Keep On Truckin’, But Not Here

If you are relatively new to Moorpark, you have probably noticed the inordinate number of heavy-duty semi’s rolling through the middle of town all day and part of the night.

You may have thought, they don’t belong here. What’s the deal?

The deal is you are absolutely right. They don’t belong here. They jam up the roads. They wreck the pavement, they foul our air, they harm local businesses,  they create a traffic hazard and sometimes, people die in accidents caused by trucks. It is clear that most trucks are not in Moorpark to make local deliveries.

So, why do they insist on glomming up Los Angeles Avenue where it is also Highway 118?

Simple, they are avoiding the Conejo Grade. They are avoiding using Highway 101 in order to bypass the state truck scales.

Listen to someone who has just acknowledged her 23rd anniversary in her Moorpark house: It has always been that way.

Initially, the hard and fast rule was that since the 118 is a state highway, the city and county had no authority to ban the trucks. Since Caltrans has flatly refused to ban the trucks from Moorpark, and I still don’t understand why, they have offered bitty band-aids to make it all better.

Things like improving Highway 118 once it leaves Moorpark and morphs into such a dangerous two-land highway that I have driven it only once and my family finally agreed it was never worth the risk.

After all, there have been several head-on collisions. I know someone who was in one. There have been many deaths, the most horrific of which did not involve a truck but instead someone just not paying attention. Instead, Caltrans is improving an intersection in Somis. (head slap)

So I want to thank the Moorpark City Council, council member Keith Millhouse in particular, for revisiting the issue.  The last time the council begged Caltrans to let them ban the trucks, the state agency said it was not possible. Then, apparently, they did a 180 and granted similar rights to other cities.

This time, we asked them to let Moorpark ban all trucks with three axles from our section of the 118 unless they happen to be making a local delivery. That would force the trucks to use the 101, with the weigh station and all.

If they are overweight, have blown out brakes, the drivers have not slept in three days, or are transporting goods improperly, they will have no choice but to pay the fines and fix the problems.

For a while, the California Highway Patrol allocated a few officers who would stop and inspect the trucks on the 118. I believe about 40 percent of the trucks had serious safety issues and a large number of those vehicles were removed from the road until the deficiency had been repaired.

You would often see large trucks parked on the side of the road, waiting for some new part to arrive so they could fix their vehicle and get on their way. But state budget cutbacks several years ago ended the program.

Trucks are very important to business. I get it. I even worked for a trucking magazine briefly. But since there is a road that was built to withstand the extra weight and to stop unsafe trucks, then the 101 is where they belong.

As a comparison, let’s say you were grocery shopping and you didn’t have enough money to pay for all of your goods. A side door was left open and you figured you could just slip out to the parking lot without going through the check stand, and no one would be the wiser. You would land in jail.

Tell me, what is the difference with each truck that avoids the scales? The results are the same: we pay for their illegal activities.

Thank you again, city council. Time for a change.