Highway for Trucks Only. Good idea? Or, waste of time?

No cars allowed: Georgia considers highway just for trucks

FILE - In this Aug. 24, 2016, file photo, truck and automobile traffic mix on Interstate 5, headed north through Fife, Wash., near the Port of Tacoma. President Donald Trump's plan to beef up the nation's infrastructure will contain a crater-sized hole when it's unveiled next month.

 From article, (Georgia transportation officials are exploring the idea of a separate highway for trucks only.

It would be the first highway of its kind in the United States, said John Hibbard, the Georgia Department of Transportation’s operations director.

WABE Radio reports that the toll-free highway would stretch 40 miles from metro Atlanta to Macon. It would give trucks their own separate roadway, which would have its own exits and entrances, Hibbard said.

State transportation officials say they expect truck traffic to double by 2040. The truck-only lanes have been proposed as a solution to reducing congestion for drivers of noncommercial vehicles on Georgia interstates.

Gov. Nathan Deal praised the truck-only highway during a recent Georgia Transportation Alliance meeting, calling it “an important part of what our future transportation system should and will look like.”

The project’s estimated cost of $1.8 billion is raising eyebrows, the radio station reported.

Georgia would ask for federal funds, but if the government doesn’t come through, Deal said the project could still move forward with state money, specifically because of the state’s Transportation Funding Act, passed in 2015. The act is paid for by an increase in fuel taxes.

The state transportation department’s study projects that the truck-only lanes would reduce delays on Interstate 75 North by 40 percent.

“I think it’s going to unclog a lot of the traffic,” said truck driver Afori Pugh. “Because these trucks are huge, we can’t move as fast as other people. They do not want to let you over.”

Pugh usually has 20,000 pounds of construction materials like steel in the back of his white flatbed truck.

Every few weeks, Pugh drives two hours from Marietta to Macon. He said it can be rough.

“You have a lot of people flipping the bird, cussing you out,” Pugh said. “But you just have to be patient and understand that they don’t understand this industry.”

When motorists cut in front of him to get by, there’s hardly any margin for error, he said.

“They don’t understand how much danger they’re in just by getting in front of you slamming on brakes,” Pugh said.)

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