Tag: trucking restrictions

VAIL -- We all know who wins when an SUV loaded with skiers tangles with a tractor trailer out on the open road on an icy winter day in the Rocky Mountains. The resulting carnage sometimes shuts down high-country highways for hours at a time. There are only losers in such a scenario. But who wins politically in the battle for supremacy between skier traffic and the state’s trucking industry?

The Colorado Independent on Friday reported that gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper had floated the idea of restricting large truck traffic on I-70 west of Denver during peak hours as a way of alleviating congestion on holiday weekends or on busy ski weekends. The story also quoted a Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman saying that the federal government would not allow such a restriction.