Get the Truck Ban Rolling

Since he proposed it more than a year ago, we have supported Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s plan to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution by reducing the number of heavy-duty trucks on the streets during peak travel hours by 70%. It is an innovative, far-sighted proposal that ultimately should be of material benefit not only to Angelenos, but also to commuters from Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

That is why the City Council, which passed a poorly revised version of the plan last week, ought now to approve an amendment by Councilman Richard Alatorre that would restore the measure’s original flexibility. The problems arise from a series of exemptions written into the plan by Councilman Nate Holden’s Transportation Committee. Holden, whose opposition to the mayor’s initiative has waxed and waned over the past 12 months, wants an ordinance that grants statutory exemptions not only to vehicles involved in essential services, but also to those making deliveries of such seasonal products as Christmas trees and watermelons.

The mayor’s office agrees that trucks used by utilities and those supplying the construction industry should be allowed to continue using the streets at rush hour. However, it feels that other truckers should be required to make a public showing of necessity through a formal appeals process before they are granted a waiver. We agree and so should the council.

Holden’s contention that such a process would be an invitation to corruption is a trifle wild-eyed, even by his hyperbolic standards.

The potential benefits of the Bradley initiative are too important to be compromised by such wrangling. The plan the mayor proposed deserves a chance to prove itself.