Are the biggest of the big sport utility vehicles -- the carbon kings of the highway -- violating weight restrictions on public roads?
SUVs are at the center of an ideological debate, particularly because these versatile and popular vehicles are among the biggest producers of carbon dioxide on the highway, though nobody apparently has examined whether their gross vehicle weights exceed limits on certain local and state roads.
Admittedly, it is a difficult issue to answer, because any excursion into the rules and regulations of truck weights quickly becomes as technically complicated as quantum physics or the federal tax code.
Under the California Motor Vehicle Code, there are general rules that apply to each axle of a truck and then there are rules that apply to special kinds of trucks, such as cotton carriers, log haulers and electric utility service trucks. I'm sure all of these rules were the result of absolutely clean politics.
Some rules apply to certain kinds of roads, and special rules apply to some bridges that aren't strong enough to support the heaviest loads. Some rules apply to everybody and some apply only to a few.
Within this maze of rules, some cities and state agencies have put 6,000-pound weight limits on a number of roads and bridges, including residential streets in Southern California and at least a few highways, including the Pasadena Freeway.
In general, bureaucrats say those limits do not apply to delivery trucks or moving vans, for example. Posted signs in Los Angeles do not exempt noncommercial trucks, though some state and local highway officials say that is the intent.
In any case, officials say nobody ever gets nailed on these rules.
"We are not going to cite somebody for driving an SUV down the street," said Los Angeles Police Department traffic investigator Jim Elsdon. "I own a pickup truck that weighs more than 6,000 pounds."
He's not alone. Hummers, Escalades, Suburbans, Navigators and Yukons, along with many other SUVs and pickup trucks, all have models that pop over 6,000 pounds in curb weight and far over 6,000 pounds in gross vehicle weight. The curb weight measures a vehicle without cargo or passengers, while the gross vehicle weight measures a theoretical maximum that could include goats and sheep.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has designated certain streets, mostly residential, as off-limits to trucks over 6,000 pounds, though the rules were created long before passenger vehicles ever grew to that size, said agency spokesman Bruce Gillman.
