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'Big battle' * USA - Mounts over bigger big rigs
Mc Lean,Fairfax,VA,USA -USA TODAY, by Larry Copeland - 5 June 2009: -- Debate is heating up over an issue likely to strike terror in the heart of any driver who has spied an 18-wheeler looming in the rearview mirror as he scrambles into the slow lane: whether even bigger big-rigs should be allowed on the nation's highways... Federal law limits the weight and length of 18-wheelers on the USA's 47,000-mile interstate highway system. Supporters say bigger commercial trucks allow drivers to deliver more freight in fewer trips, thus cutting pollution and reducing congestion on crowded highways. Opponents say the larger trucks would cause more wear-and-tear on the USA's dilapidated roads and bridges and create a greater safety hazard to other drivers... Those issues are at the center of a congressional battle over whether federal laws that govern truck weights and lengths should allow heavier, longer trucks, or whether the current limits should stand and be extended to even more roads. Federal law limits the weight of 18-wheelers to 80,000 pounds and the maximum length to 53 feet... 
Increasing the federal maximum weight would be a boon to shippers and to the public, says Clayton Boyce, vice president of public affairs at the American Trucking Associations, which represents trucking companies. "It does take a little more fuel, but when you factor in what it would take to pull that in separate loads, it's more fuel-efficient."... (Photo above, by Bob Bird / AP - Federal law limits the weight and length of 18-wheelers on the 47,000-mile U.S. interstate highway system. / Map below: STATES THAT ALLOW LONG TRAILERS ON THEIR INTERSTATE)Labels: trucks sizes debate
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