I'll hazard a guess that the same question asked of INDOT would yield a similar answer: "It ain't the state, baby, it's the municipality."
“I concluded that the city could make a determination that since trucks above a certain weight damaged the roads they could limit them to certain routes,” Bastress says. “In other words, they could regulate weight at a level that would preclude coal truck traffic downtown.”
The city of New Albany's enduringly dysfunctional political entities have kept pro-activity in enforcement at arm's length since the Scribners washed ashore, and it is safe to assume that in our case, as in Morgantown's, an element of not wishing to "offend" is part of the equation.
Merely note that escalating levels of heavy truck traffic down our speed-friendly arterial streets also "offend" in like fashion: It is damaging to the streets, noisy, dirty, dangerous for non-automotive walkers and bikers, and constitutes the very negation of quality of life by any meaningful definition.
The returning police chief seems to get it. What about City Hall?
Can Morgantown officials ban trucks clogging downtown roads?, by Bryan Popkin, Kelsea Lynch and Stephen Sleeper (Mountaineer News Service)
2 comments:
As a business owner surely you must realize that most businesses rely on commercial traffic to deliver goods and raw materials that keep the small companies and most businesses running.
I am sure your business interests rely on commercial deliveries, I know the companies your interests do business with do.
So the question I pose to you, is it acceptable to you for the trucks and commercial traffic to provide the life blood of your business interests just as long as it doesn't effect the immediate area where YOU live and walk? What about the residents of other areas of this town, this county, this metro area?
What has happened to you young man to make you become just as hypocritical of those you once made an effective stand against?
As a pseudonymous Internet comment maker, surely you must realize that cities have the right and the obligation to regulate publicly owned infrastructure. Truck routes to divert pass-through traffic are an example. Speed limits and weight limits, too -- both for reasons of damage to streets as well as quality of life considerations of residents. It would be hypocritical of a municipality to uphold "quality of life" but NOT pursue the proper regulation of vehicles that belong on the interstate -- and this is my point.
No one disputes that monstrous vehicles comprise the basis of long haul traffic in America. It is odious, but that's the way it is. What also cannot be denied is the city's duty to regulate its own streets for the good of its residents. 18-wheeler through traffic might as well be a toxic waste dump insofar as neighborhood life is concerned.
Now, if you wish to continue the conversation, read the rules of engagement on the front page and please adhere to them.
Signed, a young man of 53
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