by David Williams
Across the country, policymakers are grappling with surging road maintenance expenses along with the casualties and costs of traffic accidents. According to a recent report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “[t]he $340 billion cost of motor vehicle crashes represents the equivalent of $1,035 for each of the 328 million people in the United States and 1.6% of the $21.4 trillion real U.S. gross domestic product for 2019.” Infrastructure repair will cost taxpayers an astounding $2.6 trillion over the next ten years.
Despite these astronomical costs, states such as Georgia seem intent on further straining budgets by allowing heavy and deadly vehicles on its roads. Infrastructure woes and accidents will continue to exact a heavy toll without a wholescale revamp of road worthiness regulations. It’s time to rethink the roads and ensure that everyone gets to their destination safely and affordably.
Roadworthiness rules are set by the 50 states with 50 very different sets of rules on the books. For example, owners of utility terrain vehicles (UTVs) in Arizona will face little issue registering, insuring, and driving their buggies on the road. States such as California don’t take as kindly to UTVs on public roads. Plenty of other states regulate their UTVs in various shades of gray. Similarly, drivers of mini-trucks will face considerable hurdles in Colorado and Connecticut but are free to roam the roads of Indiana and North Carolina. This road federalism is crucial for keeping taxpayer costs under control and enabling experimentation across the country. Each class of vehicle could entail significant net costs for taxpayers if collisions prove deadlier than average or the vehicles exert too much wear-and-tear on taxpayer-financed infrastructure. These considerations are particularly important as policymakers consider allowing large trucks (e.g., “Twin 33” foot double-trailers) on the roads.
Fights over issues such as truck weight and maximum trailer length periodically surface in the halls of Congress and state legislatures, as advocates argue that scaling up trucking can improve supply chain issues. However, the costs of allowing these behemoths on the road are considerable. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “Multiple-trailer trucks have more handling problems than single-trailer trucks. In general, the additional connection points contribute to greater instability, which can lead to jackknifing, overturning, and lane encroachments.” There’s a clear link between hefty trucks and vehicle damage, with a 9 ton big-rig inflicting roughly 40 times the amount of damage as a Hummer H2. Even if putting large trucks on the road led to fewer trucks total in operation, the freed-up road space would just be taken up by new traffic.
According to a 2009 analysis by University of Pennsylvania and University of Toronto scholars, an increase in road capacity by 10 percent will increase traffic by 10 percent. In other words, more vehicles are “induced” onto the roads whenever trucking fleets consolidate. The not-so-open roads will be as clogged as before, but with increased accident and infrastructure costs caused by mammoth trucks.
Rather than taking a more proactive approach, lawmakers tend to deal with questions of street-legality one vehicle class at a time. More comprehensive reforms would ensure lower taxpayer costs and improved driver safety. States could kickstart this process by setting up commissions that examine existing vehicle laws, many of which have been on the books for decades with little examination. They could also monitor road deterioration and share data with other state commissions on the relationship between vehicle size, number of blind spots, etc. and a host of outcomes related to cost and safety. These government bodies could then issue broad-based recommendations on reforming the “street-legal” designation. In some cases, states might decide that costly, extra emissions testing is not worth minimal marginal pollution abatement. On other cases, they might decide on a new truck weight/size limit that better reflects the evidence on cost and safety.
Policymakers should understand that allowing any and all vehicles on roads and highways would create a bumpy road for taxpayers and drivers. Americans deserve a comprehensive approach that avoids the current system’s pitfalls and potholes.
– – –
David Williams is the president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
