The Moderate Mainstream, “Position - Commercial traffic”

I cannot say for certain if this individual is a left leaning blogger, but this idea is so poorly developed that Tracy must have received the idea from some moonbat from the left.

I have thought about this one for a long time. There are some obvious issues people would raise, but overall I like it.

No commercial traffic is allowed between 6am and 7pm with the following exceptions: public transportation, including intra and interstate buses; small package delivery vehicles (such as Fed Ex and UPS); and moving vehicles picking up or delivering personal goods (vehicles moving businesses would be restricted).

I wonder which level of government (City, County, State, Federal) Tracy believes should enact this legislation. The level of government matters greatly. I’ll break it down.

City and County - If such a law could even be passed, enforced and not removed within a year, the only result would be a severe economic slowdown. Businesses would relocate out of the area and residents would have no choice but to move if they wanted to maintain an average lifestyle. It would basically create an Amish Paradise. It would be fine for people that are self reliant, hard working and skilled, but the vast majority of people would be devastated.

State – No such law could ever be enforced. It violates countless Federal laws. The fact that it violates interstate trade would immediately land this type of legislation in front of Federal court, should it pass.

Federal – If one were to design a law to destroy the economy within 6 months, it would look like this. Cheaper wages and less regulation already make shipping jobs overseas attractive for corporations. A corporation would have little choice but to relocate all production facilities overseas under this type of regulation. That is of course if this law was enforced. It violates international trade agreements and would irritate many nations, Canada and Mexico specifically. You also have to remember that many companies that operate within the United States are headquartered overseas. Their home nations would likely send delegations to speak with our government about this law since it is an outright restriction of trade.

This restriction would apply in both urban and rural areas and include construction vehicles.

There are countless problems with this, but I’ll only go into one aspect. Small construction firms do not have a lot of equipment. I worked for a roofing company a few years ago. We had one rough terrain lift truck (extending boom fork lift). Sometimes that lift truck would be needed at more than one site during a single day. We needed this equipment to get heavy materials to the roof level. Without that equipment we would either have to manually lift material up ladders, which can be very dangerous, or stop work at that site. In order to keep work progressing on sites, the lift truck would arrive by flat bed trailer in the morning at one site where the material would be lifted to the roof and then the lift truck would be put back on the flat bed trailer and moved to another site to lift other materials. If no construction traffic is allowed, then only one lift operation could be accomplished a day. A second lift operation could be accomplished sometime after 7 pm, but you have to remember that during much of the year that the sun has set already and the lift would have to be performed during hours of darkness. That is not a safe operation and I’m sure OSHA would not allow it.

Small construction firms already have a difficult time competing with larger firms. This tips the balance towards larger firms. I wonder if Tracy hates small businesses.

The result would be a significant reduction in traffic. It would also end commercial truckers driving more than 11 hours per day (in itself a violation). It would probably, over time, force much trucking onto rail for longer than two day trips.

Sorry, but commercial traffic is not the cause of congested roadways. Get yourself a video camera and film congested traffic. Then carefully calculate statistics from the video. You’ll quickly find that the vast majority of vehicles on the roadways are personal vehicles, many with single occupants. Commercial traffic already makes an effort to avoid congested roadways. Having their shipments bogged down in rush hour wastes time and money. They schedule their shipments to travel during less congested times or use alternate routes.

It would also put somewhere between 15 and 25% of the labor force onto 2nd and 3rd shifts.

I fail to see the real benefits of this. People have families. Their children’s schedules are set by their school hours. People on 2nd and 3rd shift have less time to spend with their families.

This idea is so poorly thought out that I wonder if Tracy spent more than a few minutes contemplating it.