ILLEGAL TRUCK PARKING

The illegal truck stop that has North Jersey cops at their wit's end

A tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder on I-287 in Mahwah. Local officials say despite their efforts to keep trucks from parking on the highway, truckers still stop night after night.

By Fausto Giovanny Pinto | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com 

MAHWAH — Every night, day after day, hulking tractor-trailers line up here, on the shoulder of I-287, idling for hours at this illegal truck stop.

The drivers come out to smoke as cars whiz past. They stretch and rest on the extra-wide shoulder, just minutes from the New York state line.

Despite tickets, signs and police patrols in the area, the trucks return night after night. Mahwah officials, for their part, say they are at their wit's end with the trucks, and that their efforts to curb what they say is a dangerous situation have proven unsuccessful.

"We come along and move them but an hour later they are back," Mahwah Chief of Police James Batelli said. "We can't continue to allocate resources every night."

Trucks are banned from using the Garden State Parkway north of exit 105, but a reader says he sees them driving on it anyway. What's allow and what's not?

And when confronted, many drivers tell police that they can't drive anymore because they have exceeded the amount of miles they can legally drive in the day, Batelli said.

"If you don't arrive at a truck stop by 1 to 2 p.m. in New York or New Jersey you won't get a spot," Rick Toutges, a truck driver from South Dakota, said Friday at the nearby Pilot truck stop on Route 17. "We can only drive 11 hours a day, and when that's up we can't go anymore because we'll get fined."

Highway America

Kevin Johnson, a trucker from "the great state of Michigan," agreed that it was dangerous to park illegally on the side of an interstate, but also decried the fact that there's very little parking for truckers. 

"Look at where I'm at (now), squeezed in here," Johnson said as his truck stood in a corner of the packed Pilot truck stop. "They need to build more stops."

The shoulder of road where the trucks stop on 287 is particular dangerous due to steep inclines and the merging of the highway from three lanes into two, Batelli said.

He said he would like the shoulder narrowed or removed.

"This is truly a state problem," Batelli said. "I wish the state took more engineering studies of the area."

A spokesman from the state Department of Transportation said the agency has not heard from Mahwah officials about the problem.

"There are a number of private rest stops throughout the state that accommodate truck drivers," said Steve Schapiro, communications director at the DOT. "It's important to remember that it is unlawful to stop on the shoulders of state highways except for emergencies, which makes this a law enforcement issue."

Batelli said State Police routinely patrol the area, but the trucks return soon after they are moved . . . 

For the full article

Fausto Giovanny Pinto may be reached at fpinto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @FGPreporting. 

Peter Blakeborough, a former interstate driver, say truck drivers have three options:

One. They can keep on driving after they have exceeded their legal driving hours, risking a fine, or worse going to sleep at the wheel and killing someone.

Two. They can park illegally when they have run out of hours and failed to fine safe and legal parking, risking another fine and a possible accident.

Three. They can abandon truck driving and let others worry about delivering the goods on time, often to the very people who show no consideration for the welfare of truckers.

It has been clear for many years that governments, federal and state, have no intention to fund adequate parking for interstate trucks. They fail to understand that these drivers do not return to their home depots every night. They are normally on the road for weeks at a time. Many states do provide rest areas close to interstates, but these are few and far between in heavily populated states like New Jersey and New York. In many rest areas trucks are restricted to four hours parking, even though the law requires drivers to rest for ten continuous hours. For truck drivers, whatever they do, they will be damned if they do and damned if they don't.

American truck parking is a shameful fiasco and the main culprit is federal and state governments. For years they have been playing the famous American game called Pass the Buck. It's time the buck stopped.

NEW ZEALAND HOUSING

Voters hold the key to New Zealand’s housing problems

A 1905 Liberal Government
worker's house near Wellington

A 1930's Labour Government state housing street

It's time for New Zealanders to get over their attitude to social housing. New Zealand has had a housing crisis since colonial days. Homelessness and housing deprivation is not new. It has been increasing for at least 150 years.

Numerous governments from the 1890's onward have attempted to overcome housing problems, but with limited success. First there was worker housing early in the twentieth century, followed by state and council housing.

But Kiwis are obsessed with home ownership and refuse to accept that not everyone is able (or wants) to be a home owner. In many developed countries, particularly in Europe, the attitude is different. Social housing is acceptable and carries no stigma, the way it does in New Zealand. In some countries social housing amounts to 25-50% of all housing stock. In New Zealand that figure is less than 5%.

People at the bottom end of the socio-economic ladder have always struggled with housing in New Zealand. They struggle basically because the average Kiwi believes that they should own their own home, or go without. The state shouldn't have to help them. Alternately, Kiwis will say that a state house should be okay only for the very poorest and only until they get established. Then they should make way for someone else.

When New Zealand had state owned banking, insurance, coal-mines, and airlines, why was it okay to use these services, but not okay to use a government house? Doesn't that show a flaw in our thinking?

Successive governments have known about the true state of New Zealand housing for generations, but have been powerless to fix the problem. In the end government can only do what the voters will allow them to do, and the majority of Kiwi voters do not believe in social housing. A few here and there, yes, but 20% of houses throughout the country? A definite no to that. A program to build the required number of houses started by one government would be abandoned by the next government three years later, and before any real benefits were evident.

Housing in New Zealand will change when Kiwis change their thinking.

Like most countries, New Zealand goes through economic cycles and the cycles contribute to the growing numbers of homeless. When the economy booms, people are homeless because they can't afford the high cost of renting or buying. When the economy slumps, they can't afford to buy or rent because they don't enough income.

Typically, in a downturn, people stop building houses because of reduced demand and trades people leave the country or go into other industries. House prices fall, businesses and jobs disappear. But the downturn is always only temporary. Recovery is just around the corner. During these downturns the government has an excellent opportunity to increase the housing stock ready for the next boom, and to keep the tradesmen in the country and working. But most important, it should be houses waiting for people, not people waiting for houses.

Finally, why does the average Kiwi think that state tenants should have to move on when they can afford to buy a house? What is the point? Did the same Kiwis think that people doing business with the old Bank of New Zealand, or State Insurance, or National Airways Corporation, should be restricted to being customers only for a specific time? They didn't, and it makes no sense to limit tenants in social housing. In fact, I believe they should be encouraged to stay for the rest of their days and to treat the house as though it were their own.

But none of this can happen until New Zealanders re-invent their social housing attitudes. Meanwhile, it won't matter who is Minister of Social Housing. That minister will always be unpopular. Can anyone remember a Minister of Housing who was popular? Like the people Paula Bennett would like to help, she is stuck between a rock and a hard place. In New Zealand it will always be a brave minister who takes on housing, until Kiwis change.

 

Minister of Social Housing
Paula Bennett