Jim Ray, acting Federal Highway Administraor, announced today that I-5 and I-95, two of the busiest interstates in the nation will be recieving over $5 million each, a split of $11 million intended to be used in giving frustrated truckers more parking options on the congested routes.
Both interstates were selected from the Department of Transportation's Corridors of the Future Program, which is design to reduce congestion on a national level.
I-5 on the west coast and I-95 on the east were chosen with the intent of using intelligent transportation systems technology to allow for real time information and updates about available parking locations. ITS can be used to monitor availability of parking and might even enable truckers to reserved parking spots.
"Predictability is good for businesses selling products and consumers buying them," Ray said. "Instead of hunting for parking and adding to traffic problems truckers can know when spots are vacant to plan their stops and time the delivery of goods into major cities."
On I-5 the daily maximum truck traffic is 35,000 with the average holding around 10,000. I-95 has a maximum over 31,000 with a daily average of over 10,000. Together, both corridors make up 10% of total interstate traffic.
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