California Department of Transportation
1120 N St., Sacramento, CA 95814Contact: Jim Drago
1120 N Street
Sacramento, Ca 95814
(916) 654-4677
jim_drago@dot.ca.govJune 18, 1999
CALTRANS HALTS TRUCK BAN STUDY
The California Department of Transportation announced today in Sacramento that it would not re-study the existing ban on large trucks on Route 580 in Oakland.
The announcement was made by Caltrans director Jose Medina.
"The community has made its wishes clear that it does not want this study to proceed," Medina said.
The impetus for a re-study of the truck ban was requests by the Freight Advisory Committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the California Trucking Association, asking that the 36-year old ban be re-evaluated. That ban was put in place at the opening of Route 580, in 1963, at the request of the City of Oakland.
Medina said that the request for the ban at that time had been granted because there were long-standing prohibitions against trucks over 4 1/2 tons in the Oakland neighborhoods surrounding Route 580, and because alternate truck routes 880 and 238 were available.
Because the city councils of Oakland and San Leandro and the Board of Supervisors of Alameda County had all passed resolutions opposing lifting the ban, Medina said that it was a practical impossibility.
"This does not mean we are blind to the problems of goods movement in urban areas," Medina said. "The citizens of Oakland still need products in their stores and their factories still need materials in and out of them. I have asked my staff to work with the California Trucking Association, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the cities of Oakland and San Leandro to look for ways to enhance goods movement in this area.