Posted on 12/24/2001 9:15:37 AM PST by KQQL
A different sort of commuter -- the long-haul, 18-wheeled type -- has a few things to say about Texas roads.
Namely, thanks. A new survey by about 500 readers of Overdrive magazine, which caters to the professional 18-wheeler driver, rates Texas roads fourth-best in the nation.
The top rating for roads goes to Tennessee, followed by Florida. (Hmm. What else do Texas, Tennessee and Florida have in common, Longhorn, Volunteer and Gator fans?) Ohio ranks third, and Indiana comes in fifth.
The truckers rank a state's roads based on number of potholes, cracks and patches, amount of traffic and construction.
Consequently, the truckers drubbed Arkansas, saying its roads were the worst in the nation, for the fifth straight year. Pennsylvania, which held the worst title for seven straight years before Arkansas took over, comes in second-worst. Missouri, Louisiana and New York round out the bottom.
Texas also ranks among the top in a category the state's marketers probably aren't going to start putting on bumper stickers. The truckers rank Texas as having the second-weakest law enforcement and truck inspections, behind Alabama as the weakest. Oklahoma, West Virginia and South Carolina follow Texas in that category.
California ranks as the toughest inspection and enforcement state, followed by Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Indiana.
Texas also ranked second-weakest in last year's rankings. This despite the 142,264 truck inspections Department of Public Safety troopers did in 2000. Those checks found 672,679 violations, and troopers immediately declared 27,698 trucks and 10,682 drivers unfit for the road. A DPS spokeswoman, saying the agency hadn't seen the survey, declined to comment on the rankings.
Alabama police checked trucks about 33,000 times in 2000. But, even factoring for its huge size advantage over Alabama, California did more checks last year, Overdrive notes, with 450,000 inspections.
Texas also gets raves from truckers on the state's abundance and quality of truck stops. Wouldn't be hard to think this would make all the four-wheelers -- as truckers call the rest of us drivers -- happy, because it gives big trucks more reason to pull off.
Texas rates No. 2 for its rest stops, which is actually a bit of a downer for the state -- it ranked No. 1 in last year's survey. This time, Iowa -- that hotbed of traffic! -- edges out the Lone Star State.
The corn-filled state's stops are apparently more attractive because of Iowa 80, which bills itself as the world's largest truck stop. While truck stops in Central Texas can't brag of a movie theater, Iowa 80 does, with surround sound, no less. The two-story truck stop also has a barber, a community den with a fireplace, a laundry and a giant warehouse filled with items to buy.
"We carry a large selection of items, especially chrome accessories!" the Iowa 80 Web site brags. (Bet they don't have chicken fried steak, though.)
And finally, the truckers traveling through Texas like the abundance of overnight parking they say is available here. The state ranks second-best of the 50 states in that regard.
Makes you wonder whether they counted all the hours being stuck on Interstate 35 as free parking.
Who drives 65 mph, the average speed is right now 73 to 75 mph and is noticeably increasing to 75 to 78 mph(trucks and cars).
Between Beaumont and Lake Charles, the right-hand eastbound lane was so bumpy, it was impassable.
NO ONE was in it; we used it as a passing lane.
That's 60 miles of bad road, and it was still crummy when I got off in Lake Charles.
I-45 between Dallas and Houston was sure nice; only one spot of construction at Corsicana.
By way of making manifest the absolutely idiotic assumption that lowering the speed limit in specified areas, depending upon the population, is going to be observed without followup enforcement is a "hoot".
Texas is good at threatening enforcement at all hours by all troopers available but is in reality hoping for voluntary compliance, this hope is likely predicated upon budget restraints, which is just wishful thinking.
When that doesn't work nothing is changed unless and until there is an appreciable increase in injuries and property damage that can be directly attributed to these killer speeds.
Of course the responsible driver has more control over reducing this carnage than any "special traffic enforcement program".
He is the key to change things for the better, by improving his attitude toward his responsibility for the lives and property of others, or by way of his pocket book.
There really isn't a more effectve way to "ensure domestic tranquility", on or off the highway, than for all to take responsibility for their actions, preferably before the fact.
UTOPIAN, probably, but aren't we all the "captains of our fate"?
Next time you see a trucker, go over and shake his hand, and thank him for being a big part of "what really makes America work...."
Paul Harvey used to call them "Knights of the Road."
You go under that big sign from low-tax, poor West Virginia - and the roads instantly change from smooth to horrid.
North Carolina
On a serious note,
MOST IMPROVED STATE OVER LAST YEAR
1. Pennsylvania
THEY FILLED A POTHOLE !!
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