Midwestern States Push for Truck-only Lanes

With truck traffic rising, at least nine states are considering proposals to separate big rigs from cars on interstate highways, hoping to reduce congestion, improve safety and increase commerce by moving goods faster.

The highways are heavily traveled and are being used increasingly to carry passengers and freight through big cities of the industrial Midwest and booming communities in the Sun Belt.

Ohio, Nevada and other states are exploring whether to build or designate truck-only lanes on various stretches of interstate highways, though they’re not yet sure how they would pay for them. Tolls are one option; public-private partnerships another.

Georgia is considering truck-only lanes on a 27-mile stretch of Interstate 75 northwest of Atlanta and a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 285 that skirts the city. Truck congestion in the area is expected to increase by up to 60 percent in the next 20 years.

“This is such a through point for trucks. We’ve got to do something,” said David Spear, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Proposals for truck-only lanes are cropping up because freight being carried by trucks is expected to skyrocket at a time when population and passenger traffic continue to increase.

Some truckers question the wisdom of truck-only lanes. And many oppose having to pay tolls for special lanes without being given the option of using non-toll routes.

Travel on the nation’s highways has nearly doubled since 1980, but the highway system has expanded by about 3 percent. There are 2.9 million large trucks traveling the nation’s highways, up from 2.6 million in 2000 and that figure is expected to increase by 75,000 each year, according to the American Trucking Associations.

Nevada is pushing for truck-only lanes in areas along Interstate 80 and Interstate 15, which carry cargo east through Nevada from the ports of Oakland and Los Angeles, respectively.

Dennis Taylor, chief of program development for the Nevada Department of Transportation, said truck-only lanes would be especially effective in improving traffic flow because of steep grades that cause trucks to constantly slow down and speed up.

Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri are suggesting a truck-only lane on a 789-mile stretch of Interstate 70.

The I-70 corridor rolls through or by Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus and is within 25 miles of six major international airports and air-cargo hubs. The highway teems with trucks because of the high concentration of manufacturing, retail and other industries nearby. Much of the I-70 corridor is expected to reach or exceed capacity by 2030.

A proposal to improve Interstate 10, a 2,650-mile highway that runs from Florida to California crossing eight states, identifies several areas that could become truck-only bypass highways. They include Phoenix and Houston.

The three proposals are among 14 semifinalists under review by the U.S Department of Transportation, which will select five this summer to ease highway congestion. The agency will speed up the permitting process and help states find ways to finance the projects.

A congressional commission also is reviewing the idea of truck-only lanes and truck-only highways.

Our freight-rail system and interstate national highway system is basically saturated,” said Jack Schenendorf, vice chairman of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission. “In some really high-traffic corridors, it may make sense to try to separate freight and passengers.”

Financing is a sticking point.

Trucking pays 43 percent of the annual $35 billion in user fees for federal highways, according to the trucking associations. Truckers also pay a federal diesel fuel tax of 24.4 cents a gallon, a 12 percent excise tax on new trucks, an annual vehicle-use tax and a tax on tires.

Some motorists say truck-only lanes are a good idea for safety reasons alone.

In 2005, 442,000 large trucks were involved in crashes _ 309,000 of them with other vehicles and 4,932 of them fatal, the most since 2000. However, the number of people killed in large-truck crashes is expected to be down 3.7 percent in 2006, according to projections by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.