Fifteen years from now, 28,000 trucks a day, many of them hauling double or triple trailers, may be speeding up and down special truck lanes on Virginia’s Interstate 81, belching tons of carbon monoxide into the Shenandoah Valley each year. Proponents of “toll truckways,” such as the influential libertarian Reason Foundation think tank, believe they are the wave of the future and the answer to the nation’s transportation needs. Today, trucks on the four-lane I-81 account for as much as 40 percent of total traffic, thanks in part to the North American Free Trade Agreement. The road, which has become...
