Bay Area Truckers

This web site is dedicated to helping San Francisco Bay Area truckers, both local and visiting. This area is not friendly to truