WASHINGTON (June 7, 2002) — Toll truck lanes, separated from car traffic by concrete barriers, on highways would reduce the number of car-truck accidents and cut trucking costs by as much as $40 billion US per year, according to a study released by Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based think tank.

The report, “Toll Truckways: A New Path Toward Safer and More Efficient Freight Transportation,” proposes long-distance, inter-city toll lanes for commercial trucks to be added to existing interstate highways. The lanes would be separated from regular traffic by continuous concrete Jersey barriers and would have their own entrance and exit ramps, the proposal said.

“Toll ‘truckways’ would be ‘freeways-within-the freeway’ and provide a system geared toward safer, more productive trucks,” said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at Reason Foundation and co-author of the report.

Poole said trucking companies would be willing to pay tolls to use the lanes “because they will significantly cut costs by delivering larger loads faster and with greater reliability.” He said tolls would range from 40 to 80 cents per mile.

The benefit for truck operators would be fewer car-truck accidents and the expanded use of long-combination vehicles (LCVs). In the study, LCVs were defined as tractor-trailer combinations that weigh more than 80,000 pounds and use more than one trailer. In states where they are not presently permitted, LCVs would be restricted to the truck-only lanes and thus would not mix with car traffic or be allowed in urban areas. Trailer combinations would be assembled and disassembled in staging areas near the truck lanes, enabling conventional combinations (usually a regular tractor/trailer) to make use of local freeways at existing weight and length limits.

The proposal calls for the truck lanes to be financed by toll revenue bonds, backed by the projected toll revenues, not by underlying recourse to the taxpayers. A reliable toll revenue stream means that toll revenue bonds could be issued to cover construction costs, either by a private firm under a long-term franchise agreement or by a state toll-road authority.

The study can be found online at www.rppi.org/ps294.pdf.