Two Hoosier lawmakers are looking for to get rid of the decrease velocity restrict for heavy vans on rural interstates and highways, however their proposals seem like one other chapter in additional than 30 years of fruitless efforts on behalf of unbiased truckers.
Related laws has had no success because the Legislature first imposed decrease velocity limits on vans in 1988, a transfer that was met with trucker protest convoys that snarled Indiana interstate visitors for weeks and deepened lawmakers’ resolve to not be coerced.
However that historical past, lengthy forgotten by lots of his legislative colleagues, hasn’t deterred Rep. Mike Aylesworth, a Republican from northwestern Indiana. Since 2017, he has filed payments to permit heavy vans to journey the identical velocity as different autos, and 2023 isn’t any totally different.
Beneath present Indiana regulation, autos with a declared gross weight larger than 26,000 kilos are topic to a 65-mph velocity restrict on rural interstates. Different autos have a 70-mph velocity restrict.
“I’m bringing [the legislation] again once more as a result of I reside in everlasting hope that sometime, someway, it will likely be accepted by the individuals who oppose it and don’t need it to have a listening to,” Aylesworth mentioned.
A frequent traveler, Aylesworth mentioned he has discovered driving on interstates in North Carolina, Minnesota and Texas to be “a lot smoother” on account of their congruent velocity limits.
In conversations with Indiana State Police and the Indiana Division of Transportation, he mentioned, his laws has obtained little pushback. Spokespersons for each businesses declined to touch upon the proposal, saying they don’t take positions on proposed or pending laws.
Rep. Jim Pressel of La Porte, who chairs the Home Roads and Transportation Committee, mentioned he doesn’t intend to listen to Aylesworth’s invoice this 12 months as a result of he’s undecided it fixes an issue.
Sen. Jim Tomes, a Republican from the Evansville space and a former Teamster who drove a truck for 33 years, has filed an similar invoice within the Senate chamber. He mentioned he filed the laws in response to issues from a truck driver in his Senate district.
Tomes, R-Wadesville, argues the impression of the rise can be negligible. “I don’t assume there might be any noticeable impact,” he mentioned.
Sen. Michael Crider, who chairs the Senate Homeland Safety and Transportation Committee, mentioned he’s reluctant to offer Tomes’ invoice a listening to, citing issues from state police.
“Any time you begin speaking about altering the velocity restrict, there’s some stage of related danger,” Crider mentioned. “I’m not comfy but with the dialogue.”
Within the spring of 1988, Indiana joined 39 different states to make the most of federal laws permitting states to boost the velocity restrict on rural interstates from 55 to 65 mph. Whereas most of these states raised the restrict to 65 mph for all autos, Indiana handed laws that stored the velocity restrict for giant vans at 55 mph whereas additionally rising the gasoline tax 1 cent per gallon.
Truckers responded by boycotting Indiana truck stops, gasoline stations and eating places, and organizing convoys of truckers to drive 40-55 mph alongside Interstate 70, snarling visitors for weeks. The protest lasted for months, and the trucking trade carried that momentum into the 1989 legislative session.
Undeterred by the truckers’ actions, Indiana lawmakers voted in opposition to rising the velocity restrict for giant vans to 65 mph, saying they might not be coerced by embargoes and protests. They did, nevertheless, concede to rising the restrict for giant vans to 60 mph.
In later years, Indiana elevated the velocity restrict on rural interstates to 70 mph with a 65 mph velocity restrict for vans.
Save for a handful of retired lawmakers and veteran Hoosier haulers, the 1988 boycott is generally forgotten, however the occasions had an enduring impression: Indiana stays certainly one of solely eight states with a decrease velocity restrict for vans, in response to the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security.
The Indiana Motor Truck Affiliation, which represents trucking firms in Indiana, presents a significant roadblock for unbiased truckers attempting to get the regulation modified. The group has constantly opposed laws to extend the velocity restrict for vans, citing security issues.
The motor truck affiliation didn’t reply to IBJ’s request for remark.
The Proprietor-Operator Unbiased Drivers Affiliation, a commerce group representing unbiased truck drivers, helps uniform velocity limits.
Forcing semitrucks to drive at a slower tempo than automobiles will increase the potential for a crash, in response to Doug Morris, the unbiased driver group’s director of security and safety operations.
“Vans must be touring on the identical velocity as everybody else,” Morris mentioned.
He cited a 2006 research by the College of Arkansas that discovered totally different velocity limits for automobiles and enormous vans on rural, interstate highways lead to larger velocity variation and a better variety of autos passing each other, “thus compromising security.”
A former Maryland State Police officer who labored in industrial car enforcement, Morris mentioned the motor truck affiliation is against the change not out of security issues however as a result of lots of its members use velocity limiters on vans to save lots of on gasoline. Growing the velocity restrict would give unbiased truckers a aggressive edge, he mentioned.
Trucking continues to be a booming enterprise in Indiana. Every year, 724 million tons of freight journey via the “Crossroads of America,” making it the fifth-busiest state for industrial freight visitors, in response to INDOT.
There have been 153 folks killed in deadly collisions involving massive vans in Indiana in 2020, in response to Indiana State Police, however solely 26 of these crashes concerned dashing.
Along with the College of Arkansas research, two latest research performed over the previous a number of a long time point out that totally different velocity limits might cut back visitors congestion and the speed of extreme crashes.
A 2019 research from INDOT’s Joint Transportation Analysis Program and Purdue College discovered that changing the 70/65 mph velocity restrict on rural highways with a uniform velocity restrict of 70 mph would improve automobile speeds 1.4 mph, improve truck speeds 0.6 mph and cut back crashes involving harm or dying 20%. The researchers didn’t advocate rising velocity limits on city interstates.•
