The four state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) that comprise the I-10 Corridor Coalition are joining forces to seek a federal grant to help develop a program alerting commercial truck drivers to available public parking spaces at Interstate 10 rest areas.
Public parking for commercial vehicles is among the priorities of the I-10 Corridor Coalition, which was formed in 2016 by the state DOTs from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to create safer and more efficient travel along the route for both commercial and personal transport.
In seeking a US$13.7m Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) Grant through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the four states are proposing a system that would inform drivers about available parking at rest areas through improved signage along the I-10 corridor, which is a major freight route across the southern USA.
The I-10 Corridor Coalition was formed to help remove ‘friction’, such as the variety of commercial vehicle permitting and inspection practices in each state along I-10, to move goods more efficiently. The Coalition’s work includes determining the best ways to do everything from regulating commercial traffic, to inspecting vehicles that cross state lines, to finding the most economical way to complete large projects. The I-10 corridor is the primary trucking route connecting the markets of Southern California and Texas with international shipping. If the four states were combined, the region would have the 10th-largest economy in the world.
Created under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, the FHWA’s ATCMTD program works to improve the performance of the USA’s transportation systems, reduce traffic congestion, and improve the safety of the traveling public.
ATCMTD grants are aimed at funding new technologies that improve transportation efficiency and safety, and the FHWA is particularly interested in financing projects that bring data together from different systems, such as integrated corridor management, real-time traveler information, traffic data collection and dissemination, and other intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies.
The Corridor Coalition says that if its funding bid is successful, the program would help commercial vehicle drivers better plan their daily schedules, and reduce the number of drivers parking on freeway shoulders and along ramps. The project would also improve safety along the I-10 by reducing the number of tired drivers, reduce time that drivers spend searching for parking spaces, and reduce vehicle emissions and fuel consumption.
“When we launched the I-10 Corridor Coalition two years ago, this is exactly the kind of collaboration we had in mind,” explained ADOT director John Halikowski. “By working together, our states can create a safer environment on I-10 that will be more efficient for drivers and boost economies across the region.”
