95 & 8 + ID Traffic

[Ken Medlin <dev-plan@moscow.com>]

For Comment:  With most area communities along these axes (95 and 8) 
experiencing some sprawl or incipient plans for same,  is it  wise to 
raise the question of hiway security particularly from the standpoint of 
the trucking industry? ID geography, landscape and grain fields stopping 
just short of roads in most areas admittedly present difficult 
engineering challenges to widening, but there are probably some options 
to the way things are now:  typically narrow roadbeds with precious 
little shoulders for emergency stopping (check out Moscow to Lewiston -- 
much of the road has 2-3 feet shoulders!). If your experience is anything 
like mine when driving between C. d'Alene and  Boise, or betw. Lewisron 
and Missoula on 12, the truck traffic is constant and driver behaviors 
less than ideal. Just yesterday drivingwest from Orofino to Lewiston in a 
50 MPH zone, I was passed by a trruck doing close to 70 MPH an changing 
lanes to maintain speed.  Add to this the fact that most of our towns, 
incl. Moscow and Pullman, were designed long before the interstate 
developments of the l950's - 60's, and routing these monsters with 2 and 
sometiems 3 trailers thru downtowns is hideous and dangerous. Add to 
these concerns the frequent violations  by truckers of speed limits and 
hiway courtesy plus road fatigue and we face almost constant threats to 
4-wheeler safety.  Yet, the trucking industry is lobbying Congress to 
raise the maximum hours allowed for drivers on the road from 66 to 72 per 
work week! What does that mean for logging trucks, trans-state trucking, 
delivery vehicles etc.?  A recent study by the U of Michigan for the 
federald DOT found that while trucks count for 4 percent of all behicle 
registrations they commit 22% of  all hiway accidents -- over 5 times 
their "share"!  
    The way urban living and transportation of goods are going, it's not 
going to improve without some changes either in how we do business or 
thru legislation. We all have to travel in and about  and between our 
communities,and across the broad landscape. Before things get worse, what 
can we do to influence our legislators and to begin to turn things 
around? Can we afford to leave things the way they are?  Your wisdom is 
invited!

------------------------
William K. Medlin
Dev-plan associates
930 Kenneth Street
Moscow ID 83843
208/892-0148
dev-plan@moscow.com