TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 317: Dealing with Truck Parking Demands identifies successful and innovative strategies that have been implemented by transportation agencies, as well as potential strategies yet to be deployed in order to meet the increasing demand for truck parking. The report examines the legislative authority governing the provision of truck parking by state transportation agencies, including federal requirements and selected state laws. An analysis is provided of the demand for truck parking.

The purpose of the study was to review Iowa's public policy issues related to the state provision of overnight commercial truck parking and to make recommendations regarding the same. It was decided to limit the research and data gathering to a study of national trends in public commercial truck parking at facilities along and adjacent to Iowa's interstate highways.

A Coming of Age: Geospatial Analysis and Modelling in the Early Twenty First Century Forty years ago when spatial analysis first emerged as a distinct theme within geography’s quantitative revolution, the focus was largely on consistent methods for measuring spatial correlation. The concept of spatial au- correlation took pride of place, mirroring concerns in time-series analysis about similar kinds of dependence known to distort the standard probability theory used to derive appropriate statistics. Early applications of spatial correlation tended to reflect geographical patterns expressed as points. The perspective taken on such analytical thinking was founded on induction, the search for pattern in data with a view to suggesting appropriate hypotheses which could subsequently be tested. In parallel but using very different techniques came the development of a more deductive style of analysis based on modelling and thence simulation. Here the focus was on translating prior theory into forms for generating testable predictions whose outcomes could be compared with observations about some system or phenomenon of interest. In the intervening years, spatial analysis has broadened to embrace both inductive and deductive approaches, often combining both in different mixes for the variety of problems to which it is now applied.

This report documents a study of truck parking issues along the major state highways in Wisconsin. The effort builds upon another project at the National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE) funded by the Mississippi Valley Freight Coalition to study the truck parking issues on Interstate highways in the ten-state AASHTO Mississippi Valley Region. This study also inventories both public and private parking facilities along a select number of state highways. A web geographic information system (GIS) tool was developed for continuous survey and public participation. The study surveyed highway patrol officers, public freight planners, and truckers to identify parking facilities incommensurate with truck parking needs. It proposes a method for ranking parking facilities identified as having the most need of additional truck parking capacity. Building on a review of previous studies and face-to-face interviews with carriers, the report contains a discussion of why existing parking facilities do not meet needs and describes a set of low cost strategies for addressing truckers' parking needs.