Economic Development

Future economic growth impacts today’s transportation infrastructure investment decisions. This is especially true when future growth includes industries that rely heavily on the transportation system to bring inputs to the manufacturing plant and deliver the outputs to customers or for industries that require large numbers of workers in a central location.
A survey of the ten MAFC state economic development organizations (EDOs) was conducted to get an idea of the industries being targeted as priorities by the different EDOs. While certain industries were defined differently between the states, in general the targeted industries can be put into one of two groups: freight-based and service-based. While it is obvious the needs freight-based industries place upon the transportation system, the service-based industries require a paradigm shift so to speak in that people equal freight. Service industries tend to locate in areas with high worker to resident ratios meaning large numbers of commuters descend on small number of locations. For the service-based industries, particular attention should be given to public transit systems in order to reduce congestion on the transportation network and need for parking.

Freight-based

  • Manufacturing/Advanced Manufacturing/Specialized Manufacturing
  • Transportation and Logistics
  • Agricultural/Life Science/Biosciences/Agri-Business/Agri-Science
  • Energy/Renewable Energy/Alternative Energy

Service-based

  • Call/Data Centers
  • FIRE Services
  • Health Care
  • Information Technology
  • Tourism
  • Professional & Technical Services

Table 1 summarizes the MAFC states targeted industries.

Table 1: Targeted Industries in a MAFC States


Links to the economic development organizations or departments of commerce of the ten MAFC states are below: