Governor McGreevey is taking a very strong stand to defend New Jersey’s truck rules.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Chesler held that regulations that prevent large trucks making interstate trips through New Jersey from using local and secondary roads have a discriminatory effect on interstate commerce and violate the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause.

This week, Governor McGreevey vowed to appeal the ruling, and wasted no time assembling his forces. On Thursday, he met with more than a dozen municipal officials and advocacy, including the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, to discuss the State’s strategy in the appeal.

"To lose this appeal will result in the loss of lives," McGreevey said at a news conference.

The New Jersey Highway Regulations at issue limited 102-inch-wide standard trucks and double-trailer truck combinations traveling through the state with neither an origin nor a destination in New Jersey to the National Network, the NJ Turnpike, and the Atlantic City Expressway. The regulations permit large trucks with an origin or destination in New Jersey to use local and secondary roads.

Judge Chesler ruled that the ban has a discriminatory impact on interstate commerce, citing evidence that the ban affected about 700 trucks per day on Rt. 31 (between I-95 and I-287) and did not affect many trucks anywhere else. The Court found that these trucks must pay more in tolls and take longer routes.

But McGreevey and other supporters of the state’s truck rules say the human lives and limbs saved by the regulations outweigh the minimal costs imposed on trucking companies forced to stay on the National Network and off New Jersey’s local roads.

Judge Chesler recognized that since the ban took effect, the roads are safer. "A comparison of actual truck accident data in New Jersey before and after the enactment of the Regulations shows a reduction of 11 accidents a year," he wrote in his opinion.

NJDOT adopted these regulations in 1999 in response to a stark increase in truck traffic and crashes on smaller state highways. Judge Chesler noted that studies show that prior to enactment of the regulations, a significant number of large trucks traveling on non-interstate highways, as many as 25 percent on some routes, had no destination or origin in New Jersey. He also noted that truck accident rates are approximately twice as high on state and county highways than on interstate highways.

The Campaign was very active in persuading the Whitman administrative to enact the regulations, and submitted friend-of-the-court briefs supporting of the regulations in the suit brought against them by the American Trucking Association.  

Despite findings that the rules improve safety, Judge Chesler struck down the ban because he found that it was not the least restrictive means available – that the State could just as easily force all large trucks to the interstate network. But extending the ban to all large trucks may not be feasible. It could result capacity problems on major highways, and could significantly distort routing for trucks operating within the state, adding to overall truck-miles traveled.

Truck traffic in our region is going to continue to to grow. Increasing trade and goods movement seems inescapable at this period in economic history, so it is critical that states and localities have the power to protect themselves by regulating trucks routes.