American Truck / Korean Truck

Hanging around after UMSL's "What is a City?" conference, I found myself talking with a Sierra Club member that was opposed to the proposed I-70 truck corridor in Missouri.  For those unfamiliar, the truck corridor would put a four lane priority interstate for cross-country trucks in the median of I-70 and push the current interstate out wider and designate it for cars.  Trucks could move faster, and cars could be less scared (except when trucks are slamming into the sides of them).  The initial proposal is between the suburbs of Kansas City and the suburbs of St. Louis.  The future would stretch over four states.
 
 

Now, this is obviously a terrible idea in terms of return on investment.  Billions would be spent widening the roads and eating up land.  Billions more would be spent on maintaining all that eventually crumbling concrete.  Many would die as the trucks merge left unable to see little cars in their blind spots.  The environmental impact would be huge, and the entire thing would be far better justified as a high speed rail freight line.  Why send a truck across three states for a lot of money and fuel on expensive infrastructure, when you could send it faster for cheap on designated rail?  Nobody dies, and rain water permeates into the ground. 

 The point that this Sierra Club member made to me was about truck size.  She said that the trucking lobby was constantly trying to expand the size and weight limits for their fleets, which would mean even bigger trucks on the road smashing, killing, and polluting.  Why not, Caterpiller makes such machines.  If there was a large truck-only interstate for long range trips, it would justify larger trucks, but those trucks would have to use regular roads as well.

Cross-country Distribution = big trucks for big trips
Local Distribution = small trucks for small streets

That point struck home with me.

In Korea trucks look like this.

The Bongo Truck is a staple of Korean logistics.  Absolutely everything gets moved around the city and country in these tiny trucks.  Larger trucks are not to be seen.  Seoul is as big as New York, and South Korea is a first world country the size of Indiana.

I just moved to the US from Korea, and I bike everywhere now.  It is troubling to see how large the trucks are along Morgan Ford.

If you've ever biked with a full-sized semi next to you, you'd be uncomfortable with large trucks as well.

 St. Louis can be a cargo hub without huge trucks on neighborhoods streets.  Kingshighway is one thing, but smaller streets should be for smaller trucks.