Abstract

Most truck stops in rural areas are located along high-demand highway corridors, consistent with current methods based on capacity and demand models. However, these models underestimate the safety aspect, failing to detect highway corridors with low traffic demand and low truck stop accessibility. This study proposes a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based planning methodology to identify highway corridors affected by atypical crash rates involving commercial trucks and truck stop shortages. The proposed methodology defines two indexes to measure commercial truck safety and truck stop supply, serving as a basis for identifying four levels of need for new truck stops using reclassification and map algebra techniques. Results reveal that the identified highway corridors exhibit atypical crash rates and largely coincide with areas of low truck stop accessibility and low to moderate truck demand. Thus, the methodology introduces an important component, truck safety, in identifying new parking locations, usually dismissed by existing models.

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