The Nation

HARTFORD, Conn. — Hundreds of people turned out Wednesday for a legislative hearing Wednesday on whether Connecticut should institute electronic highway tolls, highlighting the strong divide that’s developed over an issue being pushed hard by the state’s new Democratic governor. Many proponents wore green stickers touting how an estimated 40 percent of the estimated tolling revenue would come from out-of-state drivers, while unionized operators of construction equipment handed out T-shirts that read “Fund Our Roads.” Some opponents stood outside the hearing room holding handmade signs and encouraging people to sign a petition they say have surpassed 53,000 signatures. “I look at it this way. They’re in a race. We’re in a race,” said tolls opponent Jen Ezzell of Lisbon, who held a sign that read: “Not One Penny More.” She said it’s a “crapshoot” as to which side will win the battle this session. “If we can get them out there, we have a good chance of stopping this,” she said of her fellow opponents. “But if they get ahead of us and they get their votes that they need, then they’re going to win.” John Daddona, apprentice coordinator at the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 478, said people don’t like tolls, but the message is getting across that Connecticut needs a new source of transportation revenue. “The tolls are the fairest way. Nobody wants to pay taxes,” he said. “But at least the people who use them now are paying for what they’re using.” Electronic tolling has become one of the hottest battles of this year’s legislative session. The General Assembly’s Transportation Committee was the first to take up the issue, holding a lengthy hearing Wednesday on two bills, including one proposed by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont that could lead to about 52 gantries on approximately 330 miles of roadway along Interstates 91, 95, 84 and Route 15. Lamont began the morning by releasing a video on social media, arguing that toll revenue is vitally needed to “speed up our transportation system” and to “get this state moving again” economically. He also appeared at a news conference with business leaders who warned how the lack of infrastructure improvements is hurting the state. The state’s main transportation account, which relies heavily on gas tax revenue, is projected to be insolvent by 2024. “Look, it’s tough,” he said. “I hate to say, we’ve got to pay our bills. And we haven’t done that in this state. We’ve been putting everything on the credit card … and that’s what’s gotten us into the situation we’re in today.” Lamont, who campaigned on imposing tolls only on big trucks, offered two options in his budget proposal: tolling trucks or tolling all vehicles. But he has made it clear he prefers more widespread tolls , which are estimated to eventually generate $800 million annually after covering about $213 million in startup costs. Truck-only tolls are predicted to generate about $200 million annually. Tolling has been estimated to begin in 2023. Even if the legislature approves tolling, Connecticut will still need federal approval. Lamont’s tolling plan is currently a “starting point for a discussion,” said Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw. Some lawmakers raised concerns about how the 52 gantries would be located six miles apart, noting there are only 13 tolls over 138 miles of the Massachusetts Turnpike. Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giuletti said there’s a greater distance between exits on the Mass Pike and Lamont’s plan attempts to address drivers who want to bypass tolls by using local roads. But Giuletti acknowledged the distance between gantries could be changed. He also promised to provide lawmakers with an estimated cost for the average Connecticut driver, after accounting for discounts. A DOT study suggested charging 4.4 cents per mile during peak hours for passenger vehicles and 3.5 cents per miles during off-peak hours.      

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A vehicle traveling at 55 mph covers a distance greater than a football field in five seconds. With the average text taking approximately five seconds to read, that’s at least a football field’s worth of driver inattention. Texting while driving is dangerous, and possibly even fatal, especially in a highway work zone. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri say drivers not paying attention — such as answering a phone call, a text message or being distracted by a passenger — for any length of time are 29 times more likely to be involved in a collision or near collision in a highway work zone. The results from this study could provide recommendations on “behavioral countermeasures” to state transportation agencies and the Federal Highway Administration, which are implementing countermeasures to decrease injuries and fatalities in a highway work zone. These recommendations include better public education, laws to ban texting and driving, and policies that deter driver distractions. The results could also be used when developing new technology, such as driverless vehicles. “Prior to our study, researchers analyzed data on work zone safety by looking at one checkbox among 70-80 different fields on a police officer’s crash report to see if the crash occurred inside a work zone,” said Praveen Edara, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the MU College of Engineering. “Unfortunately, crash reports do not include detailed information about driver behavior prior to a crash. What’s unique about our research project is that we used naturalistic driving study data that provides information about how driver, vehicle, roadway and environmental factors contribute to a crash. In other words, we reconstructed a driver’s actions and the surrounding environment prior to the crash from a firsthand account.” The study uses data from the Transportation Research Board’s second Strategic Highway Research Program’s Naturalistic Driving Study. During 2006 – 2015, researchers collected data from more than 3,000 drivers traveling more than 50 million miles. With this information, researchers can now see a detailed firsthand account of a driver’s interaction with the vehicle, roadway and surrounding environment. Of the seven current Federal Highway Administration funded projects using this data, only MU is using the data to specifically look at highway work zones. “Prior to this study, we knew that narrow lanes in work zones are less safe than wider lanes and similarly, speeding in work zones is correlated with injury severity,” Edara said. “With this unique data set, it also allows us to see the responsibility the driver has in increasing work zone safety.” The study, “Risk Factors in Work Zone Safety Events: A Naturalistic Driving Study Analysis,” was published in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.      

