pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

Safe Truck Parking in PacTrans Interstate Corridors: I-5 and I-90

PI: Anne Goodchild (UW), annegood@uw.edu

AMOUNT & MATCH: $50,000 from PacTrans; $50,000 Match

PERFORMANCE PERIOD: 12/15/2016 – 1/31/2018

STATUS: Complete

CATEGORIES: Freight, Parking

RESEARCH PROJECT HOT SHEET:

UTC PROJECT DOCUMENTATION:

FINAL PROJECT REPORT:

DESCRIPTION: Unresolved safety issues caused by truck parking shortages in high-demand locations are of keen import to the State Departments of Transportation participating in the Regional PacTrans Center, and to the thousands of trucking companies using the interstate 5 and interstate 90 corridors. Safety issues include serious and/or fatal crashes related to the lack of safe and secure parking, and illegal parking on interstate on-and-off ramps and on freeway lanes during severe weather. Research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggests that truck driver fatigue may be a contributing factor in as many as 30 to 40 percent of all heavy truck accidents. The lack of truck parking also affects local communities struggling or refusing to accommodate truck parking in high-demand locations along the interstate system.

This project will begin with a research scan of online reports to describe the lack of truck parking in high-demand locations in states along the Interstate 5 and Interstate 90 truck corridors in the PacTrans region, and in select metropolitan areas, cities and ports on those corridors such as the Cities of North Bend and Fife in Washington, Boise, Idaho and near Portland, Oregon. Then we will develop a white paper examining future trends and factors that may intensify the problem, such as growth in the trucking industry along interstate corridors, current hours of service limitations and potential future changes, and locations of severe weather conditions that regularly close these interstates in mountainous regions.  Original research will be conducted through on-site surveys of truck drivers at high-demand rest stops (North Bend and Sumner in Washington are candidates) to determine (a) origin of trip; (b) destination of trip; and (c) drivers’ expert opinions of safety issues related to the lack of truck parking where needed. The origin and destination information will help quantify the tie between truck parking issues in Washington State and the PacTrans region, as the study’s working hypothesis is that most trucks parking overnight near the interstate system are based in other states. Providing data to support or refute this connection will be invaluable in determining the beneficiaries of building and maintaining public and private truck parking rest stops.  To complete this project, the research team will create a GIS map of public and private truck parking centers on the I-5 and I-90 corridors in the PacTrans region.