Alternative Infrastructure

Why can't we just expand the highways and railroads? Although demand for freight transportation and long-distance travel is expanding quickly, land-based capacity is not. Today it is extremely problematic to build new highways due to environmental, cost, and political issues. Similarly, adding capacity to railroads is expensive, requires long advance planning, and in some cases is physically impossible.

Let's add another option for both freight and passenger traffic: the sea. The coastal oceans are free and available for use. It is not necessary to build highways, bridges, rails, or airports in order to utilize coastal oceans. The ports and the ocean itself are already waiting. This option has the ability, for example, to transfer up to 800,000 truck trips per year away from the highway system.

The U.S. government calls this the establishment of "marine highways." Others have termed this a way of creating a "soft" infrastructure, one that requires relatively little preparation and capital investment. The only things required are a fleet of ships and small facilities at the ports, all of which can be built for less than even a short stretch of interstate highway.