[Mpls] Council committee passes anti-idling ordinance

[Dennis Plante]

Has anyone researched the alternatives available to truckers?  What is the 
nearest rural rest area at which they are able to sit idling to wait for the 
business they're unloading at to open in the morning?  How large of an 
inconvenience is it to have to do so?

What hours does the new ordinance actually cover?  If it is only until 
5-6am, then indeed truckers would have the ability to idle at an outlying 
truckstop and still beat the rush-hour traffic into the city in the morning 
to unload.  Quite often, the motivating factor (for a trucker) to idle 
overnight at a place of business is to be "first in-line" for unloading the 
next morning.

I am not saying that I am a proponent of this ordinance and yes, I do 
believe that many of the council members have developed a "fiefdom" 
mentaliy.  However, the inconvenience (to the trucking industry) may not be 
as large an inconvenience as we initially think.  As for not buying a house 
in a neighborhood where trucks idle overnight - I doubt very seriously that 
anyone would view a prospective property to purchase in the middle of the 
night.  Consequently, you might not become aware of the issue until the 
first night you tried to get a good nights' sleep...

dennis plante
jordan