Heading north on Interstate 5 on Friday morning: Where are all the trucks?
From the photos I took Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning, it’s tempting to conclude that raising the speed limit for trucks by 5 miles an hour has cleared Interstate 5 of 18-wheelers. Obviously not, but still …
The Oregon Transportation Commission raised the truck speed limit from 55 to 60 mph on most sections of Interstate 5 in September. It took a while for the change to take effect, but now it has. New signs have been installed.
When the decision was made, I was hoping that the slowest truckers would go slightly faster and that this would obviate the need felt by other truckers to pass them. And that this would let traffic flow a little easier because there would be fewer cases of trucks driving side by side.
If there was a change because of the new speed limit, I didn’t see it. Mainly because there seemed to be far fewer trucks on the road during the six or seven hours total I spent on the interstate this week. There were some trucks, of course, and they seemed to be moving right along.
Where I-5 goes through Roseburg, the commission left the speed limit at 55 for trucks and lowered it to 60 for everybody else? Did that slow anybody down? Not as far as I could see.
And by the way, the photo above was snapped NOT with a cell phone, because that would have been against the law. (hh)
What I can’t understand is why states insist that different classes of vehicles drive at different speeds and then complain about all of the passing. If a truck hits you it isn’t going to feel any different if he is going 55 or 65 MPH. I have driven in states where the speed limit was the same for everyone and there was surprising little passing happening.
Paul
If you bought it
a truck brought it.
If it was produced to buy, a train transported the materails to build it.
I doubt trains carry 5% of the building materials used in the US.