Anyone who drives interstate highways and the Pennsylvania Turnpike sees big trucks parked along the road, on highway exit ramp and rest area entrances and exits.
It diminishes safety, but it’s a simple matter of supply and demand. To promote safety by limiting fatigued driving, federal regulations limit truckers to driving 11 hours within any 14-hour window. So, truckers must stop to rest. But according to the industry, there is only one off-highway parking spot for every 11 trucks on the road.
The American Transportation Research Institute’s annual report for 2022 included a survey in which more than 75% of truckers said that they had problems in the previous year finding a safe spot to stop for the night. A majority of respondents listed the need for safe overnight parking as their top priority. They identified Pennsylvania as one of the five states where it is most difficult to park overnight.
”Truckers don’t want to park on the side of the road, but are forced to if designated parking areas are full and they run out of federally regulated driving hours,” George O’Connor, of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
In 2021, the Biden administration included
$1 billion in the $1.4 trillion infrastructure bill to expand truck parking, but it was not included in the final bill.
Recently, the House Transportation Committee approved a bill to provide $755 million for states to build new truck parking areas or expand existing rest areas and weigh stations for that purpose.
It’s an important public safety measure in two ways. Keeping trucks off ramps and shoulders will improve highway safety. And it’s crucial to ensure that big-truck drivers have adequate rest. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the number of fatalities due to big-truck crashes rose 13% from 2020 to 2021, and another 10% in the first six months of 2022.
PennDOT and the state Turnpike Commission should determine the severity of the problem in Pennsylvania, and identify locations to expand truck parking. The state Legislature should move to improve safety regardless of the federal legislation’s fate.
— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre via TNS
