Study Finds Port Not Big Truck Source

Despite some residents’ and officials’ contentions that California 118 is becoming an artery for big rigs coming from the Port of Hueneme, only a small amount of the road’s truck traffic actually comes from the port, a new study shows.

The study, conducted for the county’s Transportation Commission, indicates that only about 2% of the trucks along California 118 in downtown Moorpark are from the port.

About 80% of the 700 daily trucks from the port use the Ventura Freeway and California 126, not California 118, the study says.

The $100,000 study, which updates a 1988 report, was presented Friday at the monthly meeting of the Ventura County Transportation Commission. The study measured truck traffic from the port, expected traffic in 20 years and what improvements are suggested to handle that traffic.

The results show:

* Almost half of the roughly 700 port-generated trucks in the daytime hours use the Ventura Freeway.

* By 2020, there could be as many as 3,200 port-related trucks using county roads daily.

* Ninety-eight percent of the up to 1,900 trucks that pass through Moorpark during daylight hours are not related to the port.

* About 40% of the port truck traffic stayed in the local area, while 30% was headed outside of Southern California or the state.

The port study was conducted from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on a Tuesday in March. It counted trucks by using a rubber tube set on the road, visual analysis and license plate matching. Tuesdays are the port’s busiest day.

Chris Stephens, deputy director of the Transportation Commission, underscored the importance of establishing that California 118 is not a port-created truck corridor. “That has been an issue for years, and there was no good information as to whether or not that was true,” he said. “We’ve now answered that question.”

But some Somis residents said they thought the Transportation Commission was being disingenuous by offering the study as proof that California 118 is not a port-related truck corridor. They said studies are conducted to mollify concerned residents or justify planned projects depending on what the commission wants.

“People have beat the drums and said we’ve got to widen the 118 for truck access from the port,” said John Kerkhoff, a Somis resident. “Transportation bureaucracies change definitions, justification, regulations to get the latest things done.”

He said the idea that the port creates a lot of truck traffic had initially come from transportation agencies.

Two Moorpark officials said the study meant little to them. City Councilman Chris Evans said he had been led to believe that 4,000 trucks each day clog his city’s streets, not 1,900.

“It doesn’t matter what the numbers are, it is too many,” he said. “Anyone who can think logically will stand on the street corner and say, ‘This is a problem.’ ” He said the city needs to create a bypass road to get trucks out of downtown.

The numbers, the report says, indicate the planned widening of Santa Clara and Central avenues near Oxnard is necessary to keep the roads from operating at a “failing” level in 2020.

Also after Rice Avenue is extended one mile to Hueneme Road, the report recommends considering a road that would cross the port and centralize the entrance and exit points.

It also recommends encouraging the railroad to consider transporting more freight and thereby reducing the need for as many county trucks.