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August 25, 2022Federal Agency Approves Virginia’s Freight Plan

Virginia utilized a unique approach that integrated VTrans Freight Element into the state’s transportation plan, VTrans (view it here). This approach ensures greater synergy and consistency across statewide planning efforts. The VTrans Freight Element

Freight Element

VTrans’ Freight Element serves as the Commonwealth’s state freight plan, in accordance with 49 U.S.C. 70202 FAST Act State Freight Plan (embed link). It is included in the State’s Transportation Plan and focuses on the movement of goods within and through the Commonwealth. Virginia's Freight Plan, known as VTrans Freight Element, focuses on the movement of goods within and through the Commonwealth of Virginia. VTrans Freight Element is included as Chapter 4 in the State's Transportation Plan and is available using this link.

Corridor Designations and Freight Performance Measures

Freight issues identified in VTrans, as well as the designated critical urban and rural corridors, can be viewed using the map widget below. Please utilize InteractVTrans MapExplorer to print, download, or comment. Statistics associated with freight performance measures can be found on InteractVTrans DataExplorer, an interactive visualization application.

To query, print, download, or comment, visit InteractVTrans MapExplorer. For interactive infographics, visit InteractVTrans DataExplorer

Commodity Movement

Below you will see options for viewing commodity flows (freight movement) to and from areas in Virginia. The map displays origins and destinations for freight by overall tonnage for the Commonwealth as a whole, as well as for the nine individual VDOT Construction Districts. Click on the filter to see the area you are interested in.

The word cloud graphics show the types of freight that are included in the data shown in the commodity flows (freight origin and destination) map tool. The word clouds depict the relative amounts of different commodity types, with larger words depicting higher tonnage and smaller words depicting less tonnage.

Statewide
The geographic scale at which data is presented. The raw data is organized by city and county, and it has been processed to aggregate commodity flows at other scales. This filter will summarize the data using the boundaries of construction districts, Planning District Commissions (PDC), Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO), or the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.
A subset of the geographic scale at which data is presented. This filter selects the specific construction district, PDC, or MPO for which data will be summarized.
Tonnage
The way commodity flows are measured. Commodity flows can be measured by the weight of goods or the value of goods. Tonnage will display weight, Value will display monetary value in constant 2017 U.S. dollars, Tonnage Growth will display the projected change in weight over time (as a percent increase or decrease from 2017), and Value Growth will display the project change in value over time (as a percent increase or decrease from 2017).
Inbound
The direction of goods movement. Inbound represents commodities being brought into Virginia (“Imports”). Outbound represents commodities originating in Virginia that are being transported elsewhere (“Exports”).
2017
The year for which data will be presented. Three years of annual data are available including the baseline year of 2017 and projections for 2030 and 2045. For the Tonnage Growth and Value Growth metrics, projected growth between 2017 and 2030 and between 2017 and 2045 is available for display.
Truck
The transportation vehicle by which commodities are moved. Commodities travel using multiple modes. Filter to review commodities that traveled to or from Virginia by air-only, truck-only, rail-only, water-only.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Looking for more answers to specific questions about VTrans Freight Element? Find more information on our Frequently Asked Questions page here: https://vtrans.org/get-involved/frequently-asked-questions.