Editorial: Rep. Young’s Truck Lane Idea

U.S. Rep. Don Young’s proposal to use Highway Trust Fund money to build truck-only lanes on interstate highways is worth serious consideration.

And the timing of his comments at last week’s American Trucking Associations’ Leadership Meeting couldn’t have been better.

The state of Virginia is also considering building truck lanes along its portion of Interstate 81, only officials there propose to put tolls on the truck lanes and to require that all truckers use them.

Our position on tolls is clear: We’ve already paid to build the highway system through our $14 billion a year in contributions to the Highway Trust Fund, and we don’t believe it’s fair to ask trucking to pay more in the form of tolls.

Young, an Alaska Republican, put it well: “If I can get the money to expedite on-time delivery [through the truck lanes] and get your money back to you [out of the Highway Trust Fund] for these exclusive rights-of-way, then I want to hear what you have to say about that.”

And trucking needs to let Young, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, know what they feel about his proposal.

The congressman said his proposal was designed to speed freight deliveries and to help relieve highway congestion, to the benefit of all.

“One of my goals is to make sure the products on your trucks get to the public on time,” he told the trucking executives attending the ATA meeting.

ATA’s Highway Policy Committee will now consider the proposal and respond to Young.

Meanwhile, some Capitol Hill lawmakers are moving to tap the Highway Trust Fund for another purpose: to make up for at least some of the $8.5 billion that the Bush administration has proposed to cut from this year’s highway funding level.

Legislators from both sides of the aisle are behind a move to increase highway spending by some $4.5 billion over the $23.3 billion proposed by the White House for fiscal 2003.

The administration is sticking by its guns, however, and has told Congress to leave funding levels where they are.

Michael Jackson, deputy transportation secretary, told Transport Topics that providing more highway funding would violate the “spending discipline” needed in these times.

It falls to Congress to weigh the conflicting needs of building enough roads to meet the nation’s needs with keeping federal spending down in some areas in order to pay for increased funding for security projects.

This story appeared in the Feb. 18 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.