FHWA handbook moves public sector closer to addressing truck parking crisis

December 17, 2021

Tyson Fisher

|

After years of data collection, the federal government is working on a truck parking development handbook for the public sector, signaling local and state governments may soon be ready to address the parking shortage.

On Thursday, Dec. 16, the Federal Highway Administration received input from the National Coalition on Truck Parking regarding a truck parking development handbook. Once complete, governments can refer to the handbook when addressing the truck parking issue.

State and local governments have more jurisdiction when it comes to parking development. With too many governments unaware of the problem, FHWA’s handbook explains the benefits of truck parking while also addressing concerns.

Considering the lack of awareness, the federal government also is providing the public sector with the following information:

  • Land use considerations.
  • Tools for estimating parking needs.
  • Benefit cost and economic impact analyses.
  • How to identify sites for parking.
  • Attributes of safe parking areas.
  • Case studies of successful truck parking developments.

FHWA is analyzing info from Thursday’s workshop before finalizing the handbook. As of publication, FHWA has not announced a release date.

Bryce Mongeon, director of legislative affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, remains hopeful that the handbook will help create more parking spaces.

“From (the) presentation, it seems that the working group’s handbook can help states and localities understand the full range of benefits of building truck parking and strategies to do so,” Mongeon said. “Still, it will be up to state and local officials to implement policies that actually expand parking. We will need to see what information and guidance is in the final handbook, but we hope that this can help advance OOIDA’s efforts to expand truck parking.”

Years of truck parking studies beginning to pay off

The handbook is the result of years of discussions with stakeholders who are part of the National Coalition on Truck Parking. It also indicates that the public sector is finally ready to act.

Truckers and the U.S. Department of Transportation have known about the parking shortage for more than a decade. It took the murder of a trucker to get the attention of Congress.

In 2009, Jason Rivenburg was shot to death after being robbed of $7 while parked at an abandoned gas station lot. It was the only nearby parking spot he could find.

That lit a fire under the trucking industry, and Congress could feel the heat. Jason’s Law was included in the 2012 infrastructure bill, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act. The law establishes a “national priority on addressing the shortage of long-term parking.” It also directs FHWA to collect data from stakeholders to address the truck parking crisis.

Survey results were released in August 2015, with an updated version released five years later. Although FHWA identified what truckers already knew, most governments were unaware of the truck parking crisis. For the first time, governments had data backing claims of a parking shortage.

Having identified the problem, FHWA established the National Coalition on Truck Parking to find solutions. Comprised of stakeholders, including OOIDA, the coalition began collaborating 2016. Between 2017 and 2019, the stakeholders got together for several workshops to come up with guidance and solutions.

Since then, FHWA has been analyzing information provided during those workshops. Essentially, FHWA is packaging the information into a handbook, which it will use to convince the public sector to consider truck parking development. LL