Topic: Truck Caps

[Snowman]

Cap pondered on truck speeds
`Limiters' could be set to 105 km/h

Apr 11, 2007 04:30 AM
TESS KALINOWSKI
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER

Queen's Park might be ready to consider mandatory speed limiters on trucks as one way to reduce pollution and improve road safety, according to Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield.
The Ontario Trucking Association has been asking the government for more than a year to require trucks to have speed limiters activated so the vehicles can't exceed 105 km/h.
The limiters are usually programmed to keep trucks at 100 km/h but have a 5-kilometre "window" that allows them to speed up for lane changes, according to the association's Doug Switzer.
"We're very supportive of the potential of speed limiters. They obviously can reduce (greenhouse gas) emissions, they can save on fossil fuel and obviously there's road safety,"Cansfield said yesterday.
But the minister stopped short of promising to make limiters the law.
"The most important thing, though, is to obey the laws as they stand now until such things are changed," she said.
Her comments came after OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino talked to reporters about studying highway speeds with an eye to lowering speed limits for truckers.
Premier Dalton McGuinty acknowledged yesterday that a reduction in truck speeds would fit with the green plan the government plans to unveil this spring. And, he said, the province is always seeking ways to make the highways safer, even though its road safety record is among the best in North America.
The trucking association says the speed limiters have already been activated on half the trucks on Ontario roads.
Making their use mandatory would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 140 kilotonnes a year and save as much as 50 million litres of fuel.
It could also reduce the severity of car-truck crashes, reduce tailgating and lessen the pressure on truck drivers to speed up deliveries.
All trucks built in the past decade have computer chips to limit their speed, Switzer said, and can be easily activated by a mechanic.

[Ex-airbalancer]

I though you were going to writing about caps on pick up trucks

"The trucking association says the speed limiters have already been activated on half the trucks on Ontario roads."
what are they set to 150km/hr?

[Allen]

 

[Trainman]

So you will have a group of vehicles capped at 105 but all the rest will be doing 120+ 

I can see the next call (probably from the truckers  ) to have speed limiters on ALL vehicles, it would only be fair then 

What happened to good old enforcement backed up with decent penalties?

[random006]

So you will have a group of vehicles capped at 105 but all the rest will be doing 120+ 

I can see the next call (probably from the truckers  ) to have speed limiters on ALL vehicles, it would only be fair then 

What happened to good old enforcement backed up with decent penalties?

The beauty is that it is automatic.  Besides, it's always easier to fob off enforcement responsibility onto a machine.  That way, fingers can always be pointed elsewhere when something goes wrong. 

While we're on the topic, has the industry finally tamed water spray off of the wheels yet?  I remember seeing and reading many articles about it, all saying the industry has been and is taking a tough stance on that issue.  All the while getting blinded by spray from trucks every time I drove on the highways during a rain storm.

[tpl]

Law of unintended consequences:

Limit truck speeds.  Drivers will need more hours to get to destination. Either: more tired drivers causing accidents OR higher costs to trucking companies for drivers having overnight rest stops. 
 If there are more rest stops, one of the following may happen:
.  more spoilage
. more trucks sitting idling running the refrigerators all night
. more thefts

in any case consumer prices will rise.

Perhaps the money ( and this will cost) would be better spent in getting on with new border crossings at Windsor/Niagara and improving the expressways running up to those crossings.


if the OPP get pressured into more speed enforcement... supposedly for truckers... I bet that cars will prove an easier target.

[Ex-airbalancer]

So you will have a group of vehicles capped at 105 but all the rest will be doing 120+ 

I can see the next call (probably from the truckers  ) to have speed limiters on ALL vehicles, it would only be fair then 

What happened to good old enforcement backed up with decent penalties?

What should we go to photo radar?

[Trainman]

So you will have a group of vehicles capped at 105 but all the rest will be doing 120+ 

I can see the next call (probably from the truckers  ) to have speed limiters on ALL vehicles, it would only be fair then 

What happened to good old enforcement backed up with decent penalties?

What should we go to photo radar?

Nope, good old style enforcement (ie cop in your face).  Photo radar is almost as bad as this cap thing.  We are like cats, need to be punished as close to the actual event as possible for it do do any good, ie result in modified behavior.  A fine in the mail 8 weeks after does not do that.

Meow

[safristi]

Eye fer an EYE C'apn...............

[Ex-airbalancer]

So you will have a group of vehicles capped at 105 but all the rest will be doing 120+ 

I can see the next call (probably from the truckers  ) to have speed limiters on ALL vehicles, it would only be fair then 

What happened to good old enforcement backed up with decent penalties?

What should we go to photo radar?

