Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is bordered by New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, and New York. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with a population of 12,604,767 (2009 U.S. Census) occupies 46,055 square miles. The eastern and southeastern regions of Pennsylvania are urban and densely populated, while much of the rest of the state is rural.
Harrisburg, the capital of the Pennsylvania, is nestled along the Susquehanna River in the southeastern area of the state. Harrisburg’s government offices are primarily in the Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex. Harrisburg houses the Commonwealth Judicial Center, which contains Pennsylvania’s three appellate courts: the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, and the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, and Erie are the state’s most populous cities. Pennsylvania’s major centers of industry are spread throughout the state – Philadelphia in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, Erie in the northwest, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in the northeast, and Allentown and Bethlehem in the central region.
Pennsylvania is a highly populated state in the densely populated northeast region of the nation, with a large number of interstate highways connecting the state to the remainder of the nation. The major interstate highways leading through Pennsylvania include Interstate 70, Interstate 80 (the Keystone Shortway), Interstate 90, and Interstate 95. I-70, I-80, and I-90 connect Pennsylvania to the midwest and western states, while I-95 connects Pennsylvania to the New England states to the north and the southern states to the south.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike (Interstate 76) is a toll road and the main east-west route through the state. The turnpike serves most of Pennsylvania’s major urban areas. The main east-west section serves the Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia areas, while the turnpike’s Northeast Extension carries traffic from the Allentown and Bethlehem to the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas. A network of state highways and municipal roadways connects the more rural areas of the commonwealth.
Pennsylvania’s notoriously congested roadways are in the urban areas of the state and include the Schuylkill Expressway in Philadelphia, which runs from the PA Turnpike at Valley Forge to the Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia, U.S. Route 22 in Allentown, Interstate 376 in Pittsburgh, and the Interstate 95 corridor in southeastern PA. Pennsylvania’s most populous counties are Philadelphia County (which consists entirely of the City of Philadelphia), Allegheny County, and Montgomery County. These three counties also reported the highest number of vehicle crashes in Pennsylvania during 2009.
Due to Pennsylvania’s central northeast location and extensive transportation network, the state is a major center for the distribution of goods to the major consumer markets of northeastern states. In Pennsylvania, distributors have access to six international airports, 5,145 miles of railways, three major ports with access to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, and 120,423 total miles of highways.
Most of the major distribution centers in Pennsylvania are in the southeastern and south central regions of the state, including the Eastern Distribution Center, which located just west of Harrisburg and is the largest distribution facility operated by the United States Department of Defense. A 2006 South Central Pennsylvania Regional Goods Movement Study reports that trucks handled 88% of the freight moving in south central area. Forecasts of goods movement through the year 2030 project an increase of 79.5% for trucks carrying freight on south central regional roadways.
The south central region sees a higher than average amount of truck freight traffic as many distribution facilities take advantage of the areas large tracts of available land and the unique confluence of highways, including I-78, I-81, I-83, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. While high volumes of freight traffic provide economic benefits such as job creation, the large numbers of heavy trucks on Pennsylvania’s roadways present motorists with serious safety risks including roadway congestion and the increased possibility of devastating accidents between tractor-trailers and passenger cars as well as accidents between heavy trucks and light trucks and vans.
The 2009 Pennsylvania Crash Facts and Statistics Book, compiled by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, indicates there were 88,916 vehicle crashes in Pennsylvania in 2009, 655 of which involved a fatality. Passenger cars were involved in 73.3% of the total number of crashes and 57.3% of all fatal crashes. Heavy trucks were involved in only 4.3% of all traffic crashes, but heavy trucks were involved in 10.7% of all fatal crashes. Only 1.3% of crash deaths involved heavy truck occupants. The vast majority of heavy truck crashes involving vehicle failures as primary contributing factors in the crash were related to tires and wheels, brakes, and unsecured or overloaded trailers.
In 2007, over 500,000 tons of freight were moved by tractor-trailers from Pennsylvania. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s 2009 Pennsylvania Crash Facts & Statistics, there are over 121,000 miles of roads and highways in the state. In 2009, there were 121,242 reportable crashes, which resulted in 1 out of every 44 people in Pennsylvania being involved in a traffic crash. Trucks were a vehicle type considered by the report and were categorized as “heavy trucks,” which included single vehicle or tractor-trailers used for carrying heavy loads (such as motor-homes or coal).
In 2009, there were 5,648 Pennsylvania trucks crashes; in 1.1% of these crashes, alcohol was a contributing factor. Of the total truck crashes, 10.7% resulted in a fatality, 4% resulted in some type of injury for persons involved, and 4.6% of crashes caused only damage to property. Overall, the number of accidents that involved trucks in 2009 is the lowest since 2004, and the number of fatal crashes was the lowest in the past five years. Vehicle failure played a contributing role in some of the truck crashes; the top causes included tire and wheel-related defects, brake-related defects, and unsecured or overloaded trailers. Seventy-three percent of truck crashes occurred on state highways (these include state-maintained roads that are designated as interstates and those that are not).
