In The News

Gov. Paterson backs off all-out truck ban in upstate NY

It appears that New York Gov. David Paterson is backing away from a proposed plan aimed at restricting large truck traffic in the Finger Lakes region.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 17, Paterson stated that “rather than issuing a new regulation, the state is utilizing (the) New York State Department of Transportation’s existing regulatory powers in combination with new strategies and tools to resolve the issue of large through-trucks traveling in the Finger Lakes.”

Paterson said that a number of steps have been used to “achieve solutions that preserve the quality of life, commerce, agriculture and safety of Finger Lakes communities.”

For more than two years, long-haul truckers have been fighting a proposed regulation that was mainly aimed at reducing the number of trash haulers from New York City who were bypassing the New York State Thruway on their way to Seneca Meadows, a major landfill in upstate New York. Originally, the plan sought to restrict all large truck traffic from using these state routes except for pick-up or delivery.

OOIDA was part of a coalition organized by the New York State Motor Truck Association and others whose businesses would have been negatively affected if all large truck traffic would have been restricted from these state routes.

According to the governor’s statement, a routing-restriction clause was added to the “landfill’s new and/or renewed contracts with waste haulers.” Trash haulers must use Interstate 81 and the Thruway. The policy is expected to be completely adopted by October 2011.

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