Your State Has $1 Billion to Make Roads Safer — And for the First Time, Truck Parking Is a Priority

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has made nearly $1 billion available through the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program for this year. With roughly $700 million in implementation grants and $300 million in planning grants for state DOTs, metropolitan planning organizations, cities, counties, and tribal governments are working to make their roads safer. The applications close May 26. Since its launch, SS4A has delivered $3.9 billion in federal funding to more than 2,000 communities across all 50 states.

What makes this cycle different? This year’s funding envelope explicitly prioritizes truck parking as an eligibility area for the first time, a signal that federal reviewers are ready to fund solutions to a problem the freight industry has been raising for years.

Why truck parking is a safety crisis, not a convenience issue

Truck parking shortages aren’t just an inconvenience, they create massive safety risks that touch every region with a major freight corridor. When drivers can’t find safe, designated parking, they stop on highway ramps, shoulders, and unauthorized spots, which then puts 80,000-pound loads on pavement, designed for moving traffic. Drivers are at risk and cargo is exposed to theft. The pavement deteriorates faster under parked loads because of how it was designed and truckers entering and exiting their vehicles face heightened risk in places never built for pedestrians.

These aren’t isolated incidents. Altitude by Geotab’s analysis, conducted in partnership with Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff (HNTB), found over 300,000 long-duration unauthorized parking events on U.S. highway ramps every year.

Data is what separates winning applications

SS4A reviewers are scoring applications on clear problem identification, data-driven prioritization, measurable targets, and a realistic plan. Data quality is the differentiator to help determine:

• Where's the problem?
• Who's at risk?
• What changes outcomes? 

These are the questions you should be addressing with specifics in your application process.

Mobility Insights that add value

Built specifically for truck parking analysis, Stop Analytics reveals where commercial vehicles are stopping, for how long, and whether those stops are occurring at authorized facilities or on ramps and shoulders. With the use of an Effective Freight Parking analytics solution, planners are given the ability to measure true parking demand, showing observed behavior segmented by truck class, vehicle industry, vocation, and fuel type. This is the level of detail that turns a parking narrative into a funded parking project.

Stop Analytics gives planners the answers a truck parking application needs to have such as: 

• Where is unauthorized parking concentrated, and during which hours?
• Which corridors have the widest gap between parking demand and available capacity?
• What types of vehicles are parking, and what does that tell us about the infrastructure needed?
• How does parking demand shift across days of the week and where does mid-week peak demand overwhelm existing facilities?

For corridor-level context beyond parking, Altitude's Traffic Analytics is able to provide comprehensive insights. It shows where freight volume, harsh braking patterns, and idle time intersect with the same corridors where parking is failing. This helps applicants demonstrate that a truck parking investment addresses a corridor-wide safety pattern that SS4A was designed to fund.

Don’t miss the opportunity

Nearly $1 billion in federal safety funding, with truck parking as an explicit priority for the first time is a great opportunity to address a long-standing issue. Agencies that have the data to quantify their problems, target their investments, and measure outcomes are the ones that will be well positioned for this funding. To learn more about how Altitude by Geotab can support your SS4A application visit — Altitude by Geotab.