Truckers may get greater access

Comments on Topix forums : RALEIGH Most North Carolina highways are closed to standard-sized tractor-trailers, but complaints to lawmakers from frustrated business owners could change that.

[Skidoo]

Any semi coming up the mountain (and back down again) on 74A from Fairview to Chimney rock should be cited for "Running to the Terror of the Public" under any circumstances.
It is impossible for a semi to stay right of center on this road.
Are the people proposing this legislation just complete idiots????
Thankfully the Highway Patrol had enough sense, and pull to keep them off this road in the meantime.

[Keith retired Gun-bunny]

Skidoo wrote:

Any semi coming up the mountain (and back down again) on 74A from Fairview to Chimney rock should be cited for "Running to the Terror of the Public" under any circumstances.
It is impossible for a semi to stay right of center on this road.
Are the people proposing this legislation just complete idiots????
Thankfully the Highway Patrol had enough sense, and pull to keep them off this road in the meantime.

I know, I hope, that they don't let them go across #9. If I ani't mistaken, I believe one got stuck up in there at one time.

[duh huh]

Keith retired Gun-bunny wrote:

<quoted text>I know, I hope, that they don't let them go across #9. If I ani't mistaken, I believe one got stuck up in there at one time.

mãñÉy BRÁnçH RD in wËÁverville as well is a bad RØAÐ

[Keith retired Gun-bunny]

duh huh wrote:

<quoted text>
mãñÉy BRÁnçH RD in wËÁverville as well is a bad RØAÐ

I'd say. LOL.

[Old Black Joe]

First they'll allow standard 53' trailers to pass on these roads. Next, they'll be crying that they want oversize and overweight loads to be allowed since "other semi-trailers can pass."

Before you know it, the roadways will be choked with heavy trucks, the driving surface will be damaged from the heavy and oversized loads, and a bunch of these truckers will end up hitting overpasses because they cannot clear them.

[Road Hazards]

Great, take a semi going through the S curves on 74 A going one way and a driver from FL going the other way......

Absolutely Unsafe!
Absolutely Insane!

As if driving these roads was not dangerous and crazy enough.

[dadoldfart]

I can hear those "jake " brakes already!

[Carolinakat]

duh huh wrote:

<quoted text>
mãñÉy BRÁnçH RD in wËÁverville as well is a bad RØAÐ

You got that right. Used to have friends that lived on that road when I was a teenager. Road is still the same last time I was up there about a year ago.

[Shake and Bake]

The company Young & McQueen Grading Company used their heavy Dump Trucks to transport dirt they bought using Ledbetter Road in Arden. In three weeks the road was damaged beyond repair and had to be totally resurfaced at the cost of the tax payers. If these dump trucks can trash a road what do they think a 53 foot rig will do. I guess it does not matter since we will be paying for it.

[dadoldfart]

Aw come on AC-T! The article says 53' trailers and you show a set of doubles. Ya just gotta know that is going to confuse a lot of people.

[What]

With all due respect to truckers, please NO!

Companies can drive smaller rigs or have shuttle rigs through the mountain states, hire more of our unemployed, save roads, save tax dollars, and most importantly, save lives! Theirs as well as ours!

[Truckin]

Shake and Bake wrote:

The company Young & McQueen Grading Company used their heavy Dump Trucks to transport dirt they bought using Ledbetter Road in Arden. In three weeks the road was damaged beyond repair and had to be totally resurfaced at the cost of the tax payers. If these dump trucks can trash a road what do they think a 53 foot rig will do. I guess it does not matter since we will be paying for it.

It doesn't take long for a road to become trashed if it was not engineered for those heavy loads.

[RTO]

A horrible idea. The list of roads that tractor trailers, even 48 footers, should not be allowed on is endless. Hwy 9 to B at cave, 74 to Bat cave, 64 from Brevard to Franklin, 215, 276 ( in between Brevard and Waynesvile ) 209. And so on. As a matter of fact, trucks shouldn't even be alowed in the left lane of the Interstates.

Semi's do 10,000 times more damage to the roads than cars do, and they certainly don't pay 10,000 times the taxes.

[HAHAHA]

Politicians and donations ,,, write and vent all
you want to! The only thing Raleigh understands is
information from each of us: pass this lunacy and you're out of
office!

They don't care about reason. logic, safety, sanity,,, it's money,
baby and not one thing else - except a real threat of being
kicked out of office,

Write, call, encounter, warn - otherwise you're ####ing in the wind !

