Assessing Regional Agency Interest in Truck Freight Planning Practices: Insights from Virginia

Nationally, some regional planning agencies (RPAs) devote less attention to planning for truck freight than for passengers. To increase future regional truck freight planning, this paper reports the survey results from 22 Virginia RPA freight planning practices. Some RPAs were interested in practices not yet undertaken: provision of parking during emergencies (of interest to half the respondents), incorporation of parking needs as part of zoning ordinances (one-third), and provision of locally funded parking areas (a quarter). RPAs were heterogeneous: none of the 50 practices interested all RPAs and, on average, a given practice interested just 23% of respondents. Practices rarely undertaken but of high interest included identifying critical gaps in the truck freight network, identifying load-restricted bridges affecting business deliveries, and incorporation of parking needs into zoning ordinances. Accordingly, one such practice was piloted with one RPA, demonstrating that having adequate off-site locations to situate trucks for unloading is a pressing problem. The survey and pilot revealed that truck freight planning can be encouraged by tailoring practices to tightly defined regional interests. One pilot question concerned how future land use might stimulate off-site parking demand near pickup or delivery points. The ability to give a rough answer quickly led to a resulting action item proposed by the locality: explicit consideration of truck parking within the county comprehensive plan. The results showed that although additional data can yield a more exact answer, sketch-level planning information was sufficient to initiate a collaborative effort between a state and a willing regional participant.