A Real-Time Truck Parking Availability System for the State of Wisconsin

Independent of truck parking capacity shortages, obtaining reliable and timely information has been receiving considerable attention nationally as of late. The situation has been exacerbated by increasing levels of freight- borne truck volumes along many regional and interstate corridors and the need for carriers and drivers to balance efficient transport with required periods to park and rest to minimize driver fatigue. Interstate 94, a nationally designated freight corridor, as it passes through the Upper Midwest, including Wisconsin, shares this problem. A multi-camera computer vision detection system was deployed at a state sponsored rest area truck parking facility 67 miles east of Minneapolis. A key aspect of the system is that it is a completely automated 24/7, non-intrusive, parking detection system; there is no need to intervene with manual resets or re-calibration procedures, and pavements are not disturbed. Secondly, a region-wide truck parking notification architecture, recognized as an emerging national standard, was integrated with the detection system to provide real-time roadside truck parking notifications upstream of the facilities, as well as notification to other third party stakeholders. The overall detection accuracy was between 90 and 95 percent during up-to-the minute, per-space parking status notifications.