Posts about Trucking

Roads

GAO: Trucking the least efficient mode of freight shipping

by Tanya Snyder   •   March 1, 2011 1:52 pm

Freight transportation, which accounts for nearly a quarter of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, doesn't get as much attention as passenger transportation because most people don't feel it affects them as much. But more than 15 million trucks deliver 70 percent of the goods this country consumes—and the GAO says that's a mistake.

Safety is one of many externalized costs of freight trucking. Photo from Truck Accidents 360 Newswire.

The Government Accountability Office published a study finding that the costs of freight trucking that are not passed on to the consumer are at least six times greater than the equivalent rail costs and at least nine times greater than the equivalent waterways costs.

Many of those are externalized costs passed on to society—like congestion, pollution, and crashes—as well as public costs, like infrastructure maintenance. These externalized and public costs are just another way that taxpayers subsidize highways. The GAO implies that the country's highway-centric transportation policy could be damaging the economy.

Roads

Parking hall of shame: Truck blocks crosswalk and travel lane

by David Alpert   •   April 19, 2010 3:21 pm

Trucks sometimes double park in travel lanes, and sometimes block crosswalks. This truck managed to get in everyone's way: it parked in a travel lane, and blocking one of DC's busiest crosswalks, all while curbside space sat empty right nearby.

I took these pictures on Thursday evening at 7th and H, NW around 8:15 pm, when the streets were packed with diners and the Capitals were playing their first playoff game. This truck belongs to Iron Fabrication Services, Inc. of Hanover, Maryland, which according to their Web site worked on the Union Station Bikestation.

Their truck was parked not in the curb lane, but in the rightmost travel lane. Meanwhile, the curb lane was nearly empty, with plenty of room for the truck to pull up to the curb. On top of that, it was completely blocking the crosswalk.

It could have been stalled or broken down, but about five minutes after I arrived, the driver got in the truck, sat there for a minute, then drove away.

Update: A representative of the company says that the truck was stopped because it had just been involved in a collision, and the driver was exchanging insurance information. I admit I hadn't considered that possibility; the truck didn't look damaged and there wasn't another damaged vehicle nearby or any other vehicle stopped in the middle of the road that I saw, but I could have not seen it or damage could have been invisible.