Small Towns with Heavy Truck Traffic

[thspfc]

I think Rosendale is Wisconsin's winner. Trucks going to and from Oshkosh, Appleton, and Green Bay all use the WI-26 shortcut between I-41 and US-151. Trucks going between I-90/94 and Fond du Lac use WI-23.

[webny99]

Well, I suppose this calls into question what a "town"  is and what it means for truck traffic to be in the "heart of a small town" .
As has been observed before, Breezewood is not a town; it's not an incorporated municipality of any kind. But even setting technicalities aside, I'd argue that Breezewood lacks the attributes that make a town a town. In other words, it's not a community of residents centered around an identifiable town core with civic organizations, merchants selling at least basic necessities (groceries, general merchandise), a town bank, etc.

That's what I was getting at, but you put it much better. 

I can't read the OP's mind, but to me, what would be novel about the notion of truck traffic on small town streets is this: Picture a quaint hamlet with its church on the town square, tidy homes, shopkeepers opening up for the morning, children walking down the sidewalk to school...and meanwhile, a continuous flow of tractor trailers roars down the narrow two-lane Main Street, making a 90° elbow at the town's lone signalized intersection.

Precisely, yes: On a scale of sorts, that would be an extremely fitting example. The Arkansas example you linked to would be the middle ground (semi-relevant), while Breezewood is basically a glorified truck stop and would be on the far end of the spectrum (least relevant).

Along those lines, I think there are better examples in the Susquehanna Valley than Lewisburg
...
I'd say a better nearby example is Northumberland, where high volumes of trucks either connect between the US 11/15 corridor and PA 147/I-180 or simply follow US 11 or PA 147, all of which make somewhat tortured connections via the borough's streets.

No doubt, yes. I was cherry-picking from a few that came immediately to mind, and went with Lewisburg over Shamokin Dam simply because Lewisburg generally has a less commercialized feel, as alluded to above. Northumberland would be a true classic example, while Lewisburg fits into the semi-relevant category, and Shamokin Dam slightly less so.

[sparker]

Los Banos is infamous for truck traffic since CA 152 is an expressway of both sides of town but a surface street in town.  Kerman has a pretty high volume of trucks at times trying to get through on CA 145 and CA 180.  Both locales are driven by the local agricultural industry which has a massive amount of freight volume.  It kind of makes me wish much of the surplus railroads of the Central Valley didn't go under to provide some sort of shipping alternatives. 

Although it doesn't go right through the central part of the city, CA 152 traverses a commercial area on the southeast side of Gilroy (that includes the infamously odiferous Christopher Ranch garlic processing plant); it can be a dangerous street to drive because of the large volume of stop-and-go truck traffic -- not to mention the eastbound section that drops from 3 lanes to 1 rather abruptly.  And a lot of that traffic stays on 152 through Los Banos as Max has observed! 

Regarding the truncation of the Valley rail lines, both Los Banos and Kerman were served by the old SP "Westside" line extending from Fresno west and northwest through Kerman, Mendota, Los Banos, Patterson, and finally Tracy, where it crossed and interchanged with the Lathrop-Niles line over the hill via Pleasanton, continuing on to Antioch and Martinez, finally merging with the main Oakland-Sacramento main line.  As Max noted, it was primarily an agricultural server -- but it hosted one of the more famous/notorious semi-passenger runs that SP ever hosted -- the "mail train", which went from Los Angeles to Oakland via both the "eastside" Valley line via Porterville, Exeter, and Dinuba before rejoining the main Valley line just south of the Fresno SP passenger depot; it then went west on the Westside Line through Tracy before segueing onto the "Mococo" line through Antioch and Martinez, then dipping back south to Oakland.  An overnight run (in both directions; the trains met in Fresno); it consisted of (besides the locomotive) several mail cars and a couple of passenger coaches at the rear.  Because it was the slowest run between the two areas (leaving L.A. about 5 p.m and not getting into Oakland until about 10:30 the next morning, due to slowing or stopping in just about every town along the way to drop off and pick up mail sacks, it featured the lowest intercity fares (in the late '40's, about $4 for a single-direction trip) available.  I learned about this from my parents, as my father's work (managing heavy construction sites) took him to a dam project near Jackson, CA back in 1949; my mother (during much of that year pregnant with me!) took that train several time to visit my father, who drove down to Tracy to pick her up and later drop her off for the return trip.   Currently, what's left of those secondary Valley lines are under short-line ownership; much of the mileage, including the section from Kerman to Los Banos, has been removed (Max discusses some of the more southerly abandoned trackage in his CA 65 posts).         

[Konza]

I'll offer up Sonoita and Patagonia, Arizona. 

Both are located northeast of Nogales on SR 82.  There are signs at both ends of SR 82 (and on I-10 at SR 90) advising truckers headed east from (or west to) the International Border to use I-19 and I-10 instead of SR 82, but there is still a lot of truck traffic.  The I-19/I-10 route sends you almost into the middle of Tucson, while taking SR 82 and SR 90 takes you through one town (Patagonia) and a couple of wide spots in the road (Sonoita and Whetstone).  Speed limits on the Interstates are 75 outside of Tucson and 65 on SR 90 and SR 82 east of Sonoita.  SR 82 is a bit hilly as well.

Not sure how you fix this other than an outright ban- or improving the border crossing at Douglas, including improved infrastructure to the south.

[Brandon]

I'll offer Elwood and Manhattan, Illinois.  Granted, both (especially Manhattan) are growing into suburbs, they still act like small towns.  Both are near the two very large intermodal yards south of Joliet.  Elwood has a population of 2,279 as of 2010; and Manhattan has a population of 7,051 as of 2010.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwood,_Illinois
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan,_Illinois
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CenterPoint_Intermodal_Center

[nexus73]

US 20 in Ohio between Toledo and Cleveland gets a lot of truck traffic, generated by both local traffic and longer range shunpikers.

