A Real-time Truck Parking Availability System For The State Of Wisconsin

Project summary:

Evidence suggests driver fatigue increases crash risk and is a contributing factor in motor vehicle crashes. This is especially critical when operating and driving commercial tractor-trailer trucks due to their weight and size. Federal hours-of-service (HOS) rules mandate regular rest periods for heavy commercial-vehicle operators. However, without timely, accurate information on parking availability, drivers are often left with the dilemma of either continuing to drive fatigued or parking illegally along road shoulders and ramps.

Independent of truck parking capacity shortages, obtaining reliable and timely truck parking information has recently been receiving considerable national attention. 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 park and rest periods to minimize driver fatigue. Interstate 94--a nationally designated freight corridor--shares this problem as it passes through the Upper Midwest (including Wisconsin). 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.