WSJ: Trucks Are Clogging America’s Roads, Delivering Goods and Tearing up Yards
Interesting to come across this article at a time when many of us have noticed an uptick in truck traffic in Westminster. I was pondering that much of the additional traffic was a result of more folks relying upon GPS directions – which often lack common sense – or are simply incorrect. As a consequence, for example, it leads trucks from one end of Main Street to the other – and not suggesting that truck drivers use Rte 140 instead.
“Trucks Are Clogging America’s Roads,” By David Harrison / Photographs by Kendrick Brinson for The Wall Street Journal January 26, 2022 - The surge won’t likely die down even once supply chain clogs ease, and the impact is falling heavily on neighborhood streets
ATLANTA—Trucks are taking over American roads, fueled by a rise in pandemic online shopping and disruptions to global supply chains.
Along the way they’re chewing up pavement, adding to congestion and infuriating residents, who must contend with 18-wheelers and delivery trucks as soon as they pull out of their driveways. They’re also causing headaches for state and local governments that face multibillion-dollar bills to finance road upkeep and expansions.
The thousands more delivery trucks on neighborhood streets and tractor trailers on interstate highways are solving one problem by creating another.
“Folks don’t like them in their neighborhoods,” said Seth Millican, a transportation expert at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. “But they want the package they order from Amazon, and they want it in two days.”
Those strains converge in Atlanta’s Riverside neighborhood, home to Dustin Hillis, a city council member, who has spent years trying to keep tractor trailers off its residential streets.
“Not a week goes by that I don’t get complaints about trucks running over street signs, stop signs, electrical poles, cutting through people’s yards,” he said.
One of Mr. Hillis’s Riverside constituents, Don Penovi, has taken it upon himself to walk the streets, sometimes wearing a yellow vest, to guide errant trucks back to the highway and to call the city to replace destroyed street signs.
“It seems like it’s been getting worse the last six, eight months or so,” he said.
Read much more here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trucks-roads-damage-traffic-supply-chain-11643210764
Our changing shopping habits have led to more trucks on the road. David Harrison from the Wall Street Journal has the story. https://soundcloud.com/thismorningshow/trucks-are-clogging-americas-roads-delivering-goods-and-tearing-up-yards
