St. Louis County government is asking St. Ann, as well as all other municipalities, to allow commercial vehicles such as garbage trucks to operate on city streets earlier in the morning.
The aim is to have the vehicles off the main roads during peak travel hours.Garry Earls, the county's chief operating officer and head of the Department of Highways and Traffic, has asked mayors throughout the county to review ordinances governing commercial vehicles' hours of operation.
"That's all part and parcel of our traffic-mitigation efforts," said David Wrone, spokesman for the agency. "It's not going to behoove anyone to have trash trucks and delivery trucks on the roads during peak hours."
County traffic engineers estimate that secondary roads such as Midland Avenue could see as much as a 20-percent increase in traffic after Jan. 2 when a portion of Highway 40 is shut down. The volume on larger highways such as Page Avenue and St. Charles Rock Road is expected to increase significantly, as vehicles that usually use Highway 40 are forced to find alternate east-west routes.
But because cities were notified as late as they were by Earls, any easing of the ordinances might not take place as quickly as county officials would like. Wrone acknowledged that local governments might be reluctant to ease such restrictions, especially when it comes to the trash-collection vehicles.
"This is a politically sensitive issue," he said. "Residents do not want to be awakened at 4:30 in the morning."
Saturday, December 29, 2007
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This really does make sense, but I am sure all the little municipal kingdoms will stop it. Lots of commercial and business delivery could be done off hours, especially during this Hiway 40 shutdown. Traffic conditions will be bad enough, any heavy vehicle traffic that can be diverted to lower traffic periods makes lots of sense.
ReplyDeleteBut, lets face it, common sense don't make these decisions. By all means, don't inconvenience anyone.