Jason’s Law parking survey: Top 10 states in need of more spaces

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Updated Nov 30, 2015
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Since the results of the big Jason’s Law parking report were released last month, I’ve been digging into state-to-state data included there. I’ll be reporting more on what I’ve found in the near future.

Meantime, as results current this morning from this poll probing the current extent of the parking problems nationally suggest, parking is a significant issue daily for most of you.

Where/in what states are your problems most pronounced? Answer the following question with up to three problem states to help guide my analysis of the federal survey data:

As for the federal study/survey, it looks at available truck parking in states through a few different statistical metrics. Ranked here find the top ten states, where the dearth of spaces is most pronounced, from least number of spaces per 100,000 miles of annual truck vehicle miles traveled to most.

1) Rhode Island | 31.4 spaces per 100K VMT
**38.5 per 100 miles of NHS — rank: 1
**11.5% public spaces

2) California | 53.7 spaces per 100K VMT
**90.6 per 100 miles of NHS — rank: 14
**9.5% public spaces

3) Tennessee | 54.2 spaces per 100K VMT
**162.6 per 100 miles of NHS — rank: 34
**9.2% public spaces

4) Delaware | 56.1 spaces per 100K VMT
**70.6 per 100 miles of NHS — rank: 5
**8.5% public spaces

5) Connecticut | 60.2 spaces per 100K VMT
**104.8 per 100 miles of NHS — rank: 20
**33.9% public spaces

6) Washington | 68.5 spaces per 100K VMT
**77.6 per 100 miles of NHS — rank: 11
**25.6% public spaces

7) Utah | 70.1 spaces per 100K VMT
**125.5 per 100 miles of NHS — rank: 26
**14.6% public spaces

8) Florida | 71.2 spaces per 100K VMT
**104.3 per 100 miles of NHS — rank: 19
**27.8% public spaces

9) Maryland | 72.2 spaces per 100K VMT
**129 per 100 miles of NHS — rank: 27
**16.2% public spaces

10) Illinois | 76.9 spaces per 100K VMT
**141.1 per 100 miles of NHS — rank: 29
**14.4% public spaces

SOURCE: 2015 federal Jason’s Law truck-parking survey report; list above revised slightly 9/22/2015 in recognition of a database error.

Also included in the rankings are a few other data points measured by DOT in the study for each state, from spaces per 100 miles of National Highway System in the state to the percentage of the spaces that are under public ownership, such as those at rest areas and other public, non-truck-stop facilities.

Many of these states also rank high for parking-space dearth in the per-100-mile measure, and in some states, clearly, the public sphere is doing little to help meet the parking need. Many of the top ten have a relatively low percentage of public spaces available to truckers, below the almost 12 percent national average of public spaces, considering the total inventory. The spread of percentages for public spaces runs from a low of 2.4 percent all the way beyond 30 percent.

Connecticut, also part of the top ten, has the second highest percentage of public parking spaces among states.

But problems in states clearly aren’t limited to those whose public attention to truck parking is scarce, pointing to other problems like the difficulty of private entities like truck stop chains to expand into markets where space is at a premium.

Below, find the full list of 48 continental U.S. states is ranked from lowest to highest by number of truck parking spaces per 100K of truck VMT. And be sure to let us know above in what three states you have the biggest issues.