Trucks will be banned from a popular shortcut in northern Virginia outside Washington, D.C.,
if the governor signs a bill passed by the state Legislature.
Residents along an 8-mile stretch of U.S. 17 between U.S. 50 and Interstate 66 waged a campaign against trucks on the road. The man who spearheaded the anti-truck measure told The Washington Post, "It's been like a parade of elephants."
Route 17 provides a shortcut between Interstates 81 and 95. The route helps drivers avoid congestion, exacerbated by the reconstruction of the Springfield interchange on the Capital Beltway, nicknamed the "mixing bowl." The Post calls the route a de facto outer beltway around the Washington area.
One in three vehicles on the 8-mile stretch is a truck, the Post reports. That's three times the ideal number for a road of this type, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.
The two-year campaign to get the truck ban enacted included residents buying CB radios and recording truckers talking about overweight loads, and blowing their horns and screeching their brakes to annoy the residents. They also showed a photo montage of truck crashes on the routes to state lawmakers. And they enlisted the help of their U.S. congressman, Rep. Frank Wolf, who has vigorously attacked truck safety at the federal level.
As a result, the ban was approved by an overwhelming margin, despite opposition by the trucking industry and some lawmakers who feared it would open a Pandora's Box of similar requests from communities all over the state.
"What you will find," said Dale Bennett, executive vice president of the Virginia Trucking Assn., "is when you restrict trucks from a major route, you're taking what one area perceives as a problem and exporting it to another area and exacerbating it. What are we going to do when commuters on Route 66 say, 'There's too many trucks'?" he told the paper.
Gov. James Gilmore has not said whether he will sign the bill.