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MANTECA LAUNCHES CRACKDOWN ON UNSAFE MOFFAT TRUCK PARKING
Truckers et al will get warnings for a week, tickets for a week then vehicles will be towed thereafter
trucks moffat
This photo, taken at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, shows no parking tow-away zone signs installed earlier in the day along Moffat Boulevard near Woodward Avenue.

Truckers — and everyone else — have until next Thursday to get the message.

No parking will be allowed on the entire south side of Moffat Boulevard between Austin Road and Industrial Park Drive/Spreckels Avenue.

Two weeks from today Manteca Police will start issuing $64 tickets.

Then three weeks from now any vehicle found parking in the area will be slapped with a ticket and the vehicles towed.

“It doesn’t matter if it is a big rig, a Lamborghini, or a 1972 Pinto,” said Manteca Police Captain Stephen Schluer. “If they park there they are going to get ticketed and towed.”

City crews Wednesday installed signs clearly marked “tow-away” along the stretch of Moffat. They join existing signs in place on city owned property across from the Frito-Lay distribution center that read “no parking” but also lists the vehicle code 22561(n) that allows for the towing of vehicles parked in areas banned by local ordinances and resolution.

The city did not ban parking on the north side of Moffat near Woodward Avenue where there are two retailers including a furniture store. Instead they restricted parking to vehicles that are no more than 6 feet in height as the city has done further west on Moffat Boulevard in front of the Manteca Transit Station.

 

Crackdown follows direction

from City Council for stepped

up truck parking enforcement

The crackdown comes after the City Council made it clear they wanted not only illegal trucking off designated truck routes enforced but also to ban parking along truck routes where it creates safety issues for pedestrians and the motoring public.

Schuler said city staff used an ordinance the council previously put in place to allow the municipal traffic engineer to create no-parking zones based on safety concerns without requiring a council resolution or ordinance to be adopted for specific locations.

Schuler said city engineer Ken Jorgenson had city staff conduct an in-house survey.

It determined parking trucks — and vehicles of all types — should not be allowed on the south side of Moffat from Austin Road to Industrial Park Drive/Spreckels Avenue.

Truck parking, often three abreast, obstructs the sightlines of drivers trying to turn either left or right off of Woodward Avenue onto Moffat Boulevard where traffic often travels above the posted 45 mph speed limit.

Manteca residents have been complaining about truck parking creating safety hazards along the segment of Moffat that is now posted for more than a year. There was an occasional truck that would park in the area once they began doing so about a decade ago.

Recently on a Sunday a count tallied 44 trucks parked between Austin and Industrial Park Drive/Spreckels Avenue.

“We’re all for commerce and the need for trucks,” Schuler said. (But) we also must protect the public safety and that of the motoring public.”

For the first week those found parked in the area marked as a tow-away zone will have a letter placed on their windshields explaining what is happening.

Then a week from today they will receive $64 tickets if they continue to park there. The ticket is lower than the illegal parking ticket off of truck routes that the council several months ago to $128 after officers were told by truck drivers it was cheaper to pay a Manteca issued ticket once  in a while as opposed to renting space in area commercial truck parking lots.

Parking in no tow zones are a different offense. But the cost goes way beyond $64. Offenders will have to pay for towing fees as well as impound storage fees to whatever tow service the police have tow the vehicles whether they are trucks or cars. That could easily surpass $500 given big rig tow fees are based on the weight of the truck and whether a trailer is involved.

 

No parking zone aimed

at everyone and not

just truck drivers

Schuler made it clear the tow-away zone applies to everyone, whether it involves trucks, campers, cars or other vehicles.

That is a critical point given homeless often park among trucks as well as under the 120 overpass in order to access illegal encampments along the freeway on both sides of Moffat.

Schuler said anyone who is parked sitting in a vehicle and is spotted by an officer will be advised to move to avoid being ticketed or having their vehicles towed.

The captain asked that people reporting illegal truck parking in neighborhoods or elsewhere do so using the police department’s non-emergency number (209) 456-8101 instead of the government outreach app.

That’s because such complaints via the app can take a day or more to come to the attention of someone whereas a non-emergency phone call is more time sensitive.

 The city clearly has its work cut out.

On Wednesday there were trucks illegally parked along Union Road that is not a truck route. They also have to determine if it is safe in spots were trucks park on other truck routes or whether anyone should be allowed to park in the vicinity of freeway ramps.

Further west on Moffat a truck driver pulled up next to his rig in a pickup truck, engaged his emergency blinkers and then popped his hood as he proceeded to work on his semi. He was double parked crowding the bike lane on the heavily traveled Moffat corridor that is posted for 45 mph.

Behind him another truck driver had left their trailer on the street while taking the truck cab apparently to his home to park.

Across the street another semi-truck had parked where the city over two years ago posted “no stopping signs.”

A number of the “no parking” and “no stopping” signs on the north side of Moffat have faded significantly since they were installed in 2006 making them difficult to read.

Recently adopted parking increases now mean parking in front of a fire hydrant or in a no parking zone costs $64, doing a vehicle repair in the street or parking for more than 72 hours on the street is a $54 fine, parking outside of markings is a $50 fine, an unhitched trailer is $64 such as the one on Moffat on Wednesday, obstruction of a bike lane is $204, while parking in an alley or in a passenger loading zone is $64.

 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com