[duh huh]

Carolinakat wrote:

<quoted text>
You got that right. Used to have friends that lived on that road when I was a teenager. Road is still the same last time I was up there about a year ago.

theres been only one truck to make it over that road to the other side (paint fork) and if they come from paint fork and try to go down maney branch then they are really screwed. I suggest they start alerting the local fire depts to get a new traffic team just to deal with all these new incidents headed their way .

[Native Mountain Boy]

RTO wrote:

A horrible idea. The list of roads that tractor trailers, even 48 footers, should not be allowed on is endless. Hwy 9 to B at cave, 74 to Bat cave, 64 from Brevard to Franklin, 215, 276 ( in between Brevard and Waynesvile ) 209. And so on. As a matter of fact, trucks shouldn't even be alowed in the left lane of the Interstates.
Semi's do 10,000 times more damage to the roads than cars do, and they certainly don't pay 10,000 times the taxes.

You are so out of touch with reality. I drive locally and there are businesses on every one of those roads that I have HAD to deliver to at one time or another. I can say that one stretch of road that NO truck needs to be on is 64 between Highlands and Franklin. The rest, as much as you may dislike it, are necessary for business deliveries.

74A? Businesses in Gerton like Manual Woodworkers and a couple of motels. We route our Bat Cave and Lake Lure freight through Hendersonville, but guess what? If we have a delivery to Gerton, we have to go UP 74A and, since there is no place to turn around when you are headed UP, then you can't get back DOWN. At that point, there IS no solution but to go forward.

64 W of Brevard? Geez... Lake Toxaway, Sapphire, Cashiers and Highlands. I run that twice a week. It's not that bad.

215? Rosman research station has to have their stuff and so do the tomato packers on the other side of the mountain.

276? From Brevard, no. From Waynesville? Yes. That's one of two options for delivering to the Pisgah Inn. The other is the BR Parkway, which we are permitted to do, but choose to go 276 the majority of the time out of respect for the FRIGGIN' TOURISTS!!!

Trucks wear roads down, but the trucking companies not only pay extra fuel taxes, but they also pay highway use fees and several other fees just to run on those roads, so your argument about not paying more taxes is unjustified. Your problem is that you just don't like trucks. Period. If you or anyone else is traveling through the mountains and you happen upon a curve when a truck is coming around it, just slow down and ease over a little. That precious 10 seconds you lose isn't going to kill you. Or maybe it could if you don't learn to adjust your driving from a flatland setting to our lovely mountain terrain. Trucks are everywhere. You can't avoid it, so educate yourself on how to drive around them. Please visit the following website to learn how to drive safely with trucks on the highways:

http://www.sharetheroadsafely.org/noZone/what...

[Evil Conservative]

Good for you Native. I drive OTR and we del. freight going those places to you guys for you to del. because you can get a daycab in places I can't get my 379 Pete into. And companies aren't going to risk a huge tow bill to try it.

[Native Mountain Boy]

Evil Conservative wrote:

Good for you Native. I drive OTR and we del. freight going those places to you guys for you to del. because you can get a daycab in places I can't get my 379 Pete into. And companies aren't going to risk a huge tow bill to try it.

I miss driving OTR, but I sure love my daycab. The one thing that has always irked me about some OTR companies that do mass hiring, such as Schneider and JB Hunt, is that their routing software that their drivers use sends them onto roads that the driver isn't knowledgeable about and that the trucks don't need to be on. Two perfect examples of that are US 129 along the TN/NC border at Deal's Gap and US 441 from Gatlinburg to Cherokee. The auto-routing feature in their software gives them those routes as being the shortest between certain points, but there are several places on the net where you can see trucks (JBH has one on there) that have gotten stuck and had to be dragged out and off a curve because the landing gear got stuck and rutted out the highway.

I'm just thankful I grew up here and got my driving experience in the mountains. My buddy from FL still calls me when he gets sent somewhere he's not familiar with and asks if he can go or should he avoid it. I have to snicker a little when I see a post like the one I replied to because that person has no idea how much safety training we go through to learn how to avoid people like THEM on the roads. Be safe and keep the shiny side up.

[Evil Conservative]

You better believe I will. I know what you mean about the routing software I get routed similar to that but I got my own and set it up differently than what they use. It's alot better when you plan the route yourself and as for the idiot who said that trucks shouldn't use the left lane on the interstate, we pay for the majority of road repairs done. If it wasn't for us evil truckers he wouldn't have an interstate to drive on in the first place. Maybe he should ride with a trucker for a few days just to see what we go through dealing with idiots like him.

[Native Mountain Boy]

Too bad we don't have a ride-along program like the police, eh?