Truck parking finally has its own dedicated federal money. February's spending law set aside $200 million solely for truck parking, a first for Congress. In June, USDOT opened a $200 million application track for it. A House bill to reauthorize surface transportation is also moving, and industry wants a multi-year parking funding stream added to it. So, is money enough?
Not by itself. Concrete and asphalt are expensive and slow to materialize. States have many other infrastructure needs that tend to be of higher priority. A recent ATRI/AASHTO study noted that over the last 10 years, only 26 percent of states have acquired or worked to acquire new land or right-of-way for truck parking. One recent tally on the cost of truck parking puts Ohio at about $107,000 per new space and Florida at about $196,000, according to the Truck Parking Club. Pennsylvania took a different route. PennDOT, the Turnpike Commission, and the State Police are marking and signing state-owned land, including ramps with clear sight lines, weigh stations, and highway right-of-way. The result will be 1,202 spaces at 133 locations, with 339 already open at 24 locations. That took months, not years.
Pennsylvania also shows that the parking need isn't the same everywhere. Drivers using the Trucker Path app most often report a lack of parking in Massachusetts, Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington. They found it more available in South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Iowa, Wyoming and Louisiana, according to Trucker Path. FHWA's Jason's Law work likewise describes severe shortages in some regions rather than all of them, and demand peaks at night and mid-week. A national dollar figure can't tell you where or when a space is needed. Real-time parking availability systems can help by steering drivers to spaces that exist, though only if the sensor data is accurate and timely. The ATRI/AASHTO study identified nearly a third of truck drivers (31%) believe that parking availability information from Truck Parking Information Systems is unreliable.
That's why spaces are a means, not the goal. The goal is what good parking solve. Drivers stop parking on ramps and shoulders, where parked trucks endanger everyone. They stop losing about 56 minutes a day hunting for a spot, and the pressure to drive tired or quit early eases. They stop parking in random locations with no services or security to protect driver safety and to limit cargo theft and human trafficking. The question isn't how many spaces we created. It's whether we put the right ones in the right places, whether drivers can find safe places to park. Truck parking needs to be a national priority, not a stopgap measure to plug holes.