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — An Iowa-based transportation company has settled a disability discrimination lawsuit filed over what federal authorities was the company’s refusal to accommodate a Navy veteran who used a service dog. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a news release Wednesday that CRST Expedited/CRST International will pay $47,500 and provide other relief. The lawsuit said CRST violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to hire and retaliating against a truck driver applicant who told a recruiter that the dog helped him with his post-traumatic stress disorder. A company lawyer declined to comment. The commission says the applicant successfully completed the required commercial drivers’ licensing course with CRST’s partner training company but wasn’t hired because of CRST’s “no pet” policy. CRST is based in Cedar Rapids.

WASHINGTON — American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear told the House Ways and Means Committee that the nation’s infrastructure needs demand real funding solutions from the federal government, not reliance on gimmickry. Spear was among several witnesses who testified at the committee’s hearing on “Our Nation’s Crumbling Infrastructure and The Need for Immediate Action.” Others testifying included Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; Rep. Sam Graves, ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO; Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Gregory E. DiLorteo, former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers and chair of the ASCE’s Committee for America’s Infrastructure; and Marc Scribner, senior fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute. “The title of this hearing is entirely appropriate,” Spear said in prefacing his testimony. “Our infrastructure is not being adequately maintained. It’s inefficient, it’s dangerous and Congress is literally months away from losing its best window of opportunity to fix these problems before surface transportation funding reaches a crisis point as the Highway Trust Fund begins to rapidly deplete beginning in FY2021.We hope you will act with the urgency and expediency that this moment requires.” Spear said America is no longer facing a future highway maintenance crisis. “We’re living it – and every day we fail to invest, we’re putting more lives at risk. In nearly 53 percent of the highway fatalities, the condition of the roadway contributed,” he said. “Time wasted sitting in traffic – rather than at work or with our families – has skyrocketed. Motorists now pay an average of $1,600 due to repairs and congestion each year. Trucking now loses $74.5 billion sitting in gridlock. These are regressive realities and the escalating costs of doing nothing – and they are reflected in the prices we all pay. These costs are measurable and should serve as offsets for new spending on our nation’s infrastructure.” ATA has proposed a 20-cent-per-gallon fee on motor fuels — collected at the wholesale rack — as a way of raising real funding for investment in infrastructure. This fee, called the Build America Fund, would be phased in over four years at a nickel per year and generate $340 billion over the next decade for road and bridge repair and replacement. “Federal inaction has prompted cash-strapped states to adopt regressive revenue schemes that hurt commuters, communities and divert funds to non-infrastructure priorities,” Spear said in his testimony, citing variable tolls on Interstate 66 in Virginia. “This is the essence of regressive and our future if you choose to devolve your Constitutional authority to the states,” he said. “In contrast, if motorists paid the average toll – the cost of a 10-mile trip over an eight-day period on I-66 would equal their cost for an entire year under ATA’s Build America Fund for all roads and bridges in the United States.” “The Build America Fund is the most conservative proposal – costing less than a cent on the dollar to administer versus up to 35 cents on the dollar for tolling schemes,” Spear said. Spear pointed out the importance of trucking to the American economy. “Trucking is the fulcrum point in the United States’ supply chain. This year, our industry will move 70 percent of the nation’s freight tonnage, and over the next decade will be tasked with moving 3 billion more tons of freight than it does today while continuing to deliver the vast majority of goods,” he said. “Trucks haul 98 percent of the freight originating in Massachusetts and two-thirds of the freight delivered from Texas. In 2017, the goods moved by trucks were worth more than $10 trillion. The trucking industry is also a significant source of employment, with 7.7 million people working in various occupations, accounting for every one in 18 jobs in the U.S. Furthermore, ‘truck driver’ is the top job in 29 states.                        

By Jim Tymon Executive Director American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials WASHINGTON — It wasn’t too long ago that drones, flying cars and self-driving vehicles were topics more in synch with science fiction plotlines, not transportation reality. But that’s changing rapidly. Take drones as but one example. Right now, there are 10 active drone pilot programs under the guidance of the U.S. Department of Transportation; a three-year test effort the agency that is expected to help USDOT better regulate and integrate drones safely into the nation’s airspace. Three of the 10 awards are directly to state departments of transportation: the North Carolina Department of Transportation; the North Dakota Department of Transportation; and the Kansas Department of Transportation. The Tennessee Department of Transportation and the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities are partners to two other awardees, Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, respectively. What these state departments of transportation know is that shrinking resources and growing demands on the transportation system require new ways of addressing challenges to reduce costs, improve efficiency and increase safety. A study conducted by NCDOT found three drones could conduct highway crash reconstruction efforts in just 25 minutes versus the two hours required by a ground-based crew or workers, saving $9,300 in the process. State DOTs are using drones to inspect bridges, roads, and other infrastructure as a way to reduce the risk posed to human life by such work. The Minnesota Department of Transportation conducted an in-depth study of drone-use for bridge inspections three years ago and found not only did drones help reduce the dangers posed to personnel working at high off the ground and in traffic control situations, they saved money as well by eliminating the need to close off lanes and deploy aerial lifts to conduct inspections. The Texas Department of Transportation sent drones into areas hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 ahead of their storm recovery crews – giving them, in the words of James Bass, TxDOT’s executive director, the “advantage to see what might be ahead of them a mile or two down the road.” Those are but just some of the examples of how state DOTs are helping take the lead in integrating new technologies into the nation’s transportation system to make it safer, more efficient, and more flexible in the decades to come.    

