Panel to Weigh Ventura Freeway Rush-Hour Truck Ban

A task force of traffic experts will study whether trucks should be banned from the Ventura Freeway during rush hours while it is being resurfaced and widened, the Los Angeles City Council decided Wednesday.

The council voted unanimously to conduct the study.

The ban was proposed in June by Councilmen Michael Woo and Zev Yaroslavsky as a way to reduce traffic congestion during the four-year Ventura Freeway project, scheduled to begin early next year. Trucks now account for 7.7% of the 270,000 vehicles traveling the freeway, according to Caltrans officials.

The ban must be approved by the California Transportation Commission.

A Caltrans official, concerned about the lack of a convenient alternate route to the Ventura Freeway west of Calabasas, has said that “a more reasonable solution” may be to simply ask truckers to voluntarily make pickups and deliveries before or after the morning and evening rush hours, as was successfully done during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Nonetheless, Caltrans has agreed to participate in the study. Other groups represented on the task force will be the city Department of Transportation, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, the California Highway Patrol, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Southern California Assn. of Governments and the trucking industry.

One of the issues that will be studied by the task force is the effect of a ban on other freeways and surface streets.

An official of the California Trucking Assn., which represents about 2,500 freight-hauling businesses with about 35,000 vehicles operating in the Los Angeles area, has previously said that it will oppose a ban.

“This will not only inconvenience the truckers, but the users of trucking services,” said George Smith, a director of the association. “It will drive up the cost of transportation, and that added cost will trickle down to the public.”

No one spoke out in opposition to the creation of the task force at Wednesday’s meeting.

The council action asks for a progress report from the group within 30 days.

Caltrans plans to add a lane to each side of the freeway between the Hollywood Freeway and Parkway Calabasas as well as replace the pavement at Valley Circle Boulevard, starting early next year.