Title
Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act (B)
Explanation
There has been a steady increase in the size and weight limits for freight hauling trucks on the national highway system (NHS). The reasons for these increases are numerous, including increasing efficiency and reduction of operating costs for freight delivery; yet there has also been research that indicates that increasing lengths, as well as use of tandem trailers ("double bottoms"), cause higher accident rates and accidents with a higher frequency of severe injury or death. The City of Gainesville has several components of the national highway system that pass through our community, specifically Interstate 75 and State Roads 26 (Newberry Road) and 20 (Hawthorne Road). Local traffic on these highways has been steadily increasing for many years. Allowing the continued expansion of the use of heavier and longer trucks on these highways will predictably increase the number of accidents and their severity.
Local traffic law restrictions are usually superceded by state law because of the need for uniformity in the regulation of commerce. State regulations on truck weight and size have begun to vary due to differences in the degree of success in lobbying by the trucking industry (and their opponents), which means that there will soon be a necessity for preemptive federal regulation-again in the interest of uniformity in the regulation of commerce. The Florida Coalition for Safe Highways is attempting to forestall such action by proposing a bill that will freeze truck sizes at current levels in each of the states, including the 11 which already allow trailer lengths greater than 53 feet.
The City Commission's endorsement in support of this legislation would allow staff to support it through correspondence with congressional representatives and through the lobbying efforts of the various organizations with which they are affiliated (IACP, FFCA, IAFC, and others). It would also all...
Click here for full text