Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Rumbling Through the Streets of Boston

Yeah, WHAT is in that TANKER TRUCK anyway?

"trucks carrying hazardous cargo.... barreling down.... day and night.... With an eye toward the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, city officials began looking askance at all potential hazards.... forcing truckers to travel miles out of their way... wending through outlying communities.... costing them fuel, productivity, and hurting the flow of commerce"

Hey, WHO CARES about BUSINESS CONCERNS when
SAFETY is at stake, huh?

Think of that the next time you are idling behind one, 'eh, Bostonians?

All over a DAMN LIE!!!


"US slaps Boston’s rerouting of trucks; City never asked for federal OK" by Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff | November 16, 2009

I wish the f***ing Feds would leave us all alone!


Outraged that trucks carrying hazardous cargo had been barreling down Commercial Street day and night, then-House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and his North End neighbors persuaded the city in 2006 to end the temporary route used by trucks barred from Big Dig tunnels.

The city didn’t stop there: In an effort to protect public safety, Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s administration also halted all daytime permits for trucks passing through Boston with hazardous or flammable materials, including home heating oil. But now a federal agency says the traffic-calming efforts were illegal; the federal government, through the state, approves hazardous materials routes and was never consulted. The city’s simultaneous elimination of permits effectively banned gas and fuel trucks from passing through Boston....

Did they forget to salute, too?

Related: Tales of Tyranny: Ticketing Terrorists

Is that protecting public safety?

The City of Boston was forcing truckers to travel miles out of their way, costing them fuel, productivity, and hurting the flow of commerce....

Yeah, and the COMMUNITIES they were REROUTED THROUGH?

With an eye toward the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, city officials began looking askance at all potential hazards and tried to reduce fuel-toting traffic that wasn’t bound for Boston. Public concern was heightened about unintentional tragedy as well after a tanker overturned in an Everett rotary in December 2007, scorching three-deckers and cars and sending a river of burning gasoline down a residential street.

“As you can imagine, we have some very substantive public safety concerns and you need look no further than that incident . . . to see that these trucks can, under the wrong circumstances, be a deadly cargo,’’ said City Corporation Counsel William F. Sinnott.

Would YOU want them RUMBLING through YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?


Anne Lynch, executive director of the Massachusetts Motor Transportation Association, said it was the mayor’s truck ban that sent fuel trucks wending through outlying communities - in Everett and beyond. “He took traffic that should have gone through the city and rerouted it through 27 towns,’’ Lynch said. “You cannot export your risk to another community.’’

Boston Transportation Commissioner Thomas J. Tinlin said the city stopped granting permits for trucks to pass through Boston after considering public safety risks and examining drivers’ reason for the route - convenience, which under city regulations could not be a decisive factor in awarding permits. “We’re talking strictly about the person who is picking up their gas to deliver to Hyannis. Why should that person be able to cut through our city and put our citizens at risk?’’ said Tinlin. “We think the state highway system was designed for this type of commercial use.’’

Then why was it rerouted through 27 TOWNS?

Because Sal and his friends wished it so?

Sinnott said the city will take a few days to consider its legal options, which include filing a motion asking the Department of Transportation to reconsider its ruling, an appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, or compliance by May 2010....

To properly change the routes, the city would have to establish the reasoning for the shift after consulting with neighboring towns and analyzing a host of factors, including the population density along the corridor and the proximity of schools and hospitals, said Rich Moskowitz, vice president of the American Trucking Associations. “Only in doing that analysis can you make an educated decision as to what the appropriate route is that provides the best level of safety as well as an efficient transportation system,’’ said Moskowitz....

Tell it to Vermont and New York, huh?

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