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Playtime has come to Huntington Beach, California, as Yokohama Tire teamed with local partners and volunteers to build a new KaBOOM! playground at Oak View Park last month. More than 2,500 local kids will benefit as approximately 250 volunteers from Yokohama, the City of Huntington Beach, Children’s Bureau and KaBOOM!, worked together to build the brand-new, eco-friendly playground in one day. “A dream became a reality for thousands of happy kids,” said Alan Holtschneider, director of marketing at Yokohama. “For years to come, the new playground will be a fun, safe play area for children and their parents.” “It’s great to see the community come together for this extraordinary project that will benefit thousands of children of Huntington Beach,” said Erik Peterson, mayor of Huntington Beach. “Many thanks to Yokohama Tire, Children’s Bureau and KaBOOM! for building this spectacular playground. The kids will love it.” “The collective energy that went into making this playground possible is what makes it so special,” said Ron Brown, president & CEO of Children’s Bureau. “It is a true testament of what a united community can accomplish. Because of everyone’s tremendous efforts, the young Huntington Beach community now has a place to call their own. Highlights of the playground build included the installation of new, brightly colored, environmentally safe “Cradle-to-Cradle”-certified playground equipment. Yokohama and KaBOOM! met with local parents and their children in January for “Design Day,” to help create the playground’s look and to pick out color schemes and equipment. “It was fun to see what the kids came up with,’” Holtschneider said. “Several of their ideas and equipment choices made it into the final design.” This was the fourth playground collaboration with Yokohama and KaBOOM! – the national non-profit dedicated to ensuring that all kids get a childhood filled with the balanced and active play needed to thrive. The first three were built in San Juan Capistrano, California; Rockland, Massachusetts; and West Point, Mississippi. “Thanks to Yokohama Tire Corporation, the City of Huntington Beach and Children’s Bureau, several hundreds of kids now have a great, safe place to play,” said Lysa Ratliff, vice president, partnership development of KaBOOM!. “We’re so glad that KaBOOM! was once again able to help provide a play space where these kids can just be kids.”

WASHINGTON — A vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fee, wider use of tolling and a hike in the federal fuel tax were some of the many transportation funding options four key Congressional leaders discussed at the annual American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials 2019 Washington Briefing on Wednesday at the Washington Court Hotel. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., and the ranking member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said that there is “a lot of support” to get an infrastructure bill done this year, according to an article in the Journal, AASHTO’s official publication. “Everybody wants to get something done – the House, the Senate, the president, Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “The hard part will be figuring out how to pay for it — will this just be a straight [Fixing American’s Surface Transportation] reauthorization bill or a much broader infrastructure bill? Hopefully it will fall somewhere in between.” Graves said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House T&I Committee, has set “an aggressive schedule” to get transportation infrastructure funding bill done this year, with a deadline on May to get a bill delivered out of the committee. “In terms of how we pay for it, everything is on the table: from tolling, which I am not a fan of, to changing over to a VMT which I am,” he said. “In my opinion, we’ll need to spend a lot of political capital to get it done – and raising the gas tax will be tough. We’ve never indexed the gas tax [to inflation] and that’s one of the biggest problems we have [because] the reality of politics makes raising taxes very hard.” But Graves emphasized that “the fact of the matter is we have to do something eventually” in terms of replacing the federal fuel tax with another “revenue generation tool” particularly as more movement to more efficient internal combustion engines that use less fuel alongside the movement away from fossil fuels altogether as more electric, natural gas, and propane vehicles are deployed. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee echoed Rep. Graves’ point about the impact of declining fuel tax revenue on the nation’s transportation infrastructure, noting that the Highway Trust Fund is projected to become insolvent in 2021. But Barrasso also highlighted the importance of two other issues related to solving transportation funding needs in the future. “We need to maintain reliable formula funding; it’s what protects long-term planning so we can build [transportation infrastructure] better, faster, cheaper, and smarter,” he said. “That money needs to be used as efficiently and effectively as possible and part of the way we can do it is by cutting red tape,” Barrasso said. “As states, cities, and and towns wait to get approvals from Washington, precious time is wasted. It should not take years to get permits for projects. We need to speed up project delivery. And this it is not a Democrat or Republican issue – it is an American issue.” DeFazio also stressed the “bipartisan nature” of transportation funding and said restoring earmarks would be one way to build on that sentiment in Congress. “Funding infrastructure is by its nature a jobs program, plus a huge boost for our economy and international competitiveness – so I can’t understand why we can’t get it done. It’s a win for all Americans,” he explained. “The American people get it – the gas tax is a user fee. And they are willing to pay a user fee [because] they are tired of congestion, tired of blowing out wheels in pot holes, and transit systems that don’t work.” To that end, DeFazio said he believes bringing back earmarks would help legislatures connect such taxes more directly with transportation improvements. “Why does an unelected bureaucrat get to decide who gets [transportation] grant money? Why not allow elected representatives to bring some of that back to their districts to show their constituents what they are getting for their gas taxes. I think this is key to getting this done – and I aim to bring back earmarks,” he said. In terms of future sources of transportation funding, Rep. DeFazio said he supports exploring the use of a VMT fee. However, he said that a flat VMT is not fair to everyone using the roadways. “Is it fair to pay the same per-mile on a congested highway versus a farmer on a rural road? That means we have to go to congestion pricing in some form,” he said. DeFazio said that when his committee draws up an infrastructure bill it will have a national VMT pilot program included within it. “This is something Sam (Rep. Graves) and I agree on. It will be easier to do that for commercial vehicles, maybe move to a weight/mile tax. I think there is some promise there.” Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., the ranking member on the Senate’s EPW Committee, agreed with DeFazio’s points regarding both the establishment of a national VMT pilot program and the re-establishment of earmarks for transportation funds. “What I envision is combining road user charge with [the all-electronic] EZ pass to help fund transportation around the country,” he said. “And earmarks are important for it is hard to convince a legislator to raise user fees without a way of showing benefits to their state.” Carper added that one of his “favorite songs” is “Hope in a Hopeless World” and he feels that might serve as a guiding mantra where transportation funding is concerned. “We’ve begun work on surface transportation reauthorization bill and we need hope,” he said. “We spent $13 billion last year above what the [highway] transportation fund provided; that is not sustainable,” Sen. Carper pointed out. “Yet we still aren’t spending enough; we need $800 billion worth of infrastructure investments by some estimates to get us where we need to be. As a result, we don’t have a national transportation system that functions as it ought to.”

