Impacts of Public Policy on the Freight Transportation System (2011) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B - Details on Impacts of Selected Policies
Appendix B - Details on Impacts of Selected Policies
Pages 81-95
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From page 81... ...
This appendix presents this information for the following five policy examples, all of which were introduced in Section 4. • Truck Speed Limits and Governors • Truck Size and Weight Rules • Inland Waterway Infrastructure Investment • Highway Tolls and Other User Charges • Lockage Fees for Inland Waterways Truck Speed Limits and Governor Rules Efforts to rein in the top speeds traveled by heavy trucks on U.S.
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From page 82... ...
Operational Impacts By limiting the top speed at which trucks travel, speed governors can affect many aspects of a carrier's operations. For example, a lower maximum speed improves fuel economy and likely reduces truck maintenance costs.
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From page 83... ...
Several studies also attributed lower brake maintenance costs to lower maximum speeds. Insurance Costs Studies found that when setting premiums, insurers do not offer "front-end" premium discounts to carriers using speed governors.
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From page 84... ...
Traffic Flow Lower speed limits for trucks have a mixed effect on congestion, and it is not yet clear whether the net impact is positive or negative. On the one hand, some studies suggest that lower speed limits for trucks can increase congestion, because trucks end up clustering together and impeding the flow of traffic.17 On the other hand, if differential speed limits or speed governors reduce the frequency and severity of crashes involving trucks, then they also reduce the hours of delay associated with such crashes.
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From page 85... ...
As shown in Figure B-1, for most roadway classes, the fatal crash rates for single-trailer and multi-trailer combination trucks did not differ greatly. The one exception was the roadway class of "other rural roads," on which multi-combination trucks had a much higher fatal crash rate.20 The 2000 study did not draw clear conclusions regarding the safety impacts of each scenario under scrutiny.
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From page 86... ...
Regarding this last point, the agency noted that there is no Federal requirement to collect data for specific types of multi-trailer combination vehicles and, at the time of publication, only 2 of the 13 states actively collected separate VMT for different types of multi-trailers.21 In the end, the agency concluded that, even though the reduction in VMT by heavy trucks would lower crash exposure, there were too many other uncertainties regarding other safety impacts of LCVs to reach a firm conclusion on the net safety impact of the western uniformity scenario.22 Fuel Consumption and Air Emissions Under the Federal uniformity scenario, truck VMT was estimated to increase by 4 million miles, because more truck trips would be required to move the same amount of freight. This increase in VMT translated into increased fuel consumption of 635 million gallons.
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From page 87... ...
The agency concluded that because of the shift of the reduction in total truck VMT, one could expect a slight decrease in delay in the 13 western states. Shipper Costs and Railroad Revenues Changes in truck size and weight regulations affect the transportation costs incurred by freight shippers.
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From page 88... ...
Cost of a lock failure. Nature of cost Possible range of cost Cost of delay $300,000 to $1.5 million Cost of mode shift $12 million to $60 million 26Calculated from 2007 Commodity Flow Survey, Preliminary, December 2008, Table 1.
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From page 89... ...
Accordingly, the following are the four principal areas of impact from highway pricing: • Costs to trucks that divert from a tolled road • Impacts on trucks that stay on a tolled road • Impacts on mode share between highway and rail • Effects on the whole economy and society from an inefficient freight system Potential for Quantification of Impacts Diversion Effects Regarding costs to trucks that divert to alternate roads, there is enough information to permit estimates of changes in crash rates, fuel consumption, and speed. This allows us to estimate crash costs, fuel and other operating costs, and delay costs per diverted truck VMT.
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From page 90... ...
For this study, the authors assumed truckers would compare costs of staying on I-81 with costs of diverting and choose the least-cost alternative. The authors of the Ohio Turnpike study used data on Class-8 truck VMT nationally, for Ohio, and for the Ohio Turnpike to estimate a demand curve as a function of the toll rate and speed.
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From page 91... ...
For one thing, fatal crash rates on rural and urban Interstates are almost the same: 1.3 and 1.2, respectively, per 100 million VMT. Fatal crash rates on rural arterials and urban "Other" facilities are also very close: 2.1 and 1.8, respectively.41 Crash rates on rural "Other" are much higher, 4.4, but only 17.0 percent of rural VMT for combination trucks is on "Other" roads.42 For these reasons, we believe that these data on divided and undivided highways give us a plausible approach to an estimate.
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From page 92... ...
Combination-truck VMT by rural road type. Road Type Percent of VMT Interstate 52.2 Non-I-S Principal Arterials 31.0 Other Roads 16.8 To estimate change in crash rates due to diversion, we have to know the distribution of diverted truck traffic over road classes.
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From page 93... ...
This is equal to $4.2 million per 100 million VMT. Delay Costs We estimate delay costs with the same average speeds assumed above and the same distribution of diverted trucks over road types.
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From page 94... ...
Truck VMT diversion and associated annual cost. Toll Rates VMT Diverted (millions)
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From page 95... ...
A 2.1 percent increase in average rates of lock-using barge traffic is unlikely to have a significant impact on mode share between barge and rail. It is not likely that all of the increase could be passed through, so the real effect would be a slight increase in barge rates and a slight decrease in earnings from carriage using locks.
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