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Semi-Lane
Segregate Semis and Prevent Accidents | |
When a semi truck is involved in a car accident, the accident is often fatal. It's not the truck drivers that are bad; it's the sheer size of the truck causes the accident to be more severe (I am not critizing the driving skills of semi truck drivers).
Highways are constructed so that all traffic
drives together on the road, larger vehicles included. This invention is a Semi-Lane which runs along one side of the highway.
The Semi-Lane running along the highway is a two-lane road on which only large commerical trucks can travel. NO PASSING WOULD BE ALLOWED. The Semi-Lane would intersect on and off ramps so the semis could exit the highway when required. The idea is get these trucks traveling together at reasonble speeds so that there are fewer accidents. A line of semis traveling in the Semi-Lane is anaglous to a train cars with cargo on railroad tracks that travel together in one fluid motion toward their destination.
An article on the subject
http://www.landline.../Depts/letters.html
[21 Quest, Jan 02 2007]
Google-search for "truck-only lanes"
http://www.dot.ca.g...e/fs-trucklanes.htm
First link, top of the page on the Google search [21 Quest, Jan 02 2007]
[link]
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Most multi-lane highways have signs saying something to the effect of "trucks over 6 wheels stay in right lane" or "right 2 lanes only". Sorry, but this has already been baked quite extensively. [marked-for-deletion] |
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In most semi truck involved colisions, the driver of the car that is the one at fault. |
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//NO PASSING WOULD BE ALLOWED// |
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Semi-truck drivers have just as much right to pass somebody who's going ridiculously slow as anybody else does. In my travels, I've known just as many semi-trucks to go faster than the speed limit as ones that go slower. They don't (usually) endanger anybody, they're highly trained vehicle operators. The only trouble I've ever had (and I've driven across the USA several times) is when they don't move over to let a smaller car merge. Telling them they can't move to another lane will have them running other vehicles off the road left and right. |
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[flynn] do remember that many bakers
(maybe most, not sure) are not
American.
What's a semi-truck when it's at home? |
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[21Quest] If you are going to mfd an
idea, please be sure to spell it out
properly, with the correct brackets or
moderators will not find it. |
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If you read the helpfile, you'll also note
that 'baked' is not a reason for mfd. You
could mark it widely known to exist, if
indeed, it is. Is it? |
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Since it's usually the smaller cars that are the problem, why not segregate the smaller cars? Wouldn't that make much more sense and be much more fair? Because nobody would go for it, that's why. This is a let's all for truck-drivers, sorry. [marked-for-deletion] |
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//You could mark it widely known to exist, if indeed, it is. Is it?// |
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I think it is, given that I've seen those signs on just about every Interstate Highway I've driven on, and that's most of the ones in the USA. I don't know about other countries, but it's quite widely baked here on this side of the pond. |
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From wikipedia:
"A semi-trailer truck or tractor-trailer (colloquially known as an 18-wheeler, semi, or big-rig in the U.S.; as a semi in Australia, and Canada; and as an articulated lorry, artic, or truck and trailer in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand)..." |
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I am from the USA (midwest); I have never seen signs requesting that semis stay in the right lane, although semis do generally stay in the right lane here. This is not to say that these signs do not exist in other places, of course. |
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[Boyspartks] Thanks for the welcome. I had envisioned it as a 2 lane road on just one side of the highway; however, since you mentioned it, I think a lane on either side on the highway would be safer yet. Then semis would not be tempted to pass (even if it was illegal). |
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[21Quest] Again, this is not meant to insult the semi truck drivers. Since trucks carry big loads, they have difficult stopping quickly and can be involved in fatal accidents even if they are driving perfectly and it's the car in the front of them that slams on their brakes. Or, in the event of bad weather. |
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[21 Quest] According to the resource you sent, looks like these lanes are popular in California, probabaly because of all the traffice. |
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"Are truck-only lanes common in the U.S.? No, very few truck-only lanes exist. Most states restrict trucks to certain lanes, but also allow all vehicles to use the same lanes." |
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Wouldn't it be better to use that extra lane for the auto traffic and leave the main highway to the trucks? I mean it is usually the cars that are the problem. |
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So you're going to create separate infrastructure to move cargo on specialized carriers? Sounds like more train tracks would be a better use of your money, although I'm all for increasing the safety on public highways. |
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By the way, I don't think I've seen special signs for trucks in my part of the USA, but I think I've seen them in Europe. Or maybe it's just a normal rule that everyone follows. |
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//looks like these lanes are popular in California// |
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How do you figure? There are only two! |
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//Does California have any truck-only lanes? Yes, California has two truck-only lanes// |
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[21 Quest] Well, if there's only 2 California, it certainly doesn't seem like it's a very well-known idea. Granted it's baked, but just barely. |
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We have them in Atlanta too. I-285 restricts trucks to the right two lanes each direction. |
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GC, the roads in Atlanta still allow other vehicles in the right 2 lanes, so they're not "truck-only". But the idea being proposed here does not keep other vehicles out of the truck's path, it only keeps trucks restricted to a certain lane, which is what is quite common throughout Georgia, and Florida, and many other states. It sounds exactly like what you're describing, GC. |
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//So you're going to create separate infrastructure to move cargo on specialized carriers? Sounds like more train tracks would be a better use of your money, although I'm all for increasing the safety on public highways.// |
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But then they'd be limited to the newly-made tracks... unless they had both road and rail wheels. That might work. I sometimes wonder why we have roads at all, why not have passenger vehicles on tracks going all the way into their garages, and just use the other wheels for very steep roads, driving over undeveloped ground and passing obstacles on the track. |
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//But the idea being proposed here does not keep other vehicles out of the truck's path// Yes it does. If you disagree maybe you could say why. |
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//Congested motorways and heavy fuel prices lead to some truckers maintaining their speed as a priority above all else.//
A further reason is that trucks are governed; an unladen truck that could otherwise do 70 mph or more takes ages to overtake a 42-ton truck because it's not allowed to exceed 56 mph. |
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[admin: I'm ignoring the marked-for-deletion call because the existing semi lanes are both slightly different in implementation from the complete segregation suggested here, and weren't actually known to the poster.] |
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