Fiddling can be good. Fiddling refers to the act of playing the fiddle, and fiddlers are musicians who play it. Fiddling is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres including classical music. Violins are more closely associated with orchestral music; a “fiddle” is more closely associated with folk music. Fiddling can be associated with something positive, such as enjoyment of music. On the other hand, fiddling around with a cell phone often results in a negative outcome. Based on the number of Virginia drivers who were observed as part of a 2018 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) roadside survey, drivers last year were 57 percent more likely to be manipulating a cellphone than drivers who were observed in a similar 2014 survey. The percentage of drivers observed using a smartphone rose from 2.3 percent in 2014 to 3.4 percent in 2018, the IIHS said. At the same time, drivers were less likely to be seen simply holding a cellphone or talking on a hand-held phone than in the prior survey. The finding is consistent with research indicating that drivers are talking on hand-held phones less and “fiddling” with them more often than in recent years. In 2018, 3.7 percent of drivers in northern Virginia were observed talking on a hand-held cellphone, compared with 4.1 percent of drivers in 2014, while 2.8 percent of drivers in 2018 were seen holding a cellphone, compared with 4.9 percent in the prior survey. The problem of distracted driving, especially cellphone use, continues to raise concerns, the IIHS said. A 2018 national survey by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 64 percent of respondents consider distracted driving a much bigger problem today than it was three years ago. About 37,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2017, the most recent year of data available. Assuming the prevalence of phone manipulation nationwide rose as it did in northern Virginia to 3.4 percent, and assuming, based on the latest research, that fatal crash risk is 66 percent higher when manipulating a phone, then more than 800 of the estimated crash deaths in 2017 could be attributed to phone manipulation. This estimate is based on work by IIHS and other researchers describing how the estimated risk and prevalence of phone use can be combined to estimate the number of crash deaths that could be attributed to phone use in a given year. The 66 percent increase in fatal crash risk associated with manipulating a cellphone relative to driving when other secondary behaviors were present is a finding of a 2018 study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. “The latest data suggest that drivers are using their phones in riskier ways,” said David Kidd, who co-authored the study and is a senior research scientist with Highway Loss Data Institute. “The observed shift in phone use is concerning because studies consistently link manipulating a cellphone while driving to increased crash risk.” Cellphone use affects how drivers scan and process information from the roadway, the IIHS study said. Drivers generally take their eyes off the road to dial, send texts and browse the Web on a hand-held phone — all activities that fall under the rubric of manipulating the phone. Drivers engaged in cellphone conversations tend to concentrate their gaze toward the center of the roadway, but their attention still may be diverted from driving, making it difficult for them to process what they are looking at. Procedures for the 2018 update followed those used in 2014. IIHS stationed observers at 12 locations across four northern Virginia communities on straight stretches of roads, at signalized intersections and at roundabouts in March 2018. Observers noted nearly 12,000 drivers in the 2018 survey and more than 14,000 drivers in 2014 during the morning, afternoon or early evening on weekdays. Researchers noted if drivers were engaging in one or more of 12 visible secondary behaviors while moving or stopped at red lights. About 23 percent of drivers were engaged in one or more distracting activities: Talking on a hand-held cellphone Manipulating hand-held cellphone (excludes looking at phone in mount) Simply holding a hand-held cellphone (i.e. not obviously manipulating or talking) Wearing a Bluetooth earpiece or headset with mic Wearing headphones or ear buds Manipulating in-vehicle systems (touching radio, climate control, touchscreen display or other controls (excludes operating stalks or buttons on the steering wheel) Manipulating or holding a mobile electronic device other than cellphone Talking or singing Eating or drinking Smoking Grooming Other (reaching for object, reading print material, adjusting sun visor, putting on glasses, holding another object). Bottom line: Fiddle only to make music

