A consultant is recommending that Palm Beach adopt an ordinance to limit the presence of oversized trucks on residential streets.
The Town Council discussed the issue last week after a presentation by engineering consultant firm Kimley-Horn, which was hired by the town in 2019 to study truck movement patterns and suggest ways to stop or limit big trucks from traveling on to narrow residential streets.
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Adam Kerr, transportation engineer at Kimley-Horn, said the firm had collected traffic volumes throughout the town for the study, particularly in residential areas. The goal, he said, was to determine which trucks can maneuver local streets without encroaching on private property.
“Large trucks have difficulty maneuvering in some of the streets and they can cause traffic congestion and property damage in neighborhoods,” Kerr said.
One of the recommendations from Kimley-Horn, he said, is for the town to adopt an ordinance similar to one in St. Augustine, which doesn’t allow oversized trucks in certain areas of the city without a permit.
Such an ordinance could require permits for truck-trailer combinations and trucks longer than 30 feet that want to circulate in residential areas, particularly in the North End, he said.
According to the Kimley-Horn study, delivery trucks, such as those operated by postal and package delivery services, have been shown to be able to maneuver residential streets without encroaching on private property. Larger box trucks (two-axle) also are generally able to maneuver most residential streets.
The restriction would not apply to fire trucks and emergency vehicles, Kerr said.
He said the data showed truck traffic in residential areas are as much as 3% of the daily truck volume, in some cases up to 2,000 trucks a day.
Kerr said the number was surprising because it showed the volume of trucks in residential areas is not much different than in commercial areas in town, which typically see more truck deliveries.
“The majority of the observed trucks (on residential streets) were what we would call a single unit truck. That’s Amazon delivery, small moving vans and such,” Kerr said.
Traffic data was also gathered from the town’s three major bridges and roads, including County Road, Royal Poinciana Way and Royal Palm Way.
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Council member Lew Crampton said the study should be sent to the Ordinances, Rules and Standards Committee for its input.
“There are certainly questions that need to be reviewed. For example, if we were to do an ordinance, do we want to limit the size of articulated trucks? That could be a problem,” he said.
Signage and enforcement issues will have to be considered by the committee before any kind of ordinance is proposed, Crampton said.
Council member Ted Cooney, who is a member of the Ordinances, Rules and Standards Committee, said the need for “sizable trucks” and how to limit them will be some of the questions that will need to be answered
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Mayor Danielle Moore said the measure could be confusing for out-of-state moving trucks not familiar with the restriction.
Town Manager Kirk Blouin told the council the plan would need additional staff and resources to enforce it.
“This isn’t something they can pick up casually as another duty. This is a dedicated resource that we need to be doing all the time,” he said. “I just want people to be realistic of what might come out of this.”
Council President Maggie Zeidman said officials would have to “beef up” the enforcement early on so people will get the message.
“It has to have teeth or it won’t do anything,” she said.
