Tennessee transportation officials advise that any speed-limit reductions to improve air quality should apply to all vehicles, not just large trucks.
Enacting different limits for cars and trucks would produce safety hazards, they claim.
“Whatever we’re going to have to do is going to have to be done for all,” Ed Cole, chief of planning and environment for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, which sets speed limits, told The Tennessean.
The state Air Pollution Control Board is recommending a series of changes, including making the maximum speed for semis 55 mph, down from 70 mph, to reduce the amount of ozone-causing compounds going into the air.
The board is trying to bring Tennessee counties into compliance with federal air quality rules that take effect in 2005.
Failure to meet the new standards by 2007 could result in an end to industrial expansion and large cuts in federal highway funding for the area, the newspaper reported.
Officials haven’t decided whether the limits would be in effect year-round, just during the warm-weather ozone season, or only on days when high pollution levels are forecast.
At its April meeting, the board plans to vote on a resolution regarding speed limits.
Cole said TDOT has advised against differential speed limits for cars and trucks on safety grounds. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association shares the department’s views.
Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA said, “By lowering truck speed limits, all they would really do is create a safety issue where previously none existed. That is not an acceptable tradeoff.”
The board will meet April 7-8 in the Life and Casualty Tower, 17th Floor, 401 Church Street, Nashville, TN. For more information, contact Amanda Sluss, director of public information, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, at (615) 532-0288.
