Ashley
Original Article via cdllife.com
North Carolina town to ban truckers from parking at their own homes
Truck drivers in a North Carolina town will have to make new parking plans after city leaders voted last night to forbid them from parking commercial vehicles on any residential property within city limits.
Last night the City Council of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, voted to approve an ordinance forbidding any commercial vehicle longer than 25 feet or heavier than 10,000 pounds from parking on residential property, according to a report in the Rocky Mount Telegram. This ordinance would prevent the city’s commercial truck drivers from parking their vehicles at their own homes.
City officials say that they will encourage truck drivers to seek parking spots in commercial areas like shopping centers.
During the city council meeting, resident Ruth Battle, whose son is a trucker, questioned city officials about the plan, asking, “What are we going to eat when truckers can’t come to Rocky Mount?”
Drivers will have a 90 day grace period before city officials start enforcing the ordinance.
Though he voted in favor of the ordinance, Councilman Andre Knight noted during the meeting that “Where you see a truck, you know that person is working and paying their bills.”
The parking conundrum is likely to become more of an issue as a CSX intermodal hub is built in Edgecombe County, a move that could encourage more truck drivers to move to the Rocky Mount area.
The envelope please… This Atlanta highway interchange wins the award for worst truck bottleneck
Jason Getz/AJC
It’s awards season, and Atlanta can justifiably boast about its ties to some of this year’s Oscar nominees. But the region has won at least one award that it probably won’t be bragging about.
The American Transportation Research Institute has again named Spaghetti Junction the worst truck bottleneck in the country.
The trucking industry group monitors congestion at 300 locations across the nation’s highways. It ranked them using GPS data from trucks that showed how slowly they moved compared to the speed limit at each location. The volume of truck traffic was also a factor. Spaghetti Junction’s average speed: 37 mph.
Flashback photos: Spaghetti Junction Through The Years
It’s the third straight year Spaghetti Junction has topped the APTI’s list. But just about every major Atlanta highway interchange made the institute’s top 100 bottlenecks this year. The others included:
*No. 4: I-75 at I-285 (north)
*No. 17: I-20 at I-285 (west)
*No. 46: I-20 at I-285 (east)
*No. 79: I-20 at I/75/85
*No. 90: I-75 at I-85
*No. 95: I-75 at I-675
Despite its many dubious interchanges, ATRI President Rebecca Brewster – an Atlanta resident – said she sees progress on fixing the region’s highways. Georgia’s $11 billion, 10-year plan for major highway construction includes rebuilding both I-20 interchanges at I-285, as well as express lanes on the Perimeter that may ease traffic at other interchanges.
That, of course, is one of the goals of the ranking: To shame governments into fixing problem interchanges. Illinois has begun to fix Chicago’s Circle Interchange (I-290 at I-90), which topped the bottleneck list for three consecutive years. It’s now just the third-worst interchange, behind Spaghetti Junction and New Jersey’s I-95 at SR 4.
Spaghetti Junction has now tied the Chicago interchange for most appearances atop the list since 2011. Barring dramatic improvements to Atlanta traffic (and who are we kidding?), Spaghetti Junction should become the undisputed Meryl Streep of truck bottlenecks next year.
MATS Panelists: ‘All The Money In The World’ Wouldn’t Solve Truck Parking
Samuel Barradas
Original Article via Truckers Report
The panelists at a seminar on truck parking at the Mid-America Trucking Show last week consisted of representatives from the DOT, law enforcement, owner-operators, and large carriers. These groups don’t generally see eye-to-eye from a policy standpoint, but one thing they do agree on is that “all the money in the world” won’t solve the truck parking issue.
It seems so simple; if there isn’t enough parking, build more parking spots. But according to the experts on the panel, that’s not enough.
“Spaces obviously are good and are needed,” said Scott Grenerth, head of regulatory affairs for the Owner Operator Independent Driver Association. “But it’s going to take more than just spaces. We need them in the right places, and they need to be accessible and safe.”
That “right places” bit may be the hardest. Since freight movement and the industry as a whole changes so rapidly, knowing where to put more parking has been an issue. The greatly anticipated Panama Canal expansion for example has the potential to make a major impact on where freight enters the country. According to the Federal Highway Administration’s Tom Kearney, freight shifts like this make it difficult to know where money needs to be spent.
Smart placement and plentiful spots won’t help though if drivers must still check multiple locations before finding suitable parking. How can a trucker know when to stop when he’s not sure how long it will take to find safe parking for the night? Should he risk parking where he is, or go over his allowable hours of service to find a more suitable area?
To combat this, Will Schaefer of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance says that getting drivers more informed about the real-time availability of spots is key. There are currently pilot programs in some states which let drivers know well ahead of time how many spots are available at upcoming parking areas using signage on highways. States have reported some success with those programs, and they could be expanded nationwide.
But unfortunately, even with all of these proposed solutions put together and with all the money in the world, the panelists don’t think that would be enough to solve the parking problem. An additional solution was proposed which drivers have been touting for a long time: find a way to encourage shippers and receivers to allow truckers to park at their pick-up and drop-off points.