  MAPLESVILLE, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday proposed a 10-cent-a-gallon gas tax increase to fund road and bridge construction in a state where she says the infrastructure is crumbling. The proposed 10-cent increase would be phased in over three years and then the state fuel tax would be indexed to keep up with construction costs. The Republican governor said the state gas tax, which was last increased 27 years ago, has not adequately kept up with the state’s construction and maintenance needs. As a result, she said the state has dangerous and bumpy roadways, obsolete bridges and clogged traffic arteries that hinder the flow of motorists and commerce. “We must provide safe roads and bridges for our people and be sure that the wheels of commerce can continue to turn …. It’s time to make our crumbling infrastructure a problem of our past,” Ivey said in front of a 55-year-old bridge in the central Alabama town of Maplesville. The proposed gas tax increase is expected to be the dominant issue of the 2019 legislative session that begins Tuesday. As the Republican governor announced the details of the proposal, she made a plea for broad support, saying it is an issue that crosses party lines. “The fact of the matter is Alabama must, absolutely must, address this problem and to be successful we’ve got to tackle it together. We all need to be all in on this, because this is for the good of the people and their safety.” Ivey said. To take effect, though, the proposed tax increase must be approved by the Republican-dominated Alabama Legislature, which just last week saw the Alabama Republican Party committee approve a resolution opposing any gas tax increase unless there is an offsetting tax decrease somewhere else. Ivey on Wednesday shrugged off her party’s opposition, noting that the resolution was passed before she had announced specifics of the proposal. “It’s hard to have confidence when folks haven’t even seen the bill or had discussions to make a decision like that. I’m dealing with informed people and we’ll just press on,” Ivey said. The proposed tax increase, by law, must start in the House of Representatives. Republican House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said House leadership is supporting the measure. “From the House of Representatives, thank you for not doing the easy thing, but doing the right thing And we support you governor,” McCutcheon said. Asked about the outlook in the House of Representatives, McCutcheon said legislators “are now assessing the bill,” but said that the response has been positive. The proposed 10-cent tax increase would be phased in over three years with a six-cent increase the first year and another two cents in each of the following two years, Ivey said. She said indexing the tax to construction costs would allow it to keep pace with inflation and would have a cap of an increase of no more than one cent every two years. Some of the money would be steered to the state port in Mobile, which Ivey said is crucial to the state’s economic development. McCutcheon said he hopes to have the bill on the House floor within the first weeks of the session. Ivey has the option of calling a special session to focus attention on the measure. That would also do away with procedural hurdles that occur in a regular session. Ivey said Wednesday that all options are on the table.    

GARY, Ind. — The 82-year-old driver of a church-owned bus was charged with driving under the influence after the bus he was driving carrying a youth sports team home from a Chicago Bulls game veered off the Indiana Toll Road and crashed. Chicago television station CBS 2 reported that Wilton Carr was arrested and taken to the Lake County Jail on four counts of operating the bus while intoxicated. A group of more than 40 kids with the Gary, Indiana-based Above The Rim Youth Sports Foundation attended the Bulls game at the United Center and even got a chance to be on the court at halftime. Above The Rim rented the bus from Jesus Saves Missionary Baptist Church, and the bus and driver came together. Indiana State Police said while they were headed home, going east on the Indiana Toll Road, one of the chaperones on their bus noticed something was wrong with the driver. One of the coaches on the bus said he woke up just before the crash and saw the bus veering off the road. A coach on the bus told CBS 2 that was happened was two minutes of chaos. “I got up, and I kind of grabbed the bus driver. And I told him, I was screaming in his face, ‘Stop! Stop! Stop!’” Jason Rhodes said in a phone interview with CBS 2. The bus, owned by the church, went off the pavement and onto a gravel embankment between two guard rails on the center median just before the Cline Avenue exit. The front tires ended up completely off the ground. Everyone on the bus was tossed from their seats. Akeesha Daniels was waiting to pick up her 15-year-old son at the Village Shopping Center in Gary when she got a call about the crash. “My son was actually FaceTiming me outside the bus, and I said, ‘Xavier, where are you?’ He was like, ‘Oh, the bus was in a crash,’ and I’m looking like, ‘A crash where?’” Daniels said. “I was like, oh my God, if this bus would have went, if he would have been going a little faster, the bus would have ended up in the water.” One adult and several children were taken to hospitals after the crash to be treated for leg injuries and for head and neck pain. The church’s website includes mention of its bus ministry. “After moving into our new church home, with the blessings of the Lord and the foresight of our Pastor, we were able to burn the mortgage in two years,” the site reads. “The Lord also gave our Pastor the vision to start a bus ministry. The bus ministry continues to provide service to our community for short- and long- distance trips.” Parents said they are thankful no one was seriously injured. “That’s all I kept saying to myself when it said on the side of that bus ‘Jesus Saves.’ Oh, Jesus saved everybody,” Dianna Darden said. The church has not responded to phone calls and emails asking for a comment on the crash.