The following towns have the 4 lane US 20 going right through their central business district: Woodville (2,135), Bellevue (8,202), Monroeville (1,400)
There's also Clyde (6,325), which has it as a 4 lane arterial that passes north of the central business district, and Wakeman (1,047), which is on the 2 lane portion.

Norwalk (17,012) and Fremont (16,734) have freeway bypasses.

Norwalk's high school sports teams are called the "Truckers".  I always thought it was because of heavy truck traffic through there, which isn't really the reason.  A Norwalk-based company formed in the mid-40's called Norwalk Truck Lines, which specialized in shipping various type of freight throughout the Midwest, was the inspiration, as detailed here:

http://www.norwalktruckers.net/Downloads/Why%20Are%20We%20the%20Truckers3.pdf

In Oregon we have the Powers Cruisers, a very small high school.  The Cruiser name refers to timber cruisers as opposed to naval cruisers.  For a small town in the middle of the Coast Range that is quite isolated, log truck traffic was very high when timber was going strong from the end of WW2 to 1979, which is when our economy got totaled by high oil prices due to Carter throwing the Shah under the bus and inflation rates were in the teens.  That took the starch out of a lot of rural Oregon.

Rick

[sparker]

Speaking of Oregon -- any of the small towns along US 97 from the CA state line north to Madras see one hell of a lot of timber traffic -- maybe a little less today having "shelved" down a bit after the 2008 housing "bust".  But the last time I was up there (2011) there was still plenty of logs being hauled up and down that highway through Klamath Falls (at about 25K maybe a "big" small town), Chemult, and La Pine.  The fact that the highway cuts right through Sierra Pacific and Weyerhaeuser evergreen "plantations" accounts for a lot of the traffic heading south toward mills in Klamath Falls and Weed, CA or north to Bend and Redmond.  You haven't lived until you've had to stand on your brakes as a logger enters the road right in front of you while you're doing 75 on that 23-mile arrow-straight stretch south of the OR 138 junction (about half the time they don't even bother to stop at all)!  Stopped one time in Chemult for a snack en route to Seattle one summer in the late '80's; I counted about 20 log trucks in both directions for the five minutes I was in the convenience store!   

[nexus73]

Speaking of Oregon -- any of the small towns along US 97 from the CA state line north to Madras see one hell of a lot of timber traffic -- maybe a little less today having "shelved" down a bit after the 2008 housing "bust".  But the last time I was up there (2011) there was still plenty of logs being hauled up and down that highway through Klamath Falls (at about 25K maybe a "big" small town), Chemult, and La Pine.  The fact that the highway cuts right through Sierra Pacific and Weyerhaeuser evergreen "plantations" accounts for a lot of the traffic heading south toward mills in Klamath Falls and Weed, CA or north to Bend and Redmond.  You haven't lived until you've had to stand on your brakes as a logger enters the road right in front of you while you're doing 75 on that 23-mile arrow-straight stretch south of the OR 138 junction (about half the time they don't even bother to stop at all)!  Stopped one time in Chemult for a snack en route to Seattle one summer in the late '80's; I counted about 20 log trucks in both directions for the five minutes I was in the convenience store!   

Back in the day, one did Sunday drives in the country.  Why?  That was the only day the rural roads were not overrun with log trucks!  Those drivers could make a narrow 2-lane road into a freeway with their speed and ability to stay on their side of the line.  That made for a scary situation for the car drivers as those trucks barreled along, one after another.

Rick

[sparker]

.......and then there's OR 58 and Oakridge.  Never have seen a concentration of log trucks like along the street section of 58 through the middle of that town (many of them stopped for food, gas, etc.).  Will give them credit for not displaying hazardous driving while coming down the hill from Willamette Pass (although encountering one in the tunnel can inherently be a bit hairy!).  But those heading for Eugene tend to try to make up time on the straight/flat stretch east of I-5; some have driven up my tailpipe on more than one occasion.

[bwana39]

While I-69 is coming; Corrigan TX (US-59 & US287), Diboll TX, Teneha TX, Timpson TX, Garrison TX (All US-5

Ashdown AR, Dequeen AR (US 71)

Bogata TX , Pittsburg TX, Gilmer TX  (US 271)

I could keep going.

[hotdogPi]

Does anyone know if Truckee lives up to its name?

[Max Rockatansky]

Does anyone know if Truckee lives up to its name?

It doesn't, Donner Pass Road is almost exclusively the domain of tourism traffic.  The truckers stick almost entirely to I-80 unless they are making a delivery locally or to the Tahoe region. 

[webny99]

Does anyone know if Truckee lives up to its name?

It doesn't, Donner Pass Road is almost exclusively the domain of tourism traffic.  The truckers stick almost entirely to I-80 unless they are making a delivery locally or to the Tahoe region.

... but I believe I-80 still goes right through Truckee, unless I'm missing something here.

[sparker]

Does anyone know if Truckee lives up to its name?

It doesn't, Donner Pass Road is almost exclusively the domain of tourism traffic.  The truckers stick almost entirely to I-80 unless they are making a delivery locally or to the Tahoe region.

... but I believe I-80 still goes right through Truckee, unless I'm missing something here.

The I-80 freeway does enter incorporated Truckee, but it bypasses the downtown area.  The only intersecting highways that would likely host local commercial movements are CA 89, which multiplexes with I-80 around downtown, and CA 267, which shares an interchange with CA 89 (north) east of downtown.  Old US 40 does run right through the historic downtown district, but not as a state facility.  About the only time through trucks even consider heading toward  downtown is if I-80 is closed due to severe weather over Donner Summit.