<p>Highway Rest Stops and Truck Parking Facilities: Where Do We Go from Here?</p><p>With recent passage of the Federal Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) transportation bill in Washington, a serious issue of concern for freight mobility and motor vehicle and truck driver safety has received heightened attention at the Federal level. The “Jason’s Law” provisions for truck parking, originally drafted as House and Senate bills in 2009 have been incorporated into MAP-21 largely intact. MAP-21 also contains a provision requiring the USDOT to complete a field study on the effects of the 2011 hours of service rule changes by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The combination of these elements of the Federal bill provides an opportunity to address a number of issues related to freight transportation, rest facilities on the Federal highway system, driver rest requirements, and related land use issues.</p><p>Truck parking activity at highway rest areas and off-highway truck stops is driven by a complex combination of issues, including FMCSA hours of service rules, comfort and rest needs of truck drivers, current business practices in the trucking industry and the customers they serve, and local land use regulations. The daunting fiscal constraints faced by state DOTs who are charged with maintaining public rest areas presents its own challenge, as the Federal regulations prohibiting most commercial establishments on the Federal highway system preclude these DOTs from pursuing new, creative sources of revenue to maintain these facilities.</p><p>This proposed project will examine the underlying issues from three important perspectives: (1) the facilities, (2) the system users (truck drivers), and (3) business practices in freight transportation. Existing data from a number of studies in recent years will be used as the basis for this effort, supplemented by new data to identify post-2011 changes in truck parking characteristics at the facilities included in those studies. The study will include a series of recommendations for a “new look” at truck parking facilities and the regulatory climate under which they operate, with an emphasis on the role of DOTs in meeting the increasing demands on parking facilities related to driver safety requirements.</p>