Are semi-trucks allowed in the left lanes on IE freeways?
Q Edward Torres said he commutes home in the evenings on the 60 Freeway eastbound through Moreno Valley. Between Day and Heacock streets, he said, traffic usually slows and semitrucks will move into the left lane and stay there all the way to the Badlands. This slows down the fast lane, and cars go around the trucks on the right or in the carpool lane. He asked if the trucks are allowed to remain in the left lane.
“I’ve also noticed truck drivers being more aggressive the last few years, driving at higher speeds (some as fast as 70 or 80 mph), moving into the carpool lane, cutting off traffic to move to the left, and remaining in the left lanes to pass other truck traffic” Torres wrote. “It seems there are commercial drivers who don’t drive with the same level of professionalism most do.” A To answer Torres’s question, trucks should not be driving in the fast lane anywhere in the Inland Empire. All commercial semitrucks are required to drive in the rightmost lanes of the freeway and follow the 55 mph speed limit for three-axle vehicles, according to the California Highway Patrol.
On the Road receives quite a few complaints about trucks driving in the wrong lanes, and so does the CHP, which does its best with the resources it has to enforce these laws. One way the CHP does this is through special enforcement operations.
On Feb.14 of this year, for example, the Inland Division Commercial Officers and officers from the Rancho Cucamonga Area CHP office joined for a special enforcement detail targeting semitruck violations on the 210 Freeway.
Officers issued citations to truckers for speeding and violating lane restrictions. One truck driver was cited for driving 72 mph in the fast lane. A few weeks earlier, on Feb. 2, the Baldwin Park Area CHP led a multi-area commercial enforcement detail on the 60, focusing on Rancho Cucamonga, Baldwin Park and East Los Angeles. During that operation, the CHP issued 267 commercial citations and 136 non-commercial citations.
We think it helps if citizens continue to report truck offenses so the CHP knows where they might target a special enforcement operation in the future.
Driver education — no matter the age
The CHP provides free classes to help educate drivers age 65 and older and promote safe driving, using a Keeping Everyone Safe grant funded by the Office of Traffic Safety. As part of this grant, free “Age Well, Drive Smart” classes are offered.
The classes help seniors improve their driving skills, refresh their knowledge of the rules of the road, and learn how age-related physical changes could affect their driving abilities. The class is about two hours and is offered at local CHP offices as well as many senior centers. Any organization or senior center seeking to host an “Age Well, Drive Smart” class should contact the CHP Riverside office at 951-637-8000.