WVXU listeners ask a lot of street and highway questions of our feature OKI Wanna Know, and this week is no different. Bill Rinehart hits the road again in search of answers.
It seems most WVXU listeners catch us on their way to or from work. And that's where the questions come from.
Like Karla Sheppard of Reading, who says she commutes to Erlanger, and wonders why it seems there are more semis going south on I-75 in the evening than in the morning.
Our go-to for highway questions is Kathleen Fuller, with the Ohio Department of Transportation's District 8, covering Southwest Ohio.
"This is one I'm going to do a little speculation on," she says. "I don't know the exact answer because there could be a lot of answers for it, or it could be very simple."
Fuller says one possible solution is that semi drivers are trying to be the most efficient they can, and are driving later in the day.
"When I'm coming in to work, and I travel I-71, I see a lot of truckers who are pulled over because they're going to wait out that rush hour," she says. "They're going to get their break in then and they drive during the overnight."
Because people may be going in different directions after work, and may leave at different times, Fuller says evening rush hour typically has fewer passenger vehicles.
"Which is going to be more optimal for the truck drivers, because they can maintain more consistent speed so that's why there's probably more traveling in the evenings, I would think."
And she points out a lot of warehouses and businesses take their deliveries in the overnight hours.
"So some of the semi drivers probably traveling south in the evening, to position themselves for those deliveries, overnight appointments, and probably putting themselves into areas with either major ports or less rail infrastructure."
There's also infrastructure that slows southbound traffic: the cut in the hill.
"It does change how people — truck drivers especially, when you think about how they have to navigate a hill, right? That could very well be it more than anything."
There's one more factor: Simple addition. Two southbound interstates converge just before the Ohio River.
"Well, that's the answer right there, is that you've got 71 traffic flowing into 75 southbound. But when you're going northbound, they diverge."
Fuller says, it also could be a matter of perception. Maybe it just seems like there are more trucks going south.
Why are there so many vehicles on the side of the road in Ohio?
Rob Updegrove of Loveland says he's lived in several states.
"Nowhere else have I noticed the number of vehicles on the side of the road, left overnight or longer, as I have in the Greater Cincinnati area," he says. "I'm wondering if that is something unique to this area, or if it's something that is happening everywhere and I just didn't notice anywhere else, but, why do I see it here more so than anywhere else?"
The Ohio Department of Transportation operates the Freeway Safety Patrol, which assists motorists in the state's six major metropolitan areas. Fueller says they'll help change a flat tire, make minor repairs or bring gas to a vehicle with an empty tank, but they won't remove an unattended vehicle.
"We do not tow, we are not an enforcement agency. Law enforcement takes care of that end of the stuff," Fuller says.
She says what they will do is put florescent stickers on vehicles left on the side of the highway.
"They'll put a note on the vehicle, so that if law enforcement happen upon the same vehicle, they will know we have had a crew out there who have checked on it as well."
The FSP doesn't keep track of how many of those stickers are placed on vehicles.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol does track vehicles that are tagged or towed, but Sergeant Tyler Ross says any number from them wouldn't be accurate. He says other agencies, sheriff's offices and local police also tag and tow.
Updegrove speculates maybe other places have more services, like AAA, or stricter enforcement, and vehicles don't linger on the shoulder. But he also admits, maybe he's just noticing it here more than in other places.
An associate professor of English at the University of Cincinnati has been looking into the Mandela effect. Rebecca Borah says that's the idea of a shared false memory, like thinking Nelson Mandela died in jail in the 1980s.
Borah says whether it's mis-remembering a celebrity death, seeing more trucks in the evening than the morning, or more broken-down vehicles, it's all a matter of perception.
"It's just because we have seen something and have usually freshly become aware of it, or it's been called to our attention maybe again," Borah says. "And then you're going to see it everywhere."
She says people are predisposed to see patterns.
"It's helped us survive. Soon as we realize 'Oh gosh, if we eat this plant that looks like this, and we get sick, let's avoid that plant.' "
So, if it helps: ODOT's Fuller says in 2025, the Freeway Safety Patrol in Cincinnati had about 21,000 calls for service, which is close to what Columbus and Cleveland had. So, you could assume the percentage of vehicles awaiting a tow could be close too.
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