Ban Won’t Make Trucks Vanish

We sympathize with Moorpark’s desperate request for Caltrans to ban all truck traffic on California 118 from Highway 23 west to Highway 126--but don’t expect this municipal “Hail Mary” pass to go far.

Those 4,000 trucks a day that rumble down New Los Angeles Avenue through the commercial heart of town wouldn’t simply vanish into diesel-scented thin air if the City Council’s dream came true. Instead, they would add to the congestion and safety concerns along the only two other available routes.

Send them north to Highway 126 and the residents of Fillmore and Santa Paula would suffer.

Send them south on Highway 23 to the Ventura Freeway and they would add to the snarl at Ventura County’s worst-congested intersection and the dangerous dash down the Conejo Grade.

So what can Moorpark do?

A closer look at a downtown bypass route is probably the best strategy. Major help with funding and building such a route was part of the $100-million enticement package Messenger Co. offered in its bid to build the Hidden Creek Ranch development. With that offer rejected by voters, the city must work on its own to seek other ways to pay for a bypass.

It must also keep pushing for increased manpower and hours of operation at the truck inspection station on Highway 118 just west of town. This would discourage some truckers, mainly those who choose the Moorpark detour in order to dodge the inspection station on the Ventura Freeway. City officials have succeeded in beefing up inspection capability somewhat but truckers know they can often dodge the law by cutting through Moorpark.

Truck traffic is indeed a major detriment to Moorpark’s quality of life. We wish city officials well in their efforts to solve the problem but simply making it someone else’s problem is not an acceptable answer.