Sen. Marian Price’s proposal that the left lane of the interstate be used for passing only met with a barrage of objections from senators on the Legislature’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee. More related Legislature coverage

And senators killed the bill (LB909) soon after the hearing ended Monday.

Sen. Carol Hudkins of Malcolm confessed she regularly uses the left lane of four-lane roads on her way to and from the Capitol because the right lane is “patch, patch, patch” and bumpy and there is often traffic merging into the right lane.

And Sen. Tom Baker of Trenton, chairman of the committee, pointed out current law seems to cover the issue.

State law already says the left lane is for passing. Another law prohibits a driver from “intentionally impeding the normal flow of traffic by traveling side by side at the same speed while in the adjacent lane.”

Price said she introduced the bill at the request of a constituent. Price also was boxed in by semi-trucks this fall on her way to give a speech at Creighton University. The Lincoln senator said she slowed down to force the trucks to all move ahead of her.

“It was a rolling road block,” she said.

Price said she has gotten much e-mail on the bill, some supporting her and some opposing. “One even told me that if I can’t stand the pressure on I-80, I should use Highway 6,” she said.

A former Lincoln truck driver, Harry L. Muhlbach, who opposed the bill, said company restrictions can create problems on the road.

Some big companies won’t let drivers go more than 60 mph. Others set the limit at 65. It can take up to three miles for a truck traveling at 65 mph to pass a truck traveling at 60 mph, he said.

A six-lane interstate will solve many of these problems, he told the committee.

Another bill involving high-speed multi-lane highways is alive but the problem may be cured without changing state law.

That bill (LB816), proposed by Hudkins, would prohibit commercial vehicles from driving in the far left lane of a six-lane interstate. The goal is to keep vehicles that cannot stop or start quickly out of that lane, she said.

Instead of a law, the Department of Roads could make rules, based on engineering and traffic studies, said Mike Hybl, lobbyist for the Nebraska Trucking Association.

This flexibility, rather than a hard and fast rule, would be best, he said.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.