinates Alameda County goods movement planning with goods movement planning at the regional, state and federal levels:

The Bay Area Goods Movement Collaborative brings together partners, community members and stakeholders from across the county and region in an organized structure to understand goods movement needs and identify, prioritize and advocate for short- and long-term strategies to address these needs in Alameda County and the Bay Area. The collaborative will establish an ongoing method for discussing and advocating for goods movement investments, policies and programs during the life of this project and beyond.

The Goods Movement Collaborative includes the following elements:

  • Executive Team provides strategic guidance for the plan development and is comprised of executive-level staff from Alameda CTC, the Port of Oakland, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the California Department of Transportation, the East Bay Economic Development Alliance, Contra Costa Transportation Authority, Solano Transportation Authority, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
  • Technical Team provides review of technical memorandums as well as draft and final plans, assists in identifying strategies to improve goods movement while minimizing impacts on communities and the environment, provides inputs on performance measures used to evaluate strategies and offers guidance on feasibility of implementation strategies and coordination. The Alameda County Technical Advisory Committee serves as the Technical Team for the countywide portion of the Goods Movement Collaborative.
  • Interest Groups provide context and information on economic, business, environmental and community needs and issues related to goods movement, offer feedback on performance measures used to evaluate strategies, comment on strategies to realize goods movement economic opportunities and address goods movement effects on communities, and provide input on draft and final plans. Alameda CTC will perform direct outreach to obtain interest group opinions and perspectives at several points through the life of the Goods Movement Plan development. In addition, Alameda CTC invites interest groups to provide input at Technical Team meetings.
  • Roundtable Meetings serve as forums and information-exchange platforms to bring together participants from the Executive Team, Technical Team, interest groups and other interested stakeholders to address plan development and goods movement advocacy. Five roundtables will occur throughout the project.

For two years, Alameda CTC worked with partners to develop a Countywide Goods Movement Plan. The Commission approved the plan in February 2016. The Alameda County Goods Movement Plan outlines a long-range strategy for how to move goods effectively within, to, from and through Alameda County by roads, rail, air and water. The plan ultimately is a component of the Alameda Countywide Transportation Plan.

The plan was developed to:

  • Establish a vision for the sustainable movement of freight and other goods to ensure Alameda County continues to play a vital role in the San Francisco Bay Area economy.
  • Identify strategies including infrastructure investments, policy changes and programs to address goods movement issues and realize goods movement system opportunities.
  • Use a series of performance measures consistent with the vision and goals to evaluate and prioritize these strategies.
  • Develop short- and long-term strategies and project lists to support goods movement in Alameda County.
  • Develop educational and advocacy strategies for the Bay Area.

FASTLANE AND GOODS MOVEMENT

Alameda CTC's GoPort Project