The New York Thruway is installing more IdleAire units at its travel plazas after "overwhelming" response to the initial three units installed last fall.

IdleAire is a new stand-alone system that provides air, electricity, Internet hookups and cable TV to trucks so they don't have to idle. The Thruway, in a partnership with the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority and Niagara Mohawk Power, installed three units last fall at the DeWitt Travel Plaza near Syracuse as a test project.
Thruway Authority Director of Planning Don Hutton told the Times Union newspaper in Albany, N.Y., "The response was overwhelming." The initial units have seen about 170 users, many of them multiple times. And for every trucker that was using one, there were others that couldn't because the units were all in use, he says.
So the first three units were taken out in late January and construction began on the installation of about two dozen units. The new IdleAire units are third-generation models that solve some of the problems discovered with the initial ones. They will be in place by mid-May at both the DeWitt and Chittenango travel plazas. DeWitt serves eastbound travelers, Chittenango westbound.
IdleAire also has pilot projects in Hunts Point, near New York City, and near the company's headquarters in Tennessee. In addition, Petro Stopping Centers recently announced it would be the first travel center chain to install IdleAire units in its truckstops.