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Introduction
The rate of global economic growth and the integration of trade, finance and
manufacturing have increased greatly over the last two decades. Transportation
plays a vital role in the changing global economy, linking people and places,
facilitating trade and tourism and encouraging economic competition and specialization.
The North American1
experience mirrors these worldwide trends. Reduced trade barriers and increasingly
mobile populations have created a heightened need for information on transportation
infrastructure and services within and across Canada, Mexico and the United
States. Two major initiatives, the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA)2
and the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),3
were significant milestones in the liberalization of trade in goods and services
between the three countries of this continent.
An effective, efficient and safe transportation system is critical to any nation's
economic growth, the mobility of its citizens and its national security. Each
day, governments, businesses and consumers make countless decisions about where
to locate facilities and make investments, what to ship, which transportation
mode to use and how and where to travel on business or for pleasure. Transportation
provides the links between businesses, industries and consumers, and the merits
of transportation go beyond the national borders of any one country. While the
positive contributions of transportation to the national economies and to the
daily life of people everywhere are quite important, transportation also has
some adverse impacts. Transportation uses significant amounts of energy, mostly
derived from petroleum, and is also a major cause of death and injury every
year. This report strives to present a balanced picture of the benefits transportation
confers as well as the impacts it has.
The effectiveness and efficiency of national and North American transportation
relies heavily on sound information. Within and across countries, comprehensive
transportation information makes knowledgeable decisions possible, on personal,
corporate and national policy levels. Accurate data, comparable across modes
and countries, is important in order to make effective investments with scarce
resources; to understand changes in dynamic transportation markets; to evaluate
transportation benefits and impacts; and to support critical decision-making
in the public and private sectors. In short, accurate, comprehensive and timely
transportation-related information is a key component in business, government
and personal decisionmaking.
A trilateral initiative, the North American Transportation Statistics Interchange
(Interchange), first identified a need for a compendium of transportation and
transportation-related data for Canada, Mexico and the United States. The Interchange
is an initiative between the transportation and statistical agencies of Canada,
Mexico and the United States, and provides a forum for the exchange of information
and for the discussion of topics and issues related to transportation statistics
in and among the participating countries. The first Interchange meeting was
held in November 1991, and regular meetings have been held since then.
In addition to promoting closer working ties between the transportation and
statistical agencies of the three countries, the Interchange has led to a number
of key projects, including: the joint Canadian and U.S. development of the Standard
Classification of Transported Goods (SCTG), the resolution of data inconsistencies
in transborder merchandise trade data and the exchange of ideas on the development
of national reports. Trilateral cooperation between the three countries also
led to the development of the North American Industrial Classification System
(NAICS), provided for an exchange of ideas on how to improve and standardize
the handling of transportation data in national economic accounts, and resulted
in an agreement to jointly develop a project on North American transportation
statistics. Since 1997, a tricountry working group has been coordinating the
work of this later project. Participating agencies include Statistics Canada
and Transport Canada from Canada; the Secretaría de Communicaciones y
Transportes (Ministry of Communications and Transportation), the Instituto Mexicano
del Transporte (Mexican Institute of Transportation) and the Instituto Nacional
de Estadística, Geografía e Informática (INEGI) (National
Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics) from Mexico; and the Bureau
of Transportation Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau from the United States.
The North American Transportation Statistics project has had a number of key
objectives. These are: (a) to identify key information that will help provide
a comprehensive view of transportation in North America, (b) to characterize
transportation activity and impacts across and between Canada, Mexico and the
United States, (c) to reveal specific data comparability differences within
and across countries, (d) to identify data and information gaps and (e) to begin
discussions for reducing comparability differences and data gaps through cooperative
activities. This report, North American Transportation in Figures, is
one of the outcomes of this project, and represents the second joint effort
by the three countries to develop a statistical report related to transportation.4
It is expected that the information will be updated on a periodic basis, giving
users a recognized source for transportation and other related data in a North
American context.
North American Transportation in Figures provides a comprehensive overview
of transportation statistics in North America. English, French and Spanish editions
of the report are available. The report includes data for 1990, 1995 and 1996,
the latest years for which comparable data are readily available. All of the
value data are reported in current U.S. dollars. All measurement units are in
metric.5
Users should note that, for the sake of greater comparability across the three
countries, data categories and definitions were extensively reviewed and modified
when necessary. Therefore, some of the data categories and definitions used
in this report may not always correspond to those used in the specific national
publications of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Users, who require data
in original categories, currencies or measures, a complete time series or other
additional information, may contact the appropriate source agency in each country.
