Truck Parking Proposal Development

2008PDFTech ReportParkingProposalsTruck trafficI-95 Corridor CoalitionU.S. Federal Highway AdministrationParking availabilityResearch HubUnited States;Canada;Eastern StatesUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationFederal Highway AdministrationThe I-95 Corridor Coalition is very pleased to submit this application for funding, through the Maryland State Highway Administration, under the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Truck Parking Initiative. The Coalition is an alliance of transportation agencies, toll authorities, and related organizations, including law enforcement, from the State of Maine to the State of Florida, with affiliate members in Canada. The Coalition provides a forum for policy makers and transportation officials to address transportation management and operations issues of common interest. Our volunteer, consensus-driven organization enables state, local, and regional member agencies to work together to improve transportation system performance far more than they could working alone. The Coalition has served successfully as a model for multi-state/jurisdictional interagency cooperation and coordination since 1993. Our proposed project area is along one of the USDOT's recently designated Corridors of the Future, a segment of the I- 95 corridor extending from Connecticut through North Carolina. This stretch of the I-95 corridor passes through a number of the nation's most congested urban areas. The seven states comprising the project area are home to 130,000 active commercial motor carriers, or 18 percent of all interstate and hazardous materials carriers nationwide; tens of thousands of additional carriers domiciled outside the region operate in and through these states. In 2006, 14 percent of all large truck crashes nationwide occurred in the project area states. Truck parking in this region is a problem today. Alleviating the parking quagmire will enable commercial operators to better plan their urban deliveries, immediately contributing to achieving the goals of the USDOT's National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America's Transportation Network. It will also make conditions safer for truck drivers and other travelers, reduce unnecessary fuel consumption, and improve the efficiency of commercial vehicle operations. The long-term, overnight parking problem in this area is especially severe. Commercial drivers seeking to comply with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration\u2019s Hours of Service regulations often park illegally on freeway shoulders when legal parking is either not available, or the location of available parking is not known. However, greater operational efficiency could also be realized by directing commercial drivers to available parking for shorter-term waits for port access and other loading/unloading operations