All good things must end, and things have been very good in the trucking industry for a protracted period. Knowing that the economic upswing in this country has already set longevity records, many in the industry have been watching for signs that the party may be ending sometime in 2019. 2019 might be toned down compared to 2018, but that doesn’t mean the good times are over quite yet, said Avery Vise, vice president trucking research for FTR Intelligence during the most recent monthly FTR State of freight Webinar. “Despite all the hand-wringing we hear from many quarters, things are still actually pretty good, especially considering how mature the cycle is,” Vise said. Looking at the various indicators used to assess the health of the economy overall, most are pointing up, he said. The job market and consumer spending are still strong, and energy prices have been “remarkably stable.” Manufacturing is still solidly in growth territory, Vise added. Inventories have been stagnant, but e-commerce could be playing a role in that. If there is a weak area, it would have to be housing, Vise said. But inventories of existing homes are low, he added, and as wages and employment levels remain high, conditions are favorable for housing to improve. So, with the overall U.S. economy apparently holding its own, Vise turned the attention more directly at trucking. December was an interesting month, Vise said. “It appeared not long ago that container imports at the nation’s ports were high, but those goods were being warehoused in anticipation of higher tariffs on Chinese goods,” Vise said. “A lot of it was being held locally rather than being transported inland.” Looking at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Vise said, December data shows a continued surge in imports, but there has been a sharp uptick in inbound intermodal, suggesting Southern California warehouses are filled to the brim. “The upshot is that while imports might be softer in LA/Long-Beach in Q1,” Vise said, “trucking-intermodal moves still might be pretty good because of the backlog in the pull forward.” Further ahead, he added, the industry will have to wait and see what effect he tariffs will have on imports. December also provided a pleasant surprise, Vise said. The Trucking Conditions Index has been consistently high, he said, but with low fuel prices and strong loadings, the Shippers Conditions Index was pushed into positive territory for the first time in two years. “We’ve been used to a consistently high TCI and a consistently negative SCI, and we had a December in which everybody was happy,” Vise said. “Rates have been the story. The big story of 2018 and even late 2017 was the imbalance in the spot market. “The spot market is still tighter than the five-year average, but it is far looser than it was last year. Spot rates are very close to the five-year average.” He said he expects to see “a good, strong year” in 2019, “but just not a crazy one like we’ve seen in the past 18 months or so.” On the capacity side of the equation, everybody knows truck orders were remarkably strong in 2018, Vise said. In fact, two quarters set records. Of course, that has made the recent plunge in orders since the start of the year more dramatic. It’s really nothing to worry about, Vise said. There were so many orders in 2018 that the wait time for orders to be filled is well into the second half of 2019 or longer, which is “a bit of a disincentive,” he said. Even so, orders haven’t so much crashed as have gotten closer to historically normal levels, he said. With all the new trucks that are hitting the streets, that should mean increased capacity. But “trucks don’t drive themselves, of course, at least not yet,” Vise said. Trucking has been on a hiring spree for almost two years, Vise said. The number of drivers employed by for-hire carriers increased by 4.8 percent in 2018, slightly higher than the 4.2 percent increase in the general U.S workforce. “As we continue to see strong job creation and continued low unemployment, maintaining even the current growth rate might be challenging,” Vise said. “The degree to which carriers can get drivers or even choose to get drivers in 2019 is probably the biggest question mark as to how the year will play out in terms of rates.” Truck utilization, Vise said — the rate at which seated trucks are being used to haul freight — has been at 100 percent since the third quarter of 2017. But with current conditions in mind, and an anticipated flattening of growth in freight, “we do expect mild but steady softening throughout 2019,” Vise said. “Overall, our forecast is that rates are going to be very close to flat. Spot rates will likely be down sharply, perhaps as much as 7 percent.” Contract rates, he added are expected to rise 1 or 2 percent. There are other issues on the horizon, but Vise believes they should have little bearing on 2019 but need to be considered further ahead. The second phase of the ELD mandate is set to take effect December 16, Vise said. “It’s not going to be a huge deal but it’s something to keep on the screen as a potential for disruption. Hours of Service reform has the potential of being a bigger issue, although it “won’t affect this year – and maybe not next year, either,” he said. The drug and alcohol testing clearinghouse, coming in early 2020, has some people concerned about what it will do to the driver pool. “We did an analysis a few months ago,” Vise said. Using estimates from FMCSA, they estimate 14,000 more drivers will needed to make up for the ones that will be lost to this system, and another 7,000 each in 2021 and 2022. “I think a lot of people had it in their minds that this would be a much more significant,” Vise said. If the DRIVE-Safe Act were enacted, which would create a process to allow 18-year-olds to drive interstate, it could more than offset the clearinghouse, it’s estimated it could yield 48,000 tractor-trailer drivers and another 24,000 light-duty drivers in the first year alone. But that’s a big “if,” Vise added. The DRIVE-Safe Act was introduced to Congress in 2018 but died in committee. It was recently reintroduced in both houses of Congress.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Tuesday released a final rule revising federal regulations permitting individuals with a stable insulin regimen and properly controlled insulin-treated diabetes mellitus (ITDM) to be qualified to operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce. Previously, individuals with ITDM were prohibited from driving CMVs in interstate commerce unless they obtained an exemption from FMCSA. The action removes major administrative and financial burdens for this population of CMV operators while maintaining a high level of safety. The rule enables a certified medical examiner to grant an individual with ITDM a Medical Examiner’s Certificate, MCSA-5876, for up to 12 months. To do so, the treating clinician — the healthcare professional who manages, and prescribes insulin for, the treatment of the individual’s diabetes — provides the ITDM Assessment Form, MCSA-5870, to the certified ME indicating that the individual maintains a stable insulin regimen and proper control of his or her diabetes. The certified ME is then responsible for determining if the individual meets FMCSA’s physical qualification standards and can operate CMVs in interstate commerce. “This final action delivers economic savings to affected drivers and our agency, and streamlines processes by eliminating unnecessary regulatory burdens and redundancy,” said FMCSA Administrator Raymond P. Martinez.  “It’s a win-win for all parties involved.” The final rule will eliminate the exemption program that currently requires individuals with ITDM to incur recurring costs to renew and maintain their exemptions. The FMCSA estimates this will save the nearly 5,000 individuals with ITDM that currently have exemptions more than $5 million per year more than what they would endure under the exemption program. The final rule will also save new ITDM exemption applicants and their associated motor carriers approximately $215,000 annually in opportunity and compliance costs related with the exemption program’s waiting period. As an agency, FMCSA will save more than $1 million per year over the next three years in costs associated with administering the diabetes exemption program.      

