David J. Forkenbrock
Paul F. Hanley
2002
Comparatively low-cost freight transportation has been an important element in the growth of the United States economy. Goods can be transported between most points in the country quite cheaply and efficiently. To varying degrees, however, freight transportation services generate costs that are borne by society. One of the most significant of these costs is safety. In recent years, over 4,000 persons have been killed each year in mishaps involving truck and rail freight transportation and many more have been injured.
The objectives of this monograph are to examine the nature of the safety costs imposed by surface freight transportation and to suggest public policies that can help make it safer. We begin with an overall analysis of crashes and accidents involving the two surface freight modes. To gain a broad perspective, we look at the safety costs per mile traveled and for a ton-mile of freight shipped by truck or rail nationally. Our analysis thereby serves as a benchmark against which more localized cost estimates can be compared.
We examine crashes involving multiple-trailer combination trucks in addition to the more common single-trailer combination trucks. Because of the current policy debate regarding more permissive regulations for longer combination vehicles (LCVs), we assess the conditions under which multiple-trailer trucks have had a different crash incidence than single-trailer units. We also consider the issue of LCVs operating on two-lane highways en route to or coming from the shipping facilities they would serve.
The research reported in this monograph is an extension of a 1998 monograph, External Costs of Truck and Rail Freight Transportation, by David Forkenbrock. The purpose of that monograph was to comprehensively estimate both private (experienced directly by the transportation carrier) and external costs (uncompensated negative effects on other people). These estimates defined how much private costs would increase if external costs were internalized.
Our research was carried out at the University of Iowa Public Policy Center. Funding for this research was provided by the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation.
$14.95, 48 pp., 4 figures, 14 tables, perfect binding
ISBN 0-87414-134-6