This report contains the results of a study conducted in response to a request from the Secretary of Transportation, as directed by the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, that the Transportation Research Board (TRB) study the regulation of weights, lengths, and widths of commercial motor vehicles operating on Federal-aid highways and develop recommendations regarding revisions to laws and regulations. TRB formed the Committee for the Study of the Regulation of Weights, Lengths, and Widths of Commercial Motor Vehicles to conduct the study. The committee's conclusions, presented in this report, address the performance of federal size and weight regulations and the adequacy of information available for guiding regulatory decisions. These conclusions are based on a review of past evaluations conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation, TRB, and others. The committee's recommendations involve both organisational arrangements designed to promote reform of the federal regulations and regulatory and management changes intended to improve the efficiency of freight transportation and reduce the public costs of truck traffic. The report is organised in five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction. The methods used in past studies to predict the benefits and costs of changing truck size and weight regulations are reviewed in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, a proposal is presented to establish a new federal capability for monitoring truck impacts and evaluating the performance of size and weight regulation, and to open up opportunities for innovation in solving size and weight problems. Three packages of possible changes to federal size and weight limits are also presented. A survey of new opportunities for mitigating the adverse impacts of truck traffic and the conflicts between trucks and cars on the highways, including applications of information technology, is presented in Chapter 4. A review of techniques for improving enforcement of truck regulations is included. The committee's conclusions and recommendations on needed changes in federal size and weight regulations are given in Chapter 5.
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