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More trucks will drive through Humboldt County

One reason for widening the road through the Grove is stated by CalTrans:

“…the larger trucks were now the standard and they were already driving in Humboldt County because they could enter from the north, and it was desirable for those large trucks to be able to drive through the County from both directions. " (emphasis added)
Kim Floyd, Project Director for the RGIP

The California Department of Transportation's Interregional Transportation Strategic Plan's objective is for large trucks to pass through Humboldt County . Read report about implementing this Plan.

Larger trucks = Fewer trucks. True? Not according to some experts. "Every time there has been a truck size and weight increase, bigger truck proponents have promised that it will mean fewer trucks, but the facts show that it simply is not true. After increases in truck size and weight, truck traffic grows disproportionately faster than car traffic." Coalition Against Bigger Trucks

Trucks damage roads. A South Dakota Department of Transportation document reveals “A 20,000-pound single axle consumes 1,000 times more pavement life than a 2,000-pound single axle.” Read report

Increasing Truck Sizes and Weights Threatens Safety and U.S. Highways and Bridges
Oversight Hearing on Truck Weights and Lengths: Assessing the Impacts of Existing Laws and Regulations
Before theSubcommittee on Highways and Transit House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

Bigger Trucks Will Mean More Traffic Congestion, An Analysis by the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks 2005 (pdf)

 

More trucks, less safety

Larger trucks, and more of them, will make Highway 101 less safe.

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From The Dangers of Large Trucks, by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety:

"Increases in truck size and weight will not decrease the number of trips, result in fewer miles traveled, or improve safety by reducing the number of trucks on the highways. Past increases in truck size and weight have not resulted in fewer trucks, fewer trips, or fewer miles traveled. The number of trucks on U.S. highways has consistently grown, even after increases in both the sizes and weights of large trucks." Read More

From the Law Offices of Morgan Adams:

"While a decrease in the amount of trucks on the road, and the number of miles traveled by tractor trailer drivers on the road is needed, an increase in the size, mass, and weight of the trucks is not a solution to this growing problem." Read more

Will Richardson Grove be safer?

The DEIR acknowledges that 85% of traffic traveling through the Grove exceeds the posted speed limit. A wider, straighter road will most likely induce more speeding, and could increase the number of accidents. The most frequent type of accident in this stretch of highway is "hit object".

 

"To the extent that the heavy commercial vehicle operating in a ‘shared’ roadway environment will continue to be
involved in crashes (regardless of who is at fault), and where such crashes occur, the occupant of
the smaller vehicle will always be at greater risk of injury." Dr. Ron Hughes UNC Highway Safety Research Center