Impact of Truck Parking Facilities on Commercial and Industrial Land Values: A Spatial Hedonic Model

Abstract

Strategic locations for truck parking capacity expansion should be selected to maximize benefits to drivers and industry while minimizing negative externalities to communities. To select strategic locations, local governments, developers, state transportation agencies, and private truck stop operators need to understand how parking facilities affect local economies. Although sufficient parking capacity allows drivers to adhere to federally mandated rest requirements, demand for safe parking is outpacing supply. Truck parking demand is likely to grow as freight tonnage is estimated to increase 1.2% per year between 2018 and 2045 and mandates for electronic logging devices go into effect. However, truck parking facilities can be viewed by local communities and real-estate developers as producing pollution, noise, and congestion. Yet, they may also represent economic opportunities for tax revenues for the local economy and agglomeration benefits for surrounding trucking-related industries. To address these concerns, a systematic, data-driven review of the economic impacts of truck parking facilities is critical. This paper applied a spatial-autoregressive model with autoregressive disturbances to estimate the impact on commercial and industrial land values attributed to proximity to truck parking facilities. Significant benefits to local land values were found: every 1% increase in distance from a parking facility was associated with a 0.284% decrease in land values, which corresponds to a $2,465/acre reduction in value for an average parcel. The findings of the study could help transportation agencies and truck stop operators strategically locate truck parking facilities to harness the economic benefits to local communities.