It is no longer legal for trucks to park along a segment of Moffat Boulevard after the city determined they were imperiling the safety of pedestrians, bicyclists, and even motorists.

City crews on Friday erected “no parking any time signs” along the south side of Moffat Boulevard starting at a point just west of Powers Avenue to beyond Cowell Avenue.

Manteca Police Captain Stephen Schluer on Monday indicated there will be a short grace period with warnings issued before tickets are issued for illegal parking.

The Manteca City Council last year raised the fine for illegal truck parking from $50 to $125. Not only was the fine $46 cheaper than in neighboring cities but truck drivers told police paying parking fines in Manteca — even if they got three a month was less expensive than renting space at a commercial truck parking lot.

Schuler noted the city engineers have been conducting speed and other surveys as part of an effort to enhance road safety.

They determined truck parking on the section of Moffat where all parking is now banned was hazardous for a number of reasons.

*Pedestrians trying to cross Moffat at Powers or Cowell were being forced to literally stick their heads between trucks to see if there was oncoming traffic.

*Trucks would actually block access for both pedestrians and bicyclists trying to reach the Tidewater Bikeway from the Powers Tract neighborhood via Cowell Street.

*Truck drivers would often park personal vehicles in the bicycle lane or in the middle turn lane to access their trucks.

Drivers were also working on the engines of their parked trucks as well as leaving trailers unattached.

And in recent months, the homeless living in RVs, old school buses, and cars would park between trucks. While the homeless parking on city streets to sleep or for periods up to 72 hours in one spot isn’t illegal, because of the cover the trucks provided some of the homeless took to blocking the sidewalk with their belongings.

They would also dump their trash including — in some cases — plastic containers filled with urine between the sidewalk and the Tidewater Bikeway. That area, along with the bike path, is part of a 34-acre linear city park.

City engineers are also conducting a survey to see whether conditions warrant a three-way stop at Powers Avenue due to traffic volume and speed.

Three years ago, the city narrowed the travel lanes on Moffat to address speeding. Moffat is the longest stretch of pavement in the central city without a stop sign or other traffic control device such as traffic signals or a roundabout. It is a mile from Main Street to Spreckels Avenue/Industrial Park Drive.

Schluer noted trucks started parking in the area in question on Moffat after the bike lanes were installed.

“That wasn’t the intent,” Schuler said of the stripping that prompted truckers to start parking their rigs there.

Schuler noted other city departments are working on a citywide truck route study. He added the only reason Moffat was made a truck route as far west as Grant Street was due to truck scales that were once located there.

Consultant’s proposal has

through truck route going

through part of downtown

While there is a trucking terminal next to Eckert’s Cold Storage, there may be no justification to continue having a truck route on Moffat beyond that location.

However, the consultant the city hired circulated one map that extended the truck route on South Main that now turns onto Industrial Park Drive northward into downtown where it would tie into the existing truck route on Moffat.

If that happens the city would be making a more robust truck route not only going into part of downtown and past the Manteca Transit Center but also past the new front orientation of Manteca High.

Based on existing uses and zoning the city would have no choice but to keep most of the Moffat truck route in place although there would be no justification for it to go west of Eckert’s. That would still allow truck route access to Eckert’s, the trucking terminal, a fueling station for trucks and a firm that works on truck engines while operating a small truck parking yard.

Schluer noted trucks have the right to travel any street in the city to make pickups and deliveries as long as the street isn’t posted to explicitly bar truck movements.

The captain noted the police department is enforcing the areas marked for no truck parking.

They have even periodically assigned community service officers to weekend shifts to ticket trucks parking in posted no parking zones such as on Airport Way as well as on Moffat near Woodward Avenue.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com