Speed limit for big rigs may go up

BOISE – Big trucks could go 75 mph on Idaho freeways, just like cars, under legislation introduced Thursday in a Senate committee. Sen. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, proposed the bill. Corder, who owns a trucking company, said the 65 mph limit is unrealistic for today’s trucks with their high-powered engines. “We like ours to run the most efficiently, which saves fuel – and oftentimes that speed is greater than the 65,” Corder told the Senate Transportation Committee.

“By the way, not one … of my truckers has been cited, not one, and I can tell you not one of ‘em is driving 65,” he added. “We have created a situation where oftentimes our law enforcement officers are turning a blind eye to speed limit violations because they know that it’s safer.”

Corder argued that cars and trucks traveling at different speeds are less safe than if everyone goes the same, higher speed. Committee Chairman Skip Brandt, R-Kooskia, agreed.

“Currently, with the load of congestion that we do have on our highways, you put in a truck or anything that’s holding back the flow of traffic, and people do stupid things,” Brandt said. “Everybody’s in a hurry.”

Dave Carlson, director of public and governmental affairs for AAA of Idaho, predicted a “firestorm” of opposition from motorists.

“We opposed similar legislation last year,” Carlson said. “Judging by the public reaction we got, I would say Idaho citizens would be very much opposed to this type of legislation.”

Carlson said AAA views faster trucks as both a safety hazard and the cause of more wear and tear on roads.

Idaho imposed the lower truck speed limit on its interstates in 1998. Carlson said it was then-Gov. Phil Batt’s tradeoff for accepting a pilot program to allow higher truck weights on some roads.

“The higher weights are still out there,” Carlson said. “The trucking industry is back for another set of gains.”

He also said he thought Corder was “pretty brave” to admit his trucks exceed the speed limit.

Idaho Transportation Department officials who attended the hearing and briefed the committee on how the state sets speed limit laws said the department has no position on Corder’s bill.

The committee voted unanimously to introduce the bill; a full hearing on it will be scheduled in the coming weeks.