Photo: Missouri Department of Transportation/Flickr
Washington — As the trucking industry continues its call for improving drivers’ access to safe parking, rest-area operators can make existing parking safer by adding lighting, fencing, patrols and emergency call buttons, stakeholders say in a recent report.
The American Transportation Research Institute is the research arm of the American Trucking Associations. ATRI and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials surveyed representatives from 47 state departments of transportation. The objective: To spotlight best practices while gathering “critical public-sector truck parking data.”
Along with making rest areas safer, suggestions include:
- Encouraging state DOTs to leverage formal public-private partnerships to build truck parking facilities, provide additional capacity during winter storms, and generate funds that offset service and maintenance costs.
- Advocating for a dedicated federal funding program to increase truck parking capacity.
ATRI and AASHTO cite a previous estimate that one truck parking space exists for every 11 truck drivers in the United States. Along with the report, the organizations developed an online dashboard listing the amount of truck parking spaces at statewide rest areas and state-identified safety features at those rest areas, among other information.
Data wasn’t available for Alabama, Delaware and Rhode Island, whose state DOT representatives didn’t respond.
ATRI and AASHTO claim that “trucks parked in unauthorized spaces alongside shoulders or highway on/off ramps increase the risk and severity of crashes.” Additionally, the parking shortage “may cause drivers to drive off-route searching for available truck parking.”
In October, a lack of safe places for truck drivers to stop and rest ranked second on ATRI’s annual list of top trucking industry concerns.
“State DOTs strive to deliver the most safe, effective and efficient transportation network possible; as a result, they continue to pursue a wide range of investments that enhance the nation’s multimodal freight system,” Shayne Gill, program director for multimodal transportation at AASHTO, said in a press release. “Addressing truck-parking needs across the country is one of those investments crucial to ensuring we maximize the benefits our highway system provides.”
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Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication