Study & report to Congress : applicability of maximum axle weight limitations to over-the-road and public transit buses

Details

• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.) ; United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Transportation
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Buses
  • Vehicle weight
  • Pavement maintenance
  • Benefit cost analysis
  • Laws and legislation
  • Axles
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Transit Administration
• Abstract:
  The Senate Report on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 U.S. Department of Transportation ; (DOT) appropriations bill requested that the Department conduct a study and submit to ; Congress a report on the applicability of Federal maximum weight limitations to overthe- ; road (OTR) buses (also called motorcoaches) and public transit vehicles. ; Since the passage of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982, Federal weight ; limits on the Interstate Highway System have been 20,000 lbs for a single axle and ; 34,000 lbs for a tandem axle (unless the State had higher limits in effect prior to July 1, ; 1956). Since 1992, there has been a permissive arrangement whereby States are not ; required to enforce axle weight limits for intrastate transit buses. A similar arrangement ; for over-the-road buses was enacted in February 2003. Both are due to expire in October ; 2003. ; This study is intended to ; • Assess current status and trends in bus axle weight ; • Estimate the cost of pavement damage caused by buses ; • Assess both the technical and economic feasibility of lighter-weight buses ; • Evaluate within a benefit-cost framework selected policies that could address ; over-limit bus axle weights ; • Given the above assessments, make recommendations to Congress about the ; applicability of axle weight limits to transit and over-the-road buses. ; The benefit-cost evaluation considers operating costs for bus travel, externalities of bus ; travel, and the externalities of induced automobile travel resulting from a change in the ; price of bus travel. Externalities are those identified in the 1997 Federal Highway Cost ; Allocation Study (1), namely, pavement damage, congestion, crash, air pollution and ; noise. The evaluation also assumes that all States are currently allowing overweight ; buses to operate.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9010/dot_9010_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.13 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3fd7c0c48dbaf8afbabaadb00eb7476bf8814e2c5f0c7d1161e16e60075e0c77a34016906990d425684a8c014320146147a3e573ba7f901edb489da188b3c54f