The Arizona Trucking Association is calling out ADOT’s recent decision to limit semi trucks to the right lane of Interstate 10, saying that the attempt at a “solution” may actually makes things worse.
The Arizona Department of Transportation announced the decision to limit trucks to the right lane of Interstate 10 between Casa Grande and Phoenix on June 7th in an attempt to reduce the number of wrecks seen along that two lane stretch of highway.
ATA president Anthony Bradley says that, despite claims that the two organizations “coordinated” to come up with the plan, it was less of a collaborative effort than that.
“ ‘Coordinate’ is probably the wrong term,’’ he said to Herald Review Media.
“They informed us of their decision,’’ he said. “We informed them of, frankly, the stupidity of the decision.’’
“We had asked that, if they were going to do it, that they create some space for us to have passing ability… They listened to us and obviously are doing what they believe they need to do…” Bradley continued.
“We let them know that a lot of those accidents were probably the fault of the speeding cars that are traveling recklessly throughout that corridor,’’ he said. “Moving all the trucks to the right-hand lane doesn’t solve that problem.’’
“It’s a typical ‘affect 20% and the other 80% are free to do what they want. You’re going to have passenger vehicles in the left-hand lane holding up people. People are going to get frustrated. They’re going to have no place to go and they’re going to continue to cause accidents.’’
ADOT spokesman Garin Groff says that ADOT “will be monitoring the situation if there are unintended consequences. And we’ll make adjustments if needed.”