El Paso to ban tractor trailer trucks from fast lane! (Houston: houses, warehouses)
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El Paso has no by-pass. If big rigs can keep up with traffic then let them use the left lane. It's safer than them being cut-off by merging traffic on the right. I-10 gets jammed up alot but I can't attribute any problems to trucks in the left lane. As long as the "slower traffic keep right" rules are followed it doesn't matter what lane they are in.
The problem with enforcement is that it's much easier to deny something altogether than to have to patrol and monitor a subjective rule. If the city passed a law to say trucks can use lane X, what lane would that be?
In most cities, you can't designate the right lane because it often changes, depending on where the freeway widens, or changes to allow entrance, or exit of traffic; this would also cause lots of slowdowns as trucks will have to constantly change lanes.
Giving trucks the middle lane leaves 'middle' up to interpretation, it is valid if you ONLY have three lanes. If there are five lanes, two drivers can take the second and third lanes, again, creating a pseudo wall. So the easiest, and most practical law to enforce is to say no trucks in the right lane, such is the right lane the first lane of traffic on almost all roadways; let the truckers, and drivers worry about what lane to be in, but always leave the left lane free of trucks in case a driver needs to pass.
I don't know if this is of any insight, but here it goes. In Chicago, one of the busiest highways is the Kennedy Expressway (I-90), and it has what are called the "express lanes". They are two lanes in the center which change directions with rush hour traffic. For example, in the morning rush, the gates open to direct traffic into the city and downtown. In the evening, the gates close and change direction to direct traffic away from the city. In addition, 4 "local" lanes" are open in each direction. There are no trucks allowed in the express lanes. In my experience, I usually avoid the express lanes because everyone wants to drive on them, so that they get too congested and they leave the "local lanes" less congested, therefore, easing traffic on those lanes!
In my previous post, I said right lanes in my last paragraph, I meant to say left of course.
Tom, Houston used to have to do the same, but since the most expensive freeway project, and the widest freeway in the nation () was recently completed, we now have two dedicated HOV/TOLL lanes inbound as well as outbound, so there are always two 'express' lanes going in, or out.
Hey hook what are the raised section on the highway there in Houston, each time I drive though there I never take them cause I am not sure what they are.
Hey hook what are the raised section on the highway there in Houston, each time I drive though there I never take them cause I am not sure what they are.
They lead to loops, actual completed loops that encircle the city. That is one good thing Houston did, it has an inner city loop, Loop 610, and an outer loop, Betlway 8, and yet a third being built now, I99. The first two are all connected, 99 is not complete, but connects two of the main freeways, HWY59 and I10.
Houston has many freeways from all directions, HWY59, I10, I45, H290, H249 and other regional highways.
If you are coming into Houston on I10, and you need to go to the north, or south side of town, you don't have to go all the way in, you just get on the loop and go around the city. If you need to go to the south side, but closer to the center, you take the second loop to get there, and again, bypass the city center.
The stacks get you on, and off of course, they are pretty high aren't they? Some people fear them, and I don't think any other city has higher sections than Houston's.
The new freeway is 23 miles of new construction, originally expected to take 10-12 years to complete, but through creative financing, it was completed in a very short 5 years, and within budget. They worked on it almost 24x7 with the exceptions of weather days, or holidays. Of course, there were incentives built in to the contractors for getting it done sooner to the tune of 300+ million dollars.
At it's widest, it is 26 lanes! Texas has something to be really proud of. It's probably the most modern freeway in the nation right now. Also, Houston did not steal money from other projects as some think. Instead, the money was allocated seven years ago, and the state never asked for more, but instead got creative on how to finance it.
Most cities build their roads based on how much money they get that year from federal and state funds, then have to ask for more each consecutive year to ensure the project is completed, that is why it usually takes years to do anything, so you can't fault the city of El Paso for taking a long time to build roads. Sometimes they get more, sometimes less, sometimes none.
Houston got it's money all at once seven years ago, and never got more for the I10 project in the last seven years, instead the state and the city financed the construction, part with bonds, and so were able to get it done in record time.
The big thing here now are Toll Roads. Houston has several, and there is a toll road on I10, but only those who wish to drive in those lanes I mentioned earlier pay, I10 is still free to use. I10 was originally built to handle 70K cars per day back in the 60s, but as late as a year ago, there were 250K+ cars per day on I10 in either direction. The new freeway now handles it with no problem.
My Biggest problem HOOK with the highway building here, is if you take the loop to The East side it has these really nice bridges and over passes with plants and nice red bricks and landscaping, then you come over to the North East side and its just beige, no nice landscaping no fancy cement work in the dividers with a the fancy paint.. nope just beige... landscaping for us is big ugly rocks, and one panel that is in the shape of Texas. The West side has Palm trees all over the place along the side of the road and so forth. The East Side has trees. The North East.. rocks.. maybe a cactus and a large bolder.. but that is about it. Well the Loop here by my house they did a pretty nice job with landscape.. but the main highway its barren. I have a theory they did it to not take away from the mountain view... so the mountain is the focus and not the highway.. but in my eyes it did the opposite.
