Trucking interests are up in arms over a proposal to bring the Houston area speed limit for cars back up to 70 mph while leaving trucks at 55.

Both the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn. and the Texas Motor Transportation Assn. criticized the proposal by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, saying so-called “split speed limits” are unsafe.
Houston-area speed limits were dropped to 55 mph in February as part of environmental measures designed to meet federal clean-air standards. However, because of its unpopularity and because the reductions in pollution are less than originally thought, the commission Wednesday approved a set of revisions that includes postponing the speed limit reduction until 2005. Between now and then, the TNRCC will conduct a study to determine if benefits of the passenger car/light truck speed limit reduction can be replace by other measures. The changes won’t become final until after a public comment period.
A Texas Transportation Institute study found that the amount of Houston pollution created by faster-moving vehicles was about half what was expected, and only about a fourth of that was from passenger vehicles.
OOIDA Vice President Todd Spencer lashed out at the decision. “It is absolutely shocking that the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission would actually consider a measure that would make Houston highways more dangerous to avoid public pressure over environmental regulations…. The very last thing public officials should be advocating is setting different speed limits for different classes of vehicles using the same roads.
“While local environmental officials may have a real hot potato on their hands for now, the responsible solution is not to turn trucks into rolling roadblocks on metropolitan highways.”
The TMTA echoed Spencer’s remarks. “It is shameful that the politics of clean air have taken precedence over highway safety,” said TMTA President Bill Webb. “Trucks traveling a minimum of 15 mph slower than cars on Houston-area roadways is a recipe for disaster.”
According to TMTA, a 1994 report by the U.S. Department of Transportation reports that crash involvement rates are almost six times greater for vehicles traveling 10 mph below or above the average speed limit. It also found that the proportion of car-truck, rear-end collisions was 26 percent greater in states with split speed limits than in those with uniform speed limits for cars and trucks.