Overdrive

July 2015

Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info

Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/535950

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 6 of 107

PULSE July 2015 | Overdrive | 5 By Max Heine Editorial director mheine@randallreilly.com T he U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works committee wants to ex- pand the pilot program for interstate highway tolls. The committee's proposed $275 billion highway bill would make it eas- ier for states to apply for approval to install tolling on existing roads. This would be done through the Interstate Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Pro- gram, which has worked with six states to try to establish polls. All failed after loud public protests. Here are some of the problems: • Tolls divert traffic to free roads. This can mean more congestion, accidents and wear on local roads that are not suited to heavy traffic. Emergency first-response times can be slowed. The increased maintenance costs on the free roads fall to state and local governments. • Paying tolls is inconvenient. Congestion is bad enough in most urban areas, so no one wants more delays. • Tolling comes with huge costs: building and maintaining structures, staffing, and the collection and distribution of funds. Even with electronic tolls, the system can waste 14 to 20 percent of revenues on administrative costs, says the Alliance for Toll-Free Inter- states. The fuel tax system is far more effi- cient than tolling, and it's already in place. The problem is that the fuel tax isn't indexed to inflation. The federal motor fuels tax, 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.3 cents for diesel, hasn't changed since 1993. Since then, the tax has lost 40 percent of its purchasing power, so the Highway Trust Fund is going broke. Congress has dodged the obvious solution for years be- cause raising taxes is unpopu- lar. What has become popular, for many of those making federal law, is to dump this hot potato to the states. That's also fine with the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association. The group says "it only makes sense to give states the ability to choose the best way to pay for reconstruction and rehabil- itation of the vital Interstate System." No, it only makes nonsense. Most states are just as financially pressed as the federal government. Also, we're talking about the nation's most critical net- work of highways, an interstate system, not a hodgepodge of state highways and county roads. The spirit of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause is to foster interstate commerce, not restrict it with tolls or undermine it with a patchwork of inconsistent and inadequate maintenance. Voters understand this. That's why ISRRPP has achieved nothing since its 1998 launch. Seventeen years is ancient for a pilot program, even at the sluggish pace of the federal government. In- stead of expanding ISRRPP, as the Senate committee pro- poses, it should be scrapped. No to toll effort end of the line, "How fast was I going?" The answer: 28 mph. The speed limit was 35. "A week later, I got caught on a two-lane with a light where it turns yellow," with- out enough time to clear the intersection. "I hesitated," says Buchs, worried about registering a hard brake, "and it caused me to run the red light. I went in and said, 'You've got to turn that thing off on my truck.' They didn't want to, but they said, 'We're glad you told us.' " Monitoring systems and call-in policies for every hard-brake may "undermine the driver and create doubts in the driver's mind of their own judgment," wrote Yote Anders, commenting at Over- driveOnline.com. "These systems are only as smart as the people monitoring them." Anders relayed the following anecdote: "I got cut off on a ramp in California by an elderly gentleman who proceeded to come to a dead stop on the ramp. I had no choice but to slam on my brakes" or hit the four-wheeler. "Before I could even change gears, safety was calling me. That alone was a distrac- tion while I was trying to check if I was going to get rear-ended! Not every hard-braking event is the driver falling asleep." Such incidents suggest there can be no substitute for situational awareness on the road for highway safety. Whatever comes of active driver-assist safety technol- ogies, an aware driver will remain the bedrock of all trucking safety. Even with electronic tolls, the system can waste 14 to 20 per- cent of revenues on administrative costs.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Overdrive - July 2015