Truck-safe city parking: 4 innovations to protect cars and pedestrians
Published in Slideshow World
If you drive a car regularly, you've probably faced the frustration of arriving at your destination, searching for a parking spot, and coming up dry.
Big-rig truck drivers across the U.S. face that reality daily. In a survey of 11,000 drivers conducted in 2020 by the Federal Highway Administration, nearly all (98%) truckers said they have problems finding parking, with most saying they encounter this once or more a week. The lack of truck parking spots causes more than a minor inconvenience: It forces truck drivers to park in precarious situations along roads, exit ramps, and vacant lots.
Precariously parked trucks have been linked to numerous car accidents and deaths. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reports that 673 fatal crashes involving parked or working vehicles occurred between 2018 and 2020, with multiple other crashes causing injuries.
Last year, a Greyhound bus carrying 21 passengers slammed into three tractor-trailers parked along the shoulder of a ramp in Madison County, Illinois. Three passengers died, and the others had serious injuries.
Just two days later, Texan resident Mario Gonzalez died when he drove his pickup truck into a semitruck that was parked overnight on the side of a service road near San Antonio.
Truck drivers understand the danger of parking in unofficial locations but are often caught in an impossible situation: Federal laws mandate they take breaks after driving more than eight to 10 hours, but there is usually nowhere to safely and legally park.
One former truck driver, Vindal Ogletree, recounted a "no-win situation" to Axios Charlotte. He parked on a ramp during one of his required breaks, but an officer came by and ordered him to leave. Then, as he was moving the truck, a second officer stopped him, checked the electronic device that tracks his trips, and told him he was violating the law by not taking a proper break.
"They've got a federally mandated maximum amount of time that they could drive, but they don't have a federally guaranteed safe place to park," Ben Greenberg, president and CEO of the North Carolina Trucking Association, told Axios.
Charlotte, North Carolina, is just one of many cities addressing the parking problem with increased regulation; according to Axios, city leaders raised parking fines from $25 to $100. Yet other cities are outright banning overnight truck parking. Since 2021, Minneapolis has banned trucks weighing more than 26,000 pounds from parking on any street, and neighboring city St. Paul followed suit in 2023.
If parking bans don't fix the underlying problem, what will? TruckParkingClub explored five potential solutions to help mediate the national truck parking shortage.
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