Another chapter in the history book about Portage will be completed soon. What had been a yawning chasm in Portage's principal downtown street, one that exposed the city's entrails of utility pipes, now has been filled and paved once again. Barriers are still at each end of the completed downtown blocks, but a few errant cars had been seen along the curb, probably delighting in the easy choice of parking spots.

As I walked the color-designed sidewalk, the streetscape assumed the look of pride and magnificence. The colorful Victorian-era architecture of the store buildings was even more evident with the expanse of the empty street. Even the stores that were "in transition," avoiding the use of the word "empty," were well maintained, disguising the look of being unoccupied.

As I stood alone, I enjoyed, and was absorbed, into its silence, and yet realizing that the soon-to-be restored economic activity would be an even more welcome sound.

There will be a sound reverberating along the downtown streets that will not be welcomed back - that of the monstrous, exhaust-belching trucking behemoths that intimidate people within cars and those on the sidewalks and intersections.

Standing on the curb, waiting for the behemoth to make his precarious turn from one highway to another at a downtown corner is a breathtaking experience for the truck driver as well as those watching. He, too, is probably wishing he was elsewhere.

When moving here from Illinois, numberless decades ago, and becoming involved in the tourism business, the city's welcoming enticement to potential industries and travelers was that Portage was the crossroads of three busy highways: 16, 51 and 33. It was a source of pride and was even considered to be a bit of community achievement.

Not many words need to be used in explaining how times have changed since then. It is something of which we are all aware. More words should be used, however, in speaking of the unreasonable and damaging demands and increasing encroachment made on the public by shipping and transportation industries, prompted by the widening and vigorous marketing procedures by other industries.

There is a fast-growing movement throughout this country to support local producers, meaning those within a reasonable area. Seeing that the source of the personal milk carton contents in a Portage fast-food restaurant was New York moved me to the rank of those believers. Do the people of the top cranberry-growing state really need cranberries from Massachusetts? Or apples from the state of Washington? Potatoes from Idaho? Large food producers and trucking corporations think so, but you don't have to.

In the time of the decades I had written about earlier, most of the freight was carried by railroads that are still available and less air polluting than trucking. It was also a time in which trucks had greater restrictions. Does anyone else remember that trucks were not allowed to operate on federal highways on Sundays, except in emergency shipments, in the consideration of the usually heavier citizen traffic over weekends?

It was also a time of smaller trucks. Some years ago, double-bottomed trucks appeared. It was a term applied to a truck pulling two trailers. Common sense, and possibly public demand, curtailed the passage of the double-bottomed trucks from entering residential areas. Why then, has there not been a combined voice of communities, such as Portage, in asking the federal government to ban the passage of trucks over a certain size from entering their residential areas? The partial solution of a problem would belong to the perpetuator rather than the victim.

The newly released The Public Citizen newspaper contains the story of a May conference held in the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to counter the lobbying efforts of the trucking and shipping industry to weaken federal safety laws and to increase truck weights and size. It was sponsored by The Public Citizen and other public-interest groups.

Statistics about the dangers of heavy trucks could not be made any clearer. Heavy trucks make up only 3 percent of all registered vehicles, yet they account for 9 percent of fatal crashes.

They also cause serious damage to roads and bridges. One 80,000-pound tractor-trailer, which is the allowed weight now, can inflict as much damage to the road pavement as 9,600 cars.

"The idea of letting bigger trucks on the road is just crazy," said the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, James P. Hoffa. "They're extremely dangerous and they ruin our roads and bridges which are already in bad shape."

And yet, the lobbying group for the industries, Americans for Safe and Efficient Transportation, is pushing Congress to weaken safety laws and increase truck weights to 97,000 pounds without changing the trailer's axle configuration.

What has prompted the writing of this subject? It is the following paragraph from The Public Citizen: "Despite these facts, the trucking and shipping industries are launching a lobbying campaign in Congress to allow longer and heavier trucks on American roads. They are asking lawmakers to allow trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds in six states - Georgia, Maine, Michigan, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin - as part of a ‘demonstration project.'

"Next year Congress will revisit (a) ‘must pass' multibillion dollar surface transportation bill that authorizes federal programs for highways, highway safety and transit."

Now is the time for individuals and elected units of local government to contact the determining people and agencies of the state of Wisconsin, as well as their congressional representatives, in a protest and displeasure to the trucking industry's plan for their increased profits at the cost of human life and public infrastructure.

 

Blanche Murtagh is a longtime Portage resident and activist who has had many of her stories published.