Each language edition of the report contains over 90 data tables, supported
by graphs, figures, maps and a number of appendixes. Appendix A includes an
overview of the transportation statistical system in each of the three countries,
including information on specific agencies and their roles and responsibilities
for transportation data. In most cases, Appendix A also provides web site addresses
where additional detailed information is available for specific data sets and
series. Appendix B provides additional technical notes for each of the data
tables, and explains the differences in data sources, survey methodologies,
collection approaches and definitions among the three countries. Information
provided here supplements footnotes included on individual tables. Appendix
C contains additional reference charts, including: the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) exchange rates used, state and provincial abbreviations, U.S.-metric
conversion ratios, land border crossing ports and the Harmonized Schedule for
international merchandise trade at the two-digit level. Appendix D provides
selected tables in U.S. measures.
North American Transportation in Figures contains twelve thematic sections.
Section 1, Country Overview, sets the context of the report with an overview
of each country: population, labor force, physical area and Gross Domestic Product
(GDP). Section 2, Transportation and the Economy, draws a comprehensive picture
of the impact that transportation has on the economic indicators of each country
(including GDP), government expenditures for transportation, and transportation
employment. Section 3, Transportation Safety, provides critical information
on fatalities and injuries by mode. Fatality and injury rates for road and air
also are included. Section 4, Transportation, Energy and the Environment, responds
to current energy and environmental concerns, and includes tables on energy
consumption, fuel costs and emission control requirements. Section 5, Domestic
Freight Activity, summarizes freight activity by mode, by major commodity and
by major origin/destination pair. Sections 6 and 7 provide data on North American
merchandise trade and international merchandise trade between North America
and the rest of the world. For Section 6, each country decided to use its own
merchandise trade data. Thus, there will be statistical differences when comparing,
for example, Canada's data for trade with the United States and the United State's
data for trade with Canada. Section 7 represents international merchandise trade
for each country, excluding trade with the other North American countries. Sections
8, 9 and 10 provide data on domestic, North American and international passenger
travel. Section 9 presents a picture of North American travel with information
about the type of travel (overnight versus same-day), mode of transportation
used and trip purpose. Section 10 provides data on international passenger travel
between North America and the rest of the world. Section 11, concentrates on
transportation infrastructure and its use in each country. Section 12, Transportation
Vehicles, provides a detailed inventory of transportation vehicles and equipment
and summarizes domestic movements, in terms of vehicle-kilometers, by mode.
A number of standard symbols were adopted for use on the statistical tables.
These are as follows:
C = Data are confidential
N = Data are nonexistent
NA = Not applicable
NS = Not significant
U = Data are unavailable
e = Data are estimated
p = Data are preliminary
r = Data are revised
In addition, the unit "billions" in this edition equates to "thousand millions"
in the Spanish edition, and one millard in the French edition.
An electronic version of North American Transportation in Figures, including
downloadable spreadsheet files, also will be available on the web sites of the
agencies involved in the North American Transportation Statistics project. The
specific agency addresses are as follows:
Canada
Statistics Canada
www.statcan.ca
Transport Canada
www.tc.gc.ca
Mexico
Instituto Mexicano del Transporte (Mexican Institute of Transportation)
www.imt.mx
Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática
(INEGI, National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics)
www.inegi.gob.mx
Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (Ministry of Communications
and Transport)
www.sct.gob.mx
United States
Bureau of Transportation Statistics,
U.S. Department of Transportation
www.bts.gov
U.S. Census Bureau,
U.S. Department of Commerce
www.census.gov
End Notes
1For the purposes of this report, North America
will refer to the countries of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
2The FTA entered into force on January 1, 1989.
3NAFTA entered into force on January 1, 1994.
4In December 1999, a brief summary report, North
American Transportation Highlights, was published based on the work and
data included in this report, North American Transportation in Figures.
5Conversion ratios to U.S. measures are included
in Appendix C. Appendix D reports data in U.S. measures for specific tables.
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