A plan introduced Thursday on Capitol Hill would see special truck lanes on interstate highways that would allow longer, heavier trucks but would keep them separated from cars. But the special truck highways would come with a price – tolls.

The Reason Foundation, a Los-Angeles-based think tank, says toll truck lanes, separated from car traffic by concrete barriers, would significantly reduce the number of car-truck accidents and cut the nation’s trucking costs by as much as $40 billion per year. In addition to being separated from regular traffic by continuous concrete Jersey barriers, the truck lanes would have their own entrance and exit ramps.
The Foundation says U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) and the National Safety Council are among those expressing support for the toll truckways concept. According to published reports, Rep. Young would like to include a pilot program to test the idea in next year’s highway bill.
“Toll truckways would be ‘freeways-within-the freeway’ and provide a system geared toward safer, more productive trucks,” said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at Reason Foundation and co-author of the report. “These lanes offer greater protection from car-truck accidents while also permitting trucking and shipping companies to run larger, more economical rigs.”
The authors of the study analyzed five different truck size and weight scenarios used by the U.S. Department of Transportation and found the use of Longer Combination Vehicles (doubles and triples that weigh more than 80,000 pounds) could reduce trucking costs in the United States by between $10 and $40 billion per year. Furthermore, with specialized truck lanes, federal and state governments would experience reduced road maintenance expenses and avoid the costs of upgrading all travel lanes to accommodate heavier loads.
LCVs are currently allowed in some western states and turnpike states. Under the proposal, in states where they are not presently permitted, LCVs would be restricted to the truck-only lanes and thus would not mix with car traffic or be allowed in urban areas. Trailer combinations would be assembled and disassembled in staging areas near the truckways, enabling conventional combinations (usually a regular tractor/trailer) to make use of local freeways at existing weight and length limits.
The proposal calls for the truckways to be financed by toll revenue bonds, backed by the projected toll revenues. “Taxpayers won’t bear the costs of building or maintaining these roads,” Poole said. “The productivity gains that trucking companies will experience are huge and the lanes will be self-supporting with tolls ranging from 40 to 80 cents per mile.”
American Trucking Associations President and CEO William Canary called the proposal “an innovative approach to dealing with the growing traffic congestion that costs our nation’s economy more than $78 billion per year. Also, since 70 percent of fatal crashes involving cars and trucks begin with the actions of the car driver, separating car and truck traffic holds the promise of significantly improving highway safety.”
However, Canary noted, a safe and economically viable truck lane proposal would require elements such as:

• Use of tolled lanes is voluntary

• It adds highway capacity rather than tolling existing highway lanes

• Trucks would not be subject to double taxation – they would not have to pay federal and state highway user fees in addition to the cost of the toll.

The National Safety Council supports the plan, but Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety said it could not support longer, heavier trucks.