Truckin’ Along Can Be a Drag for Those Following Them

Trucks cannot be ignored.

Squelching the thought of getting side-swiped, center-punched or rear-ended by a rolling dreadnought the size of a Ventura beach cottage while on the road is like playing the old mind game, “Try not to think of an elephant.”

That pale green trash truck that entirely fills your rear-view mirror on California 126 every Wednesday morning? Pay it no mind.

That rumbling Peterbilt you trail through Somis every lunchtime when golf ball-sized gravel trickles from its overloaded tandem trailers and bounces off your windshield? Fuggeddaboutit.

That towering wall of gritty corrugated steel atop 18 beefy tires that edges toward your left ear on the Conejo Grade with a demonic, droning howl in the evening rush hour? Pffft. What truck?

Yeah. Right.

Powerless to clear their minds of shredded tires, frustrating commutes and the occasional gridlocking propane tanker wreck, some readers ask Street Smart why trucks cannot simply be banned.

Let’s get rid of the metal monsters that fray our nerves, destroy our pavement, make us late and wake our babies, they say.

Gee, what a terrific idea. If you don’t mind wearing home-sewn clothes, grubbing roots from your backyards for supper and staring blankly into campfires for entertainment, that is.

Trucks are everywhere. Live with it.

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Dear Street Smart:

It seems like the number of trucks on Santa Rosa Road between Camarillo and Moorpark is increasing every morning.

It looks like they’re using Santa Rosa Road as a shortcut or as a way to avoid the scales at the top of the Conejo Grade because they’re not stopping in the Santa Rosa Valley.

They can’t make a good speed going up the hills, and it can make for a very dangerous situation. People pass them when they shouldn’t because they get so frustrated being behind them.

My main question is whether these vehicles are permitted there--and I don’t believe that they are. I think there are some signs that prohibit them from going on this road, particularly if they are not making any stops.

Ken Schecter, Camarillo

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Dear Reader:

You’d like to see that enforced, wouldn’t you?

So would half of Somis and Moorpark, where commuting can be a frustrating, fume-sucking crawl, thanks to trucks.

Tough darts. There is absolutely no law or ordinance barring big trucks from Santa Rosa Road, says Lt. Terry Enright, who manages the Conejo Grade truck scales for the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP tries to stay on top of the back-routers who dodge the scales via two-lane routes such as Santa Rosa Road, Los Angeles Avenue and Lewis Road, he says.

The Chippies run a portable weigh-and-inspect station for trucks just west of Moorpark on California 118 for eight hours every weekday. And the Conejo scales are open long hours--round-the-clock in the northbound lanes of the Ventura Freeway and 16 hours a day in the southbound lanes, Enright says.

But the CHP inspectors are working harder every year because Ventura County’s truck census is on the rise:

“Candidly, truck traffic is increasing everywhere throughout Ventura County,” Enright said. “It’s because the county’s grown, because the state’s grown. With the passage of time comes a greater population, and that evolves to a need for the transportation of more food and goods for all these people.”

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Dear Street Smart:

As a motorcyclist, I view semitrucks as a huge danger, to be passed quickly at the first opportunity.

But there are exceptions: As I approached the stop sign at Rose and Emerson avenues in Oxnard recently to turn right, a big truck had already stopped opposite me and signaled to turn down the same road.

I groaned as I realized that I would have to follow him for a couple miles before I had a passing lane. But the driver politely waved me on ahead of him, although he clearly had the right of way. I waved enthusiastically, made my turn and watched his slow progress in my mirrors.

Chivalry is alive and well in Oxnard!

Jane Madsen, Oxnard

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Dear Reader:

Motorcyclist? Man, you’re brave. But that’s a whole ‘nother topic we are saving for a future column. (Letters on motorcycles, anyone?)

In the wrong place, time and hands, anything weighing up to 40 tons moving 65 mph is dangerous beyond belief. But as most seasoned drivers will tell you, what you experienced was the norm for 18-wheel etiquette.

Street Smart can’t count the number of times that truckers have waved him through a turn, flashed lights to signal that it was safe to rejoin their lane after passing or pulled over on a long mountain road when only two cars were trailing instead of the legal limit of five.

Courtesy is a marvelous lubricant. It keeps traffic flowing through Beijing thick as 40-mph lava with nary a scrape between bicycles, limousines, taxicabs and huge trucks.

Like the metropolitan Chinese, many big-rig truckers tend to pause for that extra half-second to let others merge. They tap their brakes instead of pounding their horns. They use turn signals and mirrors.

They are nice.

Truckers could teach the tie-dyed, Hacky-Sackin’ Deadheads of UC Santa Cruz a thing or two about mellow. If American car drivers used half that much courtesy, far fewer of them would die at the wheel--or succumb to stress-related strokes. But that, too, is another column.

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Dear Street Smart:

1. In my 1995 copy of the California Motor Vehicle Code, I can’t find anything related to speedometers. What is the legal tolerance for accuracy? Plus or minus 5 mph? 2.5 mph?

2. When I obtained my Class A truck driver’s license, a vehicle with trailer was restricted to the two right lanes on an eight-lane highway. Since last year, I’ve had semis and all sorts of vehicles with trailers pass me in the fast lane. What’s up with that?

3. A friend got a ticket from the CHP for changing his tire on the side of the freeway. The officer told him that it was unsafe and that he should have called a tow truck. Was it a valid ticket?

4. Can you tell me the Vehicle Code number for the new law concerning flashing your headlights to make a person move over for passing?

5. How is it our government expects us to keep up with all changing Vehicle Code laws? I, for one, work six to seven days a week and I sure as hell don’t have time to read the Vehicle Code every year.

Ken Johnson, Redlands

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Dear Reader:

Inquisitive lil’ feller, aintcha? Here goes:

1. No California law requires you to even have a speedometer.

2. They’re breaking the law, says Lt. Terry Enright of the CHP.

3. There’s no way to tell whether the ticket was justified without knowing the details, Enright says.

4. Section 21753, enacted Jan. 1, 1997.

5. Don’t get us started. We have enough trouble keeping up with changing gasoline prices. And that’s another column entirely.

NEXT: More truck talk.