.jpg)
There must be a trend of small Alabama town having trouble with truck traffic through their small downtowns. First I saw a story on WAKA CBS-8 in Montgomery about the Opp City Council approving an ordinance banning trucks from using the streets downtown. A year ago an Opp bypass opened, and the city wants the truckers to use it. They say the big rigs are damaging city streets. But the unusual part of the ordinance is that there are exceptions. The first is common sense: if you are doing business downtown, like making a delivery, then you can use the roads. But the second exception allows any Opp resident to ride trucks on those streets. I'm far from a trucking expert, but I suspect there's something illegal about that part. If taxes are used to pave and maintain the roads, I don't think you can allow only some taxpayers to ride on 'em. I'll check with my former TV co-worker and trucking guy Evan Lockridge of Sirius Radio about it and get an expert opinion. And also: there's Bayou La Batre, also trying to reroute trucks away from its courthouse square, but I don't see any reference to residents being given a pass.
[UPDATE: Evan's comments: "You have encountered one of the biggest frustrations of truckers and that's being told where they can and can not travel.
For instance, and on a much larger scale, in Atlanta, through trucks can not travel interstate routes that go straight through the downtown area and instead the must take I-285. Birmingham is similar. If you are taking I-20 East from Atlanta and headed west to Mississippi, as a trucker, you are supposed to take I-459 to get on I-20/59 west of the city, unless you have any pickups or deliveries in the area. By the same token as a big rig that's local and staying in the Birmingham area, it can generally travel any road, as long as its not restricted.
As for Opp allowing city residents such exclusive access to local roads, that may be to allow truckers who live in the area to get to their homes and park their rigs there, which is quite possible since Opp is a very small town and may have no laws against truckers parking their rigs at home, which most larger cities prohibit." Thanks Evan!!
Ya' know, Tim... this or any other such law could have the potential to go to a much greater court, simply because it involves transportation law.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. Department of Transportation, of course, receives funding in part from fuel tax, which commercial drivers (or, more properly, the trucking firms & owner-operators) pay by the bucket load (IFTA-fuel, tires and more)!
The municipalities (counties and cities) and states then apportion that money, and in fact, receive grants (many of them using matching funds) to improve the roadways.
Therefore, to deny or exclude those from whom tax is received would or could constitute partiality in law - or if you prefer, deference - and by their exclusion, be prima facie evidence of discrimination of an entire CLASS of people.
Interesting, to say the least.
This, of course, would take some considerable investigation, and an attorney (or group of) with steely resolve and expertise.
Further, considering regulation of big trucks, it's not uncommon to see signs prohibiting trucks' use of "Jake" breaks (a brand of exhaust brakes - http://www.jakebrake.com/) simply because of the noise that was once commonly associated with them. However, in recent years, such noise has been significantly reduced/muffled so that they're not so obnoxious. That issue, however, is a subpart of a noise ordinance, and has little bearing upon transportation.
The prohibition of traffic - with, or without cause - is a wholly different matter.
Of course, encouraging use of a by-pass (because it's more convenient & time-saving) is entirely different.