By the way thanks for the very informative post about the Houston highway system.
Well Muhnay, I hate to tell you this, but your theory is most likely incorrect. The reason your area does not get anything is because your representative is not getting those things for you. The squeaky wheel gets the grease as they say, and your rep is not squealing loud enough!
It's time to fire him/her. Complacency has a lot to do with it too; if the people in your district have the attitude of 'ehh, get me another beer and change the channel' to what goes on, and what their elected officials do, then that is what you get in return, 'ehh, they don't need sht'.
I work elections in my county, and you will be surprised how many unqualified, unskilled, untalented people get elected. Many get elected simply because of straight party tickets (they need to get rid of that in Texas!). Some don't even have opposition, they just formally put their names in the hat, and if they are elected during the general election on a straight party ticket, then they don't have to spend any money, they get in because people are voting in for someone else and the freeloader wins without much effort.
In other races where there is competition, someone can win with less than 50 votes! I'm not kidding. People just don't care anymore, they don't turn out to vote, so anyone who puts in an honest effort has a very good chance to win.
Have you ever participated in the primaries, or attended caucus meetings, precinct conventions, state conventions (okay, I won't ask about national conventions)? If not, you should, it is truly an eye opener on how things work. There is a big secret out there, and politicians don't want you to know about it, and that is that almost anyone can get elected to office. Sometimes you might wonder in jest how an 'idiot' got elected? I'm telling you how. It happens.
People think it's a big mystery, that people need to be wealthy, know lots of people to win in an election. Yes, the higher up in office you go, the more you need support, but at the basic level, it is a free for all almost. If you get that, then you progress, you move up, people notice, then you get connected, then you move up again and people will support you. If you are good at it, you might even be asked to run in a race, with full support from the party. Look at Governor Palin, all she wanted to do was serve on the PTA, then council, then mayor, then Governor of Alaska! Watch out for her to be a big name in politics in the coming years.
So don't blame the city, after all, they gave monies to someone's district to beautify it. If your rep got elected the easy/lazy way, what incentive does he/she have to do anything? If the person was elected by a thousand votes out of 30 thousand voting residents, then there is not going to be any accountability, it's a free ride, free balls throughout the year, cocktail parties, exclusive events and all that goes with the political life.
'Sorry for that rant, and for getting off topic as usual... I'm tired.
And yes, I know there are a lot of people out there who do that for a living, and it's a tough job, but I'm sorry, I-10 becomes a four-walled room to me when I'm blocked in on all sides by a couple of big rigs chugging along at 50 mph, including some idiot in the fast lane spacing out. Yes, I understand that there are exponentially worse drivers here in passenger cars, but passengers cars blocking the fast lane are also easy to pass and cut off-- 18 wheelers are not. And almost being side-swiped by one is a completely different experience.
This law is in effect on I-35 between Austin and San Antonio and it is great. El Paso, being one of the busiest cities in terms of commercial traffic, should have done this long ago.
Once we have that new Southern Relief Route and and a freeway system that can actually handle the amount of traffic we see here, then this law might not be necessary anymore.
As it is, I'm glad City Council is doing this. Now if only they could figure out a way to use cameras to give tickets to morons going 50 in the fast lane.....
The only reason a trucker is going 50 mph in the left lane is because some idiot in front of him probably decided to exit the freeway at the last minute and slammed on their brakes in order to get all the way over to exit which causes everyone to also slam on their brakes. Truckers want to get through El Paso smoothly and at speed and the constant slowing down means it will take the truck longer to get back up to speed than a car so being in the left lane is the best and safest way for the truck . In addition it's all about fuel mileage to truckers and maintaining speed is in their best interest.
The only reason a trucker is going 50 mph in the left lane is because some idiot in front of him probably decided to exit the freeway at the last minute and slammed on their brakes in order to get all the way over to exit which causes everyone to also slam on their brakes. Truckers want to get through El Paso smoothly and at speed and the constant slowing down means it will take the truck longer to get back up to speed than a car so being in the left lane is the best and safest way for the truck . In addition it's all about fuel mileage to truckers and maintaining speed is in their best interest.
I absolutely agree that the great majority of truckers are cautious and very capable drivers (and have warned me of upcoming cops by pumping the brakes for me on the highway!) but there are a few coming through I-10 who are not. The two-lane portion of I-10 right outside the city can be particularly dangerous when a trucker cuts you off, and you either have to slam on your brakes or swerve into the right lane, if it's open. And yes, I've seen some semis cruising at 50mph, blocking all traffic from passing them, just because they're spacing out.
A dangerous trucker is a fairly rare sight, but is far more of a threat to me as a driver than a dangerous passenger vehicle. The left lane ban works efficiently in other cities without causing undue inconvenience to truckers passing through, so why not here?
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) was recently completed, we now have two dedicated HOV/TOLL lanes inbound as well as outbound, so there are always two 'express' lanes going in, or out.
