University of New Orleans faculty member Bethany Stich will use a $220,000 research grant from the Louisiana Transportation Research Center to identify solutions to the state’s truck parking problem.

The shortage of truck parking has been a longstanding issue in the trucking industry, according to Stich. Drivers often face challenges finding safe places to park, leading to fatigue, increased accidents and disruptions to the supply chain. Nationally, there are more than 11 truck drivers for every one parking space, Stich said. Industrial and residential developments are generating more truck trips and parking demand than local infrastructure can handle.

“Truck drivers need to rest and stage their trucks,” said Stich, who is a professor of planning and urban studies and the director of the UNO Transportation Institute. “The real-time truck parking space availability is critical to maintain safety, hours of service, compliance and efficiency. Many truck parking locations have irregularly shaped ‘footprints’ and lack identifiable delineation for truck parking spaces. As a result, a given location may be able to accommodate 25 trucks but may only yield space for 13 or 14 trucks depending on how they are parked. Given this scenario, providing real-time truck parking availability information for approaching trucks on the highway is problematic but utterly necessary.”

Stich is the principal investigator on the grant. Guang Tian, associate professor of planning and urban studies and associate director of the UNO Transportation Institute, is the co-principal investigator.

In the short term, the UNO researchers will identify what truck parking exists in Louisiana, how it is managed and what variable message parking signage exists for truck drivers in Louisiana. In the long term, they will develop a guidebook for truck parking ordinances that local jurisdictions would be able to adopt to help build more truck parking spaces.