That Big Box on the Road

Who among us hasn’t wondered, while attempting to merge onto a busy freeway and feeling simple impatience giving way to outright alarm as that semi hauling a 53-foot container continues to block our path, who made these boxes so long?

Blame it first on the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) of 1982 (Public Law 97-4240). That was the measure that allowed larger trucks to operate on the nation’s interstate highways and other designated primary transport routes.  

If you want to get personal, blame it also on the legislation’s chief congressional sponsor, the then Chair of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee. That would be the late Glenn Malcolm Anderson (1913-1994). After serving two terms as California’s Lieutenant Governor under Governor Edmond G. “Pat” Brown, Anderson was elected to Congress in November 1968 for the first of twelve terms during which he promoted major transportation projects in the Los Angeles area. Interstate 105, sometimes known informally as the Century Freeway, is formally named after him, as is the Los Angeles Harbor ship channel.

In his Los Angeles Times obituary, Anderson was quoted disparaging criticism that he or his committee specialized in pork barrel projects to members’ districts.

“’I’ve been building all my life. Public works pay for themselves. It’s paying people to work on a project that makes the economy better, makes the region better, makes everything better.’:

The STAA legislation Anderson shepherded through Congress in 1982 was a highly controversial measure for all the usual reasons but especially because it hiked the federal fuel tax from 4¢ per gallon to $9¢. Nonetheless, President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law in January 1983. 

Think of that bit of history the next time a semi hauling a 53’ container barrels past you on the freeway.