Jesus died on the cross so that a trucker going 61 miles per hour could pass a trucker going 60 mph on an interstate highway with a 70 mph speed limit.
I learned this yesterday long following a semi-truck northbound on I-30 just above Texarkana, Arkansas. “Be grateful…get on your knees and pray EVERY DAY” graced the back of the ‘faster’ truck.
In the vast expanses between urban areas the roads belong to truckers. Cars remain unwanted – and barely tolerated – interlopers. Driving to and from Houston, Texas this week I witnessed semis making blind left turns onto an open-access federal highway with a 75 mph speed limit; double trailers wobbling across their lane, my lane and the shoulder; truckers purposely blocking cars on the interstate by running both lanes at the exact same speed; and, trucks coming within inches of the back bumpers on left-lane cars the truckers thought ought to drive faster.
Oh, I did see helpful truckers, like the one using his truck to shield a left lane truck from the gaze of the southbound weight station folks.
The era of knights of the road like Jerry Reed in Smokey and The Bandit or the good guy truckers in TV’s Movin’ On (1974 – 1976) long ago gave way to underpaid, non-union folk forced to break rules, unhappy with their lot. (To learn more about the road world, visit Sirius XM channel 146.)
Remember the anti-establishment tone of C. W. McCall’s hit 1975 Convoy?
Well, we rolled up Interstate 44
Like a rocket sled on rails.
We tore up all of our swindle sheets,
And left ’em settin’ on the scales.
By the time we hit that Chi-town,
Them bears was a-gettin’ smart:
They’d brought up some reinforcements.
From the Illinois National Guard.
There’s armored cars, and tanks, and jeeps,
And rigs of ev’ry size.
Yeah, them chicken coops was full’a bears
And choppers filled the skies.
Well, we shot the line and we went for broke
With a thousand screamin’ trucks
An’ eleven long-haired Friends a’ Jesus
In a chartreuse micra-bus.
Now for the irony: no industry depends on the establishment and government subsidy as much as trucking.
► Trucking gets scores of special tax breaks – including an exemption from sales tax on big trucks in Missouri [ http://dor.mo.gov/business/sales/exemption-list.php ].
► While interstate trucks do pay special taxes, one truck damages roads as much as 9,600 cars! [https://www.vabike.org/vehicle-weight-and-road-damage/ ]. Everyday taxpayers pay for roads trucks destroy.
This session it is possible that the Missouri legislature might pass a series of 2¢ a year increases to the fuel tax, or, jump the tax by a dime [See Senate Bill 617 and House Bill 2091 and others]. The 2¢ approach can be done, under the Hancock rules, without a vote of the people. The 10¢ proposal needs a statewide vote, ending real discussion on that idea.
Yes, large trucks pay more than average folk since their rigs burn more fuel and they’re on the road more often. Traditionally semis got around six miles per gallon compared to 20 mpg for cars. The industry trend, however, is semis getting 10 mpg or more – effectively cutting their fuel use and taxes paid rate by more than one-third [ https://www.theicct.org/blogs/staff/eighteen-wheels-and-ten-miles-gallon ]. Add-in that many of the special fees paid by trucks aren’t indexed to inflation while the cost of maintaining roads continues to climb and the hidden subsidy for trucks dramatically increases.
Let’s back up to safety for a minute…This session the Missouri legislature seems posed to adopt House Bill 1295 to allow semis to “platoon” – moving down the highway electronically linked so the trucks stay just a few feet apart to save fuel. (By current law semis are supposed to be 300 feet apart, but…) [ https://www.house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills181/sumpdf/HB1295C.pdf ]
Okay, “platooning” represents Big Step One towards drone trucks – one driver in the front truck controlling two or more independent trucks. While the media covers Uber and Tesla working on self-driving cars, that same new technology will probably first become common on trucks weighing in excess of 80,000 pounds barreling down the interstates!
Remember, trucks and cars don’t mix. In 2015 large trucks were involved in 4,050 fatalcrashes [ https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety/data-and-statistics/large-truck-and-bus-crash-facts-2015-pdf ].
So, what’s worse than a truck taking three miles to pass another truck? How about two trucks pulling double-trailers driven by one driver who sits 120 feet ahead of the end of his rig, running the interstate at 75 miles per hour in a thunderstorm? What’s the worst that could happen?
Happy motoring.
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member