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land uses in the vicinity of these highways. If not on a designated OHP freight route, local access is a priority inside STAs. Inside Urban Business Areas, mobility is balanced with local access.~ District Highways are facilities of county-wide significance and function largely as county and city arterials or collectors. They provide connections and links between small urbanized areas, rural centers and urban hubs, and also serve local access and traffic. The management objective is to provide for safe and efficient, moderate to high-speed continuous-flow operation in rural areas reflecting the surrounding environment and moderate to low-speed operation in urban and urbanizing areas for traffic flow and for pedestrian and bicycle movements. If not on a designated OHP freight route, local access is a priority inside STAs. Inside Urban Business Areas, mobility is balanced with local access. · Page 63 of the OHP: Background According to the 2002 Federal Highway Administration;s Analysis Framework trucks carried nearly 76 percent of the total freight tonnage and 82 percent of the total freight value for the year. To ensure that freight is able to move efficiently on the state's major trucking routes, this plan designates a state highway freight system (Table 5, page 56). There are other routes at the regional and local level that are linked to the state highways and form a network important to the movement of freight. The OHP designated routes, policies and actions direct ODOT in the management of state highways that are important to the movement of freight. The importance of the regional and local freight routes and the connections to the state system is illustrated, in part, by the map showing NHS intermodal connectors that are part of the regional or local system. The key criteria of freight volume, tonnage, connectivity and linkages to the National Highway System intermodal facilities were augmented in the 2004 Freight Route designation update. Other factors that were considered included connectivity to regional freight routes and freight routes in other states, percent of trucks on state highways to reflect urban/rural characteristics, freight generating sites and implications to highway segment designations. The primary purpose of the State Highway Freight System is intended to facilitate efficient and reliable interstate, intrastate, and regional truck movement through a designated freight system.. This freight system, made up of the Interstate Highways and certain Statewide, Regional and District Highways on the National Highway System, includes routes that carry significant tonnage of freight by truck and serve as the primary interstate and intrastate highway freight connection to ports, intermodal terminals, and urban areas. It supersedes and replaces the designation of primary freight COlTidors in the Oregon Transportation Plan. However, freight routes designated on Regional or District Highways will be managed according to their highway classification. Freight depends upon timely and dependable movement of goods over the system; some industries structure their facilities and processes on just-in-time deliveries. Highway efficiency for goods movement in an expanding economy will require public and private investments in infrastructure as well as changes in road operations to reduce congestion on freight routes. Designating a network of freight routes of primary importance to the state will help ensure that these investments are coordinated in a way that reinforces the unique needs of the freight system. Improving and maintaining the efficiency of highway operations requires balancing the needs of freight movement with the needs of other users of the highway system. Some state highways that are important goods movement COlTidors also serve as communities' main streets and may be designated as Special Transportation Areas. It may be the objective of local officials to reduce or slow traffic passing through the town, with potentially adverse impacts on long distance freight transportation. Therefore, a management ~ See Oregon Highway Plan Action lB.3 regarding the requirement for management plans. DRAFT September 1, 2004 18