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Semi-Lane

 Segregate Semis and Prevent Accidents
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When a semi truck is involved in a car accident, the accident is often fatal. It's not the truck drivers that are bad; it's the sheer size of the truck causes the accident to be more severe (I am not critizing the driving skills of semi truck drivers).

Highways are constructed so that all traffic drives together on the road, larger vehicles included. This invention is a Semi-Lane which runs along one side of the highway.

The Semi-Lane running along the highway is a two-lane road on which only large commerical trucks can travel. NO PASSING WOULD BE ALLOWED. The Semi-Lane would intersect on and off ramps so the semis could exit the highway when required. The idea is get these trucks traveling together at reasonble speeds so that there are fewer accidents. A line of semis traveling in the Semi-Lane is anaglous to a train cars with cargo on railroad tracks that travel together in one fluid motion toward their destination.

—flynn, Jan 02 2007

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       In most semi truck involved colisions, the driver of the car that is the one at fault.
—BJS, Jan 02 2007
   

       [flynn] do remember that many bakers (maybe most, not sure) are not American. What's a semi-truck when it's at home?   

       [21Quest] If you are going to mfd an idea, please be sure to spell it out properly, with the correct brackets or moderators will not find it.   

       If you read the helpfile, you'll also note that 'baked' is not a reason for mfd. You could mark it widely known to exist, if indeed, it is. Is it?
—jonthegeologist, Jan 02 2007
   

       From wikipedia: "A semi-trailer truck or tractor-trailer (colloquially known as an 18-wheeler, semi, or big-rig in the U.S.; as a semi in Australia, and Canada; and as an articulated lorry, artic, or truck and trailer in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand)..."
—craigts, Jan 02 2007
   

       I am from the USA (midwest); I have never seen signs requesting that semis stay in the right lane, although semis do generally stay in the right lane here. This is not to say that these signs do not exist in other places, of course.   

       [Boyspartks] Thanks for the welcome. I had envisioned it as a 2 lane road on just one side of the highway; however, since you mentioned it, I think a lane on either side on the highway would be safer yet. Then semis would not be tempted to pass (even if it was illegal).   

       [21Quest] Again, this is not meant to insult the semi truck drivers. Since trucks carry big loads, they have difficult stopping quickly and can be involved in fatal accidents even if they are driving perfectly and it's the car in the front of them that slams on their brakes. Or, in the event of bad weather.
—flynn, Jan 02 2007
   

       [21 Quest] According to the resource you sent, looks like these lanes are popular in California, probabaly because of all the traffice.   

       "Are truck-only lanes common in the U.S.? No, very few truck-only lanes exist. Most states restrict trucks to certain lanes, but also allow all vehicles to use the same lanes."
—flynn, Jan 02 2007
   

       Wouldn't it be better to use that extra lane for the auto traffic and leave the main highway to the trucks? I mean it is usually the cars that are the problem.
—Galbinus_Caeli, Jan 04 2007
   

       So you're going to create separate infrastructure to move cargo on specialized carriers? Sounds like more train tracks would be a better use of your money, although I'm all for increasing the safety on public highways.   

       By the way, I don't think I've seen special signs for trucks in my part of the USA, but I think I've seen them in Europe. Or maybe it's just a normal rule that everyone follows.
—discontinuuity, Jan 05 2007
   

       [21 Quest] Well, if there's only 2 California, it certainly doesn't seem like it's a very well-known idea. Granted it's baked, but just barely.
—flynn, Jan 05 2007
   

       We have them in Atlanta too. I-285 restricts trucks to the right two lanes each direction.
—Galbinus_Caeli, Jan 05 2007
   

       //So you're going to create separate infrastructure to move cargo on specialized carriers? Sounds like more train tracks would be a better use of your money, although I'm all for increasing the safety on public highways.//   

       But then they'd be limited to the newly-made tracks... unless they had both road and rail wheels. That might work. I sometimes wonder why we have roads at all, why not have passenger vehicles on tracks going all the way into their garages, and just use the other wheels for very steep roads, driving over undeveloped ground and passing obstacles on the track.   

       //But the idea being proposed here does not keep other vehicles out of the truck's path// Yes it does. If you disagree maybe you could say why.
—caspian, Jan 08 2007
   

       //Congested motorways and heavy fuel prices lead to some truckers maintaining their speed as a priority above all else.//

A further reason is that trucks are governed; an unladen truck that could otherwise do 70 mph or more takes ages to overtake a 42-ton truck because it's not allowed to exceed 56 mph.
—angel, Jan 08 2007
   

       [admin: I'm ignoring the marked-for-deletion call because the existing semi lanes are both slightly different in implementation from the complete segregation suggested here, and weren't actually known to the poster.]
—jutta, Jun 08 2007
   
      
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