Global Connectivity

Transportation-related variables that influence the domestic economy and global competitiveness (chapter 2, section D)

• The United States traded $401.2 billion worth (in current dollars) of transportation-related goods (e.g., cars, trains, boats, and airplanes and their related parts) in 2006 with its partners. As is the case with its overall international trade, the United States had a merchandise trade deficit in transportation-related goods (with an excess of imports over exports) totaling $71.4 billion in 2006. [D-1]
• U.S. trade in transportation services in 2006 totaled $163.2 billion (in current dollars). The United States had a surplus in transportation services from 1995 through 1997. The trade surplus in 1995 was $3.3 billion. By 2006, however, 57 percent of trade was imports (payments to foreign countries), resulting in trade deficit of $22.6 billion. [D-3]
• Truck remains the dominant mode for transporting U.S.-North American freight followed by rail, pipeline, maritime, air, and other unknown modes. Between 1996 and 2006, trucks accounted for most of the growth in the value of U.S.-North American freight. [D-4]
• In 2006, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA, handled 38 percent of U.S. maritime container volume. This represents a 9.4 percent average annual growth rate since 2001. Savannah, GA, has grown the most between 2001 and 2006 (with an annual average growth rate of 14.2 percent). [D-5]
• In 2006, the United States ranked second in the world in terms of maritime container volume and first in terms of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2006, U.S. share of world volumes and GDP were 11.1 and 27.3 percent, respectively. [D-7]
• International vehicle and passenger traffic (chapter 2, section D)
• In 2006, over 242 million people (both U.S. residents and residents of other countries) crossed into the United States from Canada and Mexico in personal vehicles, compared to nearly 266 million in 1995 and almost 331 million in 1999, the high point. The number of pedestrians crossing into the country in 2006 was 46.8 million, compared to 33.5 million in 1995, and down from a high of 52.3 million in 2001. [D-12, D-15]
• In 2006, 11.4 million trucks crossed into the United States from Mexico and Canada , and 1.8 million full rail containers crossed into the United States . [D-8, D-11]