When large trucks roar past Deb Lowry’s house on 39th Street in Vancouver, the noise is so disruptive, it can set off her car alarm, she told city councilors Monday.
“It’s really loud,” Lowry said.
That could change.
On Monday, the Vancouver City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance to prohibit trucks from moving freight on 39th Street. The city hopes to have signs up redirecting the vehicles by October. The decision is part of a larger effort to balance commercial needs with livability concerns.
“The purpose is to prohibit through truck movements from Interstate 5 to Fruit Valley Road and to from Fruit Valley Road to Interstate 5,” said Patrick Sweeney, the city’s principal transportation planner. “It’s looking to preserve neighborhood livability.”
Truck traffic nearly tripled on 39th Street after November 2010, when a state-built $19 million bridge spanning the railroad tracks near Fruit Valley Road opened.
Councilor Anne McEnerny-Ogle said she has lived in the neighborhood for more than three decades and the area changed dramatically once the bridge was built.
The ordinance applies only to freight traffic; those using the street for smaller deliveries wouldn’t be affected. The city is working with the Washington State Department of Transportation on signage and a global positioning service truck-routing provider to help ensure trucks are rerouted.
“We’re not exactly sure how the trucks that take 39th Street would distribute their routes; however, we passed a resolution to reduce the speed limit on Fourth Plain, between Interstate 5 and Kauffman (Avenue),” Sweeney said.
The residents who testified Monday spoke of homes vibrating from the trucks, the inability to sleep soundly with their windows open and concerns of air pollution.
Others mentioned public-safety concerns. Erin Hayes said she moved to the Lincoln neighborhood because of its charm and character. But, she said, “walking to Lincoln Elementary School is a little precarious.”
Lowry, who grew up on 39th Street, said it was always a busy road. When crossing it, Lowry said, “you had to look both ways, but it wasn’t death-defying.”
Mobility strategy
In 2015, the Community and Economic Development Department launched the Westside Mobility Strategy to address complaints about the truck traffic along the east-west arterial streets, according to the city. The goal is to improve safety and preserve neighborhood livability while offering reliable, efficient routes for commercial drivers.
Removing freight traffic from 39th Street is one of the first steps in the strategy. The city also has plans to improve Main Street and work on the city’s bikeway network. Its goal is not to examine each street as an individual corridor but to look at the city’s roads as a network.
Of Monday’s vote, Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt said, “I think we’re moving in the right direction.”