WASHINGTON — Sens. Todd Young and Jon Tester in a bipartisan move on Tuesday reintroduced the Developing Responsible Individuals for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE-Safe) Act, which the senators said would address the driver shortage in the trucking and logistics industry and enhance safety training and job opportunities for young truckers. Reps. Trey Hollingsworth and Henry Cuellar introduced a companion bill in the House. Though many states allow individuals to obtain a commercial driver’s license at the age 18, federal law currently prohibits those operators from moving goods from state to state until they are 21. The DRIVE-Safe Act establishes an apprenticeship program that would allow for the legal operation of a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce by CDL holders under the age of 21. The apprenticeship training program would help ensure these drivers are trained beyond current standards while instituting rigorous safety standards and performance benchmarks, according to the text of the bills. Young is a Republican from Indiana, Tester a Democrat from Montana. Hollingsworth is a Republican from Indiana, Cuellar is a Democrat from Texas. The DRIVE-Safe Act was first introduced in August 2018, during the just-completed Congressional session. It was read twice and referred to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, but no further action was taken. Introduction of the legislation drew immediate praise from Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, who said the legislation is important to the American economy. “The strong bipartisan, bicameral support behind this legislation demonstrates how real a threat the driver shortage presents to our nation’s economic security over the long term – and how serious our lawmakers are about addressing it with commonsense solutions,” Spear said. “Given the broad coalition of interests backing this measure, there is growing understanding across the country that the impact of this issue reaches far beyond just trucking and commercial vehicles. It is a strain on the entire supply chain, from the manufacturers and producers on down to retail and the end consumer, who will see higher prices at the store.” Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association spokesperson Norita Taylor questioned the need for the legislation. “There is not a shortage of truck drivers, but very high turnover, and the solution is to improve compensation and benefits,” she said Thursday morning. Later in the day Thursday, OOIDA President and CEO Todd Spencer sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to reject efforts to change the age requirements. Additionally, the OOIDA Foundation recently published two new documents it says debunks the driver shortage “myth.” The Truckload Carriers Association said it supports all efforts to gather information and actionable evidence on the safety implications of incorporating 18-20-year old driver into the interstate truck driving labor force. “Data-driven decision making should be the bedrock of any sound policy,” said David Heller, TCA’s vice president of government affairs. ATA is a member of the DRIVE Safe Act Coalition, co-led by ATA and the International Foodservice Distributors of America, and includes the National Association of Manufacturers, National Restaurant Association, National Retail Federation, Retail Industry Leaders of America and more than 40 other national trade associations and companies. While 48 states permit individuals to obtain a commercial driver’s license and drive trucks at age 18, federal regulations prevent those drivers from crossing state lines until they turn 21. “This restriction bars a vital population of job seekers from interstate trucking, exacerbating the driver shortage, as qualified candidates are lost to other industries,” Spear said. “The DRIVE Safe Act would allow certified CDL holders already permitted to drive intrastate the opportunity to participate in a rigorous apprenticeship program designed to help them master interstate driving, while also promoting enhanced safety training for emerging members of the workforce.” The ATA said the DRIVE Safe Act would help train younger drivers far and above current standards. Under the legislation, once a driver has met the requirements to obtain a CDL, they would begin a two-step program of additional training that includes a number of performance benchmarks each candidate must demonstrate competency in. In addition, they would be required to complete at least 400 hours of on-duty time and 240 hours of driving time with an experienced driver in the cab with them. All trucks used for training in the program must be equipped with NTSB-endorsed safety technology including active braking collision mitigation systems, forward-facing video event capture and a speed governor set at 65 miles per hour. Significantly, the ATA said, all of these post-CDL training, safety, and technology standards under the DRIVE Safe Act would be required on top of all the pre-CDL training benchmarks that new drivers will be required to satisfy when the Entry Level Driver Training Rule goes in to effect in February 2020, which includes 59 different topics of knowledge and behind-the-wheel training for Class A CDL applicants. In his letter to Congress, Spencer said younger drivers, especially teens, generally lack the maturity and experience to operate a commercial motor vehicle the safest levels. “Research consistently concludes that CMV drivers under the age of 21 are more likely to be involved in crashes,” Spencer wrote. “In some states, teenagers entering the apprentice program created by the legislation would have only recently received a full driver’s license to operate an automobile, let alone a CMV. While these clear safety implications alone should dissuade elected officials from lowering minimum age requirements, professional drivers understand there are long-standing problems within the trucking industry that such a change would only worsen.” Rather than developing legislation to allow more teenagers behind the wheel of 80,000 pound trucks, Congress should be taking steps to reverse the incessantly high driver turnover rate, which remains above 90 percent among large truckload carriers, Spencer said. “Though allowing CDL holders under the age of 21 to engage in interstate commerceis unlikely to reduce driver turnover or improve safety, we appreciate the DRIVE-SafeAct’s approach to robust new entrant training. Aspects of the minimum standards included in the legislation, especially 240 hours of mandatory behind-the-wheel experience, are a good starting point for enhancing federal training requirements for current entry-level drivers, regardless of age,” he said. Click here to read a DRIVE Safe myth vs. fact document published by ATA. Click here to read the text of the bill.  

