The Board of Supervisors Tuesday authorized a study to determine the feasibility of establishing restrictions on commercial truck traffic along several Riverside County roads to prevent congestion and damage, especially when the vehicles’ operators have freeways available to them.
“Tractor-trailers are using county roads as cut-through routes,” said Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who sought the study. “The traffic backups can be very significant.”
The board’s 4-0 vote — with Supervisor John Tavaglione absent — directs the Office of County Counsel and the Department of Transportation to conduct research and report back in 60 days on the possibility of implementing travel prohibitions.
According to Jeffries, he’s mainly interested in limiting truck traffic along Cajalco Road and Van Buren Boulevard through Meadowbrook, Mead Valley, Lake Elsinore and Woodcrest.
“With the increased activity in the logistics industry in Riverside County has come (an) increase in the use of rural and residential roads by commercial trucks,” the supervisor said. “Cajalco and Van Buren have particularly been the subject of repeated complaints by constituents about trucks using those routes as shortcuts to and from warehouses along the Interstate 215 corridor in order to avoid our congested freeways.”
Jeffries said he was prompted to initiate a study after the Riverside City Council clamped down on truck traffic earlier this summer, implementing travel bans on all trucks with more than three axles along segments of Alessandro Boulevard, Arlington, Central, Chicago, Iowa and Jurupa avenues. The council is slated to make a stretch of Sycamore Canyon Boulevard off-limits, as well.
The restrictions stem from residents’ complaints about noise and congestion.
Commercial deliveries by 18-wheelers are still permitted on the city streets, but drivers may have to present documents to police showing why they’re using them.
According to Jeffries, the city’s restrictions on trucks have led to an increased volume of commercial traffic on county byways.
Lake Mathews-area resident John Minnella told the board that he and his neighbors are desperate to see big rigs banned on Cajalco.”
“We’re suffering very badly from the amount of traffic,” he said. “It’s going to triple and quadruple. Who knows where it’s going to end. Cajalco Road may start to look like the 91 Freeway in Corona.”
Supervisor Marion Ashley said residents in Lakeview and Nuevo have been contending with similar problems because of the number of rigs crowding onto Hansen and Nuevo roads. Ashley wanted those corridors included in the study.
“These are residential areas, not an industrial center,” he said.
State officials told Jeffries’ staff that closing some county roads to “pass-through” truck traffic could be a violation of the California Vehicle Code, which mandates that closures be offset by designated routes for trucks on other county arteries.
“Exploring our county’s legal options to restrict commercial truck traffic on certain county roads will better allow the board to determine how to balance the concerns of Riverside County residents with the desires of the logistics industry,” Jeffries said.