OHIO TURNPIKE Truck drivers request lower tolls

A new speed limit hasn't dramatically increased truck traffic.
TOLEDO (AP) -- Although the speed limit for semitrailers on the Ohio Turnpike is now 65 mph, many drivers still say lower tolls are needed to get them off smaller highways.
Gov. Bob Taft had proposed higher speed limits and lower tolls for trucks in an attempt to move the big rigs off overloaded two-lane roads and reduce accidents.
"I like the new speed limit. I don't like the tolls," said trucker Allen Benninger, who paid the $25 toll on the turnpike because he had to quickly deliver a load from Indiana to Cleveland. But he chose smaller federal highways for a Friday trip home to Akron from Toledo.
Ohio State Highway Patrol officials said there has not been a dramatic increase in truck traffic since the new speed limit went into effect Wednesday.
"We anticipate it being a slow process," said Lt. Monte Morgan, the patrol's assistant district commander for the turnpike. "Word is still getting out about the speed limit change on the Ohio Turnpike -- there are a lot of drivers who don't know about it yet."
Robert Clay of Conyers, Ga., was one of them.
"They're raising the speed limit? That'd be good," he said during a fuel stop at the Pilot Travel Center in Lake Township.
Trucking surge
Tolls on the turnpike increased 82 percent between 1995 and 1999. During that time, trucking boomed on parallel routes such as U.S. 20, state Route 2 and U.S. 30. Meanwhile, after recent construction about two-thirds of the Ohio Turnpike now has three lanes in each direction.
Clay said the speed limit isn't the only factor in choosing between the turnpike and smaller roads.
"It depends on the company," he said. "It depends on the customer and how hot they want the load."
David Caig, vice president of safety for Craig Transportation Co. in Perrysburg, said reduci
ng tolls would be the single most effective way to draw trucks back to the turnpike.
"There needs to be some type of economic relief," he said.
Most Craig drivers save only about 20 minutes by taking the turnpike, Caig said, so most would prefer to leave early, take a slower route and save the cash.
The Ohio Department of Transportation estimated that the speed limit increase would reduce truck traffic by more than 10 percent on many secondary routes, and increase toll-road trucking by more than 25 percent east of Toledo.
The same projections show even more dramatic shifts if tolls were to be reduced or eliminated. Taft has suggested some form of toll reduction, and ODOT was expected to prepare recommendations for him by the end of the month.