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is expected to announce a gas tax proposal this week as infrastructure improvement takes center stage in this year’s legislative session. Ivey’s press office said she will have a Wednesday news conference to announce an infrastructure plan. A proposed gas tax increase to fund road and bridge construction is expected to be among the top issues in the legislative session that begins Tuesday. The governor is expected to disclose details of the infrastructure proposal that she first teased in her inaugural address. In her inaugural address last month, Ivey said Alabama must improve infrastructure to compete in a 21st century global economy. Wednesday’s news conference will be held in Maplesville.

GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. —  The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has cosigned a letter along with a coalition of organizations opposed to increasing size and weight restrictions for commercial motor vehicles. The letter was sent to all members Congress, asking them to oppose legislative language that would increase maximum truck size or weight limits on federal highways. The correspondence came within a week after the Americans for Modern Transportation Coalition asked the chairman and ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to consider twin 33-foot trailers as a way policymakers can leverage technologies and efficiencies developed by the private sector to create “the infrastructure system of the future.” In commenting on the letter signed by OOIDA and the other organizations, OOIDA President Todd Spencer said heavier trucks put additional stress on an already deteriorating highways and bridges as well as endanger highway users. “We think proposals to increase sizes and weights should be rejected, as has been done over and over by both lawmakers and policymakers in the past,” Spencer said. The letter, which was signed by 14 organizations, points out that increasing size and weight limits on federal highways would have negative consequences for state and local roads that are less capable of handling longer and heavier trucks. OOIDA agrees that letting that happen would put even more pressure on state and local governments to find funds to maintain and repair those routes. “And, it’s likely trucks would be disproportionately targeted to generate the additional revenue,” Spencer said. The letter pointed out that proposals in recent years to increase national truck size and weight limits have been resoundingly rejected on bipartisan floor votes and that the U.S. Department of Transportation had delivered in 2016 its Final Report to Congress on truck size and weight limits and recommended that no changes be made in federal truck size and weight laws. The report found that heavier and longer trucks would incur billions of dollars in infrastructure costs. Additionally, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ most recent Infrastructure Report Card issued the nation’s roads a grade of “D,” finding that one of every five miles of highway pavement is in poor condition, and that there is a significant and increasing backlog of rehabilitation needs. “Increases in truck size and weight would have especially severe consequences for local roads and bridges because bigger trucks are not limited to the interstates,” the letter said. “These heavier and longer trucks need to run on state and local roads to pick up and drop off their freight, as well as for ‘reasonable access’ for fuel, food and other necessities, the letter said. “Local roads and bridges face significant damage because they may be older, built to lower standards, or already in poor condition. This adds further pressure on state, county and local governments to find funds to repair these essential roadways, when there are not sufficient revenues procured today to cover the infrastructure maintenance costs.” OOIDA has long opposed efforts to increase size and weight limits for commercial trucks and suggests that proponents consider alternatives that do not hasten deterioration of roads and bridges or jeopardize highway safety. In addition to OOIDA, organizations signing the letter include the American Public Works Association, the National Association of County Engineers, the National Association of Towns and Townships, the National League of Cities, The United States Conference of Mayors, Road Safe America, the Association of American Railroads, the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, GoRail, the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association, the Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association, the Railway Supply Institute and the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks.              

The average price for a gallon of diesel nationwide climbed from $3.006 to $3.048, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). With the weekly increase of 4.2 cents, diesel is 4.1 cents more than it was a year ago and the highest it has been since Dec. 31, 2018, when it was also $3.048. Diesel prices rose in every EIA region in the country, with the Midwest seeing the largest spike, 6.5 cents, from $2.904 to $2.969, to remain of four regions where the diesel is still below $3 per gallon. The Gulf Coast saw a 4-cent jump, but the region continues to have the lowest diesel prices in the nation, at $2.849. Prices rose the least on the East Coast, particularly in New England, where the price rose a mere $0.006, from $3.165 to $3.171. In the Lower Atlantic, the price increase was $0.022, to finish at $2.949. With the Central Atlantic region logging a 3-cent jump, the East Coast overall saw a net gain of $0.021, to $3.094 per gallon. The Rocky Mountain region also had one of the smaller increases, $0.026, from $2.887 to $2.913. Three weeks ago, every region in the nation had lower diesel prices than a year earlier. With the recent upsurge, The Rocky Mountain region is the only region where the year-to-year price is still lower. On the West Coast, the price jump was $0.035 overall, with a jump of $0.033 in California, and $0.037 on the rest of the coast. On Monday, Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, fell $2.36, or 3.50 percent, to $64.76 a barrel. U.S. crude ended Monday’s session down $1.78, or 3.1 percent, at $55.48. Click here for a complete list of average prices by region for the past three weeks.