U.S. Freight Atlas — from public records to a place on the map Build-time public data ingestion, mode-specific estimates, compact facts and geometry packaging feed a static Vercel release. The browser prepares a genuine usable scene, renders Canvas freight networks and SVG geography and labels, picks local places, and stores or shares views. Annual snapshots, not live traffic; no inference server. SYSTEM PLATE / IMPLEMENTED PUBLIC RELEASE From public records to a place on the map U.S. Freight Atlas · Annual source snapshots, prepared offline and explored in your browser. 01 BUILD-TIME Public releases → checked derivatives → deployable static assets 02 BROWSER-TIME Download → prepare → render → inspect and return PUBLIC SOURCES / FREIGHT Demand & physical networks FAF 5.7.1: preliminary 2024; BEA county weights: 2024. FHWA highways, BTS rail, USACE waterways and EIA pipelines: retained geometry snapshots. PUBLIC SOURCES / GATEWAYS Cargo, trade & water controls BTS T-100 + Census customs: 2025. USACE link tons: 2023; LPMS locks: 2023 / 2025; EIA calibration controls: 2024 / 2025. PUBLIC SOURCES / PRODUCTION Output & geographic context NASS + Economic Census: 2022; CDFA: 2023, some 2022. EIA / MSHA / USGS: 2025 output; coal price: 2024; Census boundaries: 2024. INGESTION + VALIDATION Keep source scope, actual year and units Parse retained tables / extracts · join stable IDs · convert units · preserve withheld / unknown · reconcile aggregates ADDITIONAL ATLAS MODELING Roads & rail County-weighted FAF demand → least-cost paths → local edge tons / dollars. Not traffic counts or tracked routes; within-region freight stays in regional totals. ADDITIONAL ATLAS MODELING Water & pipelines Water: observed 2023 link tons × lock ratios → estimated 2025. Pipelines: EIA-calibrated FAF demand → incremental assignment; local flow is estimated. AGGREGATION + ALLOCATION Places & producing areas Reported trade / handling / output remain separate measures. Airport dollars are allocated; oil, gas and coal values use price proxies. State ≠ local. GENERATED RELEASE ASSETS Compact facts + geometry + discoverability Numeric buffers; plate / core facts; admission recipes and dependencies; national coarse geometry; spatial + LOD tiles. Explore catalog and source identities; metric registry → Methods / Data. Public build keeps reachable assets only. STATIC DELIVERY / VERCEL HTML, CSS, JavaScript, fonts and compressed data FRB1 root bundle retains original gzip members; directory, coarse assets and fine-detail tiles stay static files. GENUINE STARTUP WORK Gathering the map → Preparing the flow network → Ready to explore Inflate / validate buffers; resolve projection-specific admission; build viewport index; decode and project coarse roads. Check render / pick dependencies, then settle the initial scene. Ready follows completed work, not a timer. CAMERA + VIEW ELIGIBILITY One continuous map; source quantities do not change with zoom D3 conic equal-area projection + pan / zoom → viewport admission, visible owners, geometry LOD and label priorities. Fine detail loads on demand with pending / retry states; bounded compressed-only idle prefetch starts after Ready. DISPLAY / MAIN THREAD Canvas + SVG Canvas: freight ribbons, places and production context. SVG: geography, labels and insets. Gesture: transform current bitmap + labels; settle → same exact renderer. Picking pauses while moving. CLICKED-PLACE INSPECTION Local identity → marker → card Pick an eligible visible interval or site / area at the actual location. Preserve source-edge quantities; show year, scope, estimate and source. Camera stays fixed. No whole-route highlight or nationwide selection load. VIEW STATE + EXPLANATION Save, share & understand Explore uses the place catalog. Save locally; share camera, units, layers and stable selection in a URL. Methods / Data links carry a safe same-origin return to the serialized map view. SYSTEM BOUNDARY No live traffic feed. No inference server. No browser-side freight routing. READ THE ARROWS Build / data handoff Browser processing / interaction Reported quantities, published estimates and atlas-modeled local values are distinct. Layers overlap; do not sum them.

What happens before release

Public annual releases become checked derivatives, not a live logistics database. The nominal 2025 edition retains actual source years from 2022–2025.

  • FAF already contains published freight estimates. The atlas additionally allocates demand within freight regions and assigns road, rail and pipeline paths.
  • Water uses observed 2023 link passages scaled by 2023/2025 lock ratios. Customs trade, airport handling and production statistics each keep their own reporting scope.
  • Compact facts, geometry, admission dependencies, coarse and fine tiles, the Explore catalog and a versioned metric registry are generated before deployment.

What happens on your device

Vercel serves static files. The browser inflates compressed data and completes real preparation before enabling entry. No server calculates routes or infers freight flows for a visitor.

  • The camera controls continuous view admission, geometry detail and label placement; annual quantities remain unchanged.
  • The main thread draws networks and places on Canvas, with SVG geography and labels. During a gesture, the existing Canvas bitmap and labels transform; after settling, the unchanged exact renderer redraws.
  • Fine detail can arrive later, with loading and retry states. Idle prefetch caches compressed bytes only, rather than changing the visible network.

What a click actually means

A line click identifies the local drawn source interval, not a tracked shipment or every stretch of a named highway. A small marker and card explain the quantity, source year and geographic scope without moving the camera.

  • Observed or reported handling, published estimates and additional atlas modeling are not interchangeable. Missing values are not observed zero.
  • Saved views live on this device; share links encode camera, unit, visible layers and stable selection, not new data. Methods and Data preserve a safe return to that view.
  • Successive link passages, gateway handling and overlapping production areas cannot be summed into one national total.