Testimony: ‘The problem we have is trucks will go slower’

At the hearing today on the bill to let trucks drive 75 mph on Idaho’s freeways, Caldwell trucking company general manager Deborah Johnson said she agrees that differing speeds between cars and trucks can cause problems. “Our trucks have been rear-ended many times,” she said. “The problem we have is trucks will go slower. They’re engineered that way. We can’t go up King Hill faster than 35, I don’t care what the sign says, I’m not going to go faster because I can’t go any faster. So we’re always going to have that gap between trucks and cars.” She said rather than raise the truck speed limit, she’d favor more education in Idaho’s driver training about how to drive around trucks. “If the cars want to  slow down, that’s OK.” But she said her trucks won’t speed up, not only because of their engineering but because 62 to 65 mph is where they get their most efficient fuel use and least risk to tires.

Scott Robertson of Meridian said letting trucks go 75 would mean more trucks passing other trucks, because some would go slower and some would go faster. “If you think this is not true, take a trip through Wyoming or Utah,” he said, noting that as a retiree, in the last two years he’s logged more than 12,000 miles visiting national parks. Robertson said, “If trucks are allowed to drive faster, they will break up the hwy. … They’re going to pollute the air more; we don’t need that in this valley and we’re going to cause more damage to highways that we already cannot maintain.”

Stuart Davis, executive director of the Idaho Association of Highway Districts, said his board favors the 75 mph limit for trucks. He said, “Forty-two states in America do not have the bifurcated system (with different speed limits for trucks). … It’s not the speed that kills, it’s the deceleration that gets you.” He said, “We’re not mandating that you have to drive 75. … The problem … is that we need to give the truckers the ability to pass the slower trucks.”