Truck Parking Usage Patterns by Facility Amenity Availability

Abstract

Truck parking is currently ranked by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) as the fifth most critical issue for the trucking industry and, more importantly, as the second most important issue for truck drivers. Part of the problem can be attributed to inadequate supply of parking and federal hours of service (HOS) regulations. Recent truck driver stated-preference surveys reveal that amenities including restrooms, fuel, and showers are important considerations while seeking available parking. A link between parking usage patterns and facility amenity bundles can guide transportation agency investments in relation to the design and type of parking facilities with high potential to mitigate overcrowding issues, and can be used for predictive modeling in real-time parking availability algorithms and information systems. This paper used historical, anonymous truck global positioning system (GPS) data to determine the extent to which hourly parking usage patterns, that is, average parking duration, percentage of parked trucks, and parking usage ratio, vary by amenity availability. A K-means clustering model grouped parking facilities by time of day parking usage patterns, season, and geographic region. Each cluster, represented by parking usage patterns, was then tied to unique amenity bundles. Three usage pattern clusters were identified: overnight usage with long parking durations ( Cluster 1), off-peak usage with long parking durations, ( Cluster 2), and off-peak usage with short parking durations ( Cluster 3). In general, overnight and longer duration parking was associated with facilities that had fewer amenities, notably without showers, while peak and off-peak hours and shorter duration parking was associated with full-service facilities.