Nope, good old style enforcement (ie cop in your face).  Photo radar is almost as bad as this cap thing.  We are like cats, need to be punished as close to the actual event as possible for it do do any good, ie result in modified behavior.  A fine in the mail 8 weeks after does not do that.

Meow

But what is cost of placing more officers on the road must be about $200,000/ years if you include training wage, equipment

 Just to get off topic Where is the Fuzz? Have seen him on in a while

[tpl]

Put the speed limit UP on the 2 laners and then leave the expressways free for trucks?

No photo radar.

It is not clear to me that there is even a problem.

[tpl]

The line about mechanics being able to enable the limiter makes me think it might be just as easy to deactivate them :-)
What exactly is the problem with trucks running at 110 or 115km/h as opposed to 105? The problem I see on a regular basis is multiple trucks hogging the center lane. Enforcing the need to have them stick to the right lane might assist traffic flow.

yes but.   It might be very difficult to actually enter or exit an expressway if all the trucks are stuck in the right lane.  I have run into this a few times where there is no gap to safely get into for a mile or two when coming up on my exit.

[Trainman]

So you will have a group of vehicles capped at 105 but all the rest will be doing 120+ 

I can see the next call (probably from the truckers  ) to have speed limiters on ALL vehicles, it would only be fair then 

What happened to good old enforcement backed up with decent penalties?

What should we go to photo radar?

Nope, good old style enforcement (ie cop in your face).  Photo radar is almost as bad as this cap thing.  We are like cats, need to be punished as close to the actual event as possible for it do do any good, ie result in modified behavior.  A fine in the mail 8 weeks after does not do that.

Meow

But what is cost of placing more officers on the road must be about $200,000/ years if you include training wage, equipment

 Just to get off topic Where is the Fuzz? Have seen him on in a while

I agree, there is a huge cost to extra police.  But I still believe the best policing is the personal kind, not the letter in the mail.  Much more immediate impact.

And where exactly is our fuzzy friend?  I hope he is OK.

[dr_spock]

Personal and a baton up your butt at the side of the road.  Now that's enforcement.

[Ex-airbalancer]

I remember the speed on the 401 did slow down when there was photo radar, atleast in the places east of the GTA

[Trainman]

I remember the speed on the 401 did slow down when there was photo radar, atleast in the places east of the GTA

It did here in BC too.

Have not seen much change in speed in Alberta tho, but their photo radar is being done by county, not across the province so may take awhile (and a few tickets  ) for changes to happen.

[blizzard35]

Trucks on the road....please don't get me started. 
Anyone who is driven the Higyway 11 coridor North of North Bay, Ontario to Cochrane knows that the # of trucks on the road is equal to "ants at a picnic!"  And trust me, the truckers are not driving the speed limit or anywhere close to it.  They don't care about passenger cars at all......and what really makes me angry is all of the transports that hog the "passing lanes" on a 2 lane highway system, thus, making trafffic back up and no one can pass to get away from all the truck traffic.

The roads in Northern Ontario are pathetic.....and 90% of the damage is done because of the transport traffic.  Cracked pavement is "flying up" like schrapnel in war time, causing all sorts of damage to cars.

Cap the speed limits by all means, maybe then the rest of us will have a fighting chance of passing these 18 wheeled monsters and arriving at our destinations safe and sound.  IMO

[barrie1]

One person says cap the speed limits on trucks so they will get out of his way and then another poster says I wish they would go faster so we could pass them safely and they didn't hold him up on his way. The poor truck drivers just won't know which to please as most of them I think would rather run a little quicker to just get the days work done and get home.   

[quadzilla]

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_23878.aspx

Province Caps Speed For Large Trucks
Tuesday June 17, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
The days of large trucks barreling past you on the highway will soon be a thing of the past.

In an effort to reduce air pollution and improve road safety the provincial government plans to cap the speed at which most large rigs can travel. The vehicles will soon have to use an electronic device called a speed limiter that restricts a truck's maximum speed to 105 kilometres per hour.

[tpl]

Law of unintended consequences:

Limit truck speeds.  Drivers will need more hours to get to destination. Either: more tired drivers causing accidents OR higher costs to trucking companies for drivers having overnight rest stops. 
 If there are more rest stops, one of the following may happen:
.  more spoilage
. more trucks sitting idling running the refrigerators all night
. more thefts

in any case consumer prices will rise.

Perhaps the money ( and this will cost) would be better spent in getting on with new border crossings at Windsor/Niagara and improving the expressways running up to those crossings.


if the OPP get pressured into more speed enforcement... supposedly for truckers... I bet that cars will prove an easier target.

I bumped my own note from last year.  It is just as relevant today.