Download app to help truck parking study along I-94, I-80

Two universities and a software company are studying truck parking and need trucker input via an app.

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and software company ParkUnload plan to study tractor-trailer parking along I-94 and I-80 to better understand parking needs there. The group also is researching the benefits and feasibility of using a parking app to collect information on truck parking.

A key part of the research project is for truck drivers to download the app available at ParkingPilot.org. To encourage drivers to download the app and take part, each month one truck driver using the app will get a $150 Amazon gift card. The winning driver will be announced at the same website every month of the study.

“For this study to be successful, we need truck drivers to download and use the parking app in the designated truck parking spaces so that we can collect actual, on-the-ground information to help us understand how truck parking capacity is used and the challenges and benefits of parking apps,” researchers said a Texas A&M news release.

The research partnership plans this month to install equipment in parking spots in the I-94 and I-80 corridors where the technology will be tested. The parking spots have been painted green and signs will be installed.

Funding for this study is provided by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration under a cooperative agreement through the agency’s FY20 High Priority grant program.

An informational brochure is available.

More about tractor-trailer parking

For more information on the continuing crisis in available parking for heavy-duty commercial vehicles, read The Parking Zone in Land Line Magazine. Tyson Fisher, Land Line staff writer, in the July 2022 issue of Land Line, wrote about the continuing struggles of the private sector battling local boards, commissions and councils in their attempts to alleviate truck parking problems.

Also, in June more co-sponsors had signed on to support the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. LL