The Trump administration is hitting the brakes on an Obama-era plan that would have created a de facto national speed limit as low as 60 mph for big rigs and buses traveling American highways.
The proposal had been under discussion since 2016, and Trump officials on July 24 formally announced they’re dropping the plan, which aimed to reduce the severity of crashes involving heavy vehicles. Obama-era regulators said limiting trucks and buses to no more than 65 mph would save between 63 and 214 lives annually, and save drivers more than $800 million in fuel and emissions costs.
But federal regulators under Trump now say the proposal to install governors on all vehicles weighing more than 26,000 pounds would raise trucking costs and might actually make things worse by stalling traffic and putting more trucks on the road. Regulators said the proposal might have also slowed deliveries, hurt already-low driver pay and pushed more heavy truck traffic onto side streets instead of interstates.
“Because drivers get paid by the mile, the more miles you can put in, well, the incentive is to not slow down,” said Henry Albert, 62, an independent owner-operator based in Laredo, Texas.
Albert said he understands why some safety advocates would support the speed restrictions, and said he personally limits his 2022 Freightliner Cascadia to 80 mph. He rarely drives that fast because higher speeds consume more diesel, he added.
The exact speed limit being considered had not been decided but officials considered 60, 65 and 68 mph. Many states have interstate speed limits of 75, and some even allow 80 mph, although trucks are sometimes restricted to lower speeds.
Federal regulators received more than 15,000 comments opposing the proposal, including objections from states that a national policy violated their right to set their own speed limits. Trump has ordered federal agencies to consider withdrawing or voiding what he considers to be onerous regulations, and the Department of Transportation cited his order in killing the governor plan.
Regulators also noted the rule didn’t consider the potential risk of increasing the speed differential between passenger vehicles and big rigs or the increased number of trucks that would have been needed to carry the same amount of cargo in a given period. They also said new technologies, like radar-assisted emergency alert and braking systems, have substantially improved safety since the proposal was first introduced.
In a statement, the American Trucking Associations, which had supported a version of the regulation that would have restricted big-rig speeds to 65 mph, said it has long worked with regulators to find reasonable middle ground.
“We believe USDOT can successfully balance deregulatory actions while enforcing sensible regulations that are on the books, in line with its safety mission,” Dan Horvath, the ATA’s chief operating officer said.
There’s a growing push by safety advocates to use technology like governors to limit driving speeds nationally; California Gov. Gavin Newsom last year vetoed a proposed state law that would have required new vehicles to alert drivers whenever they are speeding.
Albert, who said he’s seen few true accidents but many crashes, said he thinks better speed-limit enforcement would help improve safety for everyone on the road.
“The speed limit sign isn’t a starting point,” he said, referencing the number of cars he sees zip past his rig at 100 mph. “It’s the limit.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump kills Obama plan for big-rig speed limits
