Driving Coverage of Charging Stations for Battery Electric Trucks Located at Truck Stop Facilities

Battery-powered electric trucks could soon be deployed on a large scale along long-haul routes on the U.S. trunk highway system. These vehicles have numerous advantages, including zero emissions, fuel savings, and lower maintenance costs, that make them attractive for motor carrier companies. However, the deployment of this technology depends on the development of a convenient network of fast-charging stations that can provide sufficient driving coverage along the Interstate highway system. The majority of existing fast-charging stations in rural areas currently are not adequate for the movement of large trucks. A potential solution is to install fast-charging stations at the vast network of rural truck stops. Truck stops are specifically designed for the movement of trucks and are already located on the routes with the highest truck demand. The main objective of this study was to develop a methodology for identifying the driving coverage provided if fast-charging stations were located at truck stop facilities along the U.S. Interstate highway system. The contiguous U.S.A. was taken as the study area. The study approach was based on a geographic information system network analysis with a specific focus on the service area. It was found that truck stop facilities could potentially provide 99.5% driving coverage for electric trucks on the Interstate highway system. This makes them opportune locations for future fast-charging stations. These findings may assist transportation planners and operators in defining strategies required for planning the deployment of long-haul electric trucks on the U.S. highway system.

Upstate and Downstate Avant-Gardes

This chapter talks about the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which connected Buffalo and New York City although they are almost four hundred miles apart. It explains how the canal, which was built to create a navigable east–west waterway from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, transformed New York into what became known as the Empire State during the nineteenth century. It also mentions cities of the East Coast and Great Lakes, midwestern farmlands, and Canadian, British, and European port cities where industries soon settled along the thriving waterfronts of Buffalo and New York, making them prosperous centers for manufacturing and trade. The chapter recounts the construction of the interstate highway system, the Saint Lawrence Seaway, that rendered the Erie Canal completely obsolete by the 1950s. It illustrates how Buffalo and New York City struggled to rebuild in the post-industrial era.

Catholics v. the Interstates: The fight to protect Catholic institutions from Interstate Highways in Birmingham, Alabama

This article analyses the conflicts between Catholic churches and Interstate Highway routing during the civil rights era, looking at three Catholic institutions in Birmingham, Alabama, that were adjacent to planned Interstate Highways. The article concludes that Alabama Highway officials did not significantly change Interstate Highway plans because of concerns about the impacts on Catholic institutions, which many Catholics viewed as religiously and racially biased. Catholic institutions that served African American or White children were unable to affect significant changes to politically and racially motivated Interstate Highway routing because those changes would have been to the detriment of middle-class White neighbourhoods.

The Dangerous Stranger

This chapter investigates the discourse surrounding hitchhiking in the post-World War II era to understand the ways in which rising prosperity, exponential growth in car ownership, and the Cold War political atmosphere affected American notions of community, masculine individualism, and personal safety. Many motorists greeted hitchhikers on the road with increased suspicion. Likewise, media and law-enforcement officials began to predominantly frame the practice in terms of risk and danger. Regardless, this did little to dampen the spirits of a new generation of middle-class white youths who began to associate hitchhiking with thrifty adventure and a ticket to authentic experience on the nation’s expanding interstate highway system. At the same time, African Americans began to aggressively push for equal rights and the end of segregation. Notably, automobility, bus boycotts, and hitchhiking were a key front in this struggle.

Connecting Public School Segregation with Urban Renewal and Interstate Highway Planning: The Case of Birmingham, Alabama

This article analyzes the connection between public school segregation and Urban Renewal and interstate highway construction in Birmingham, Alabama. It analyzes the routes of the interstate highways, the locations of Urban Renewal areas, and their impact on segregated schools and school zones. This article argues that interstate highways and Urban Renewal were used to preserve segregated schools. It also argues that activists for White schools were able to affect interstate highway design while activists for African American schools were not. Also, Urban Renewal funds were used to build new segregated schools and neighborhoods in order to reinforce patterns of segregation.

Implementing Congestion Tolls on Currently Free Highways With Public–Private Partnerships: What Are the Financial and Economic Benefits?

A trillion dollars in Interstate highway improvement and modernization work has been deferred due to lack of funding. More than half of Interstate and other freeway and expressway lane miles are classified as urban. Therefore, one approach that could be considered to generate needed revenue for freeway improvements in urban areas is implementing congestion-based tolls on freeways during peak periods when they are congested. Such an approach has been implemented in the Washington, DC metro area, on the I-66 freeway inside the Capital Beltway in Northern Virginia. This article demonstrates how an analyst may estimate the financial and economic benefits of a concept involving imposition of congestion-based tolls on the entire urban freeway network, during peak periods only, in conjunction with transit service improvements using automated transit vehicles. Furthermore, the article evaluates potential benefits from using a public–private partnership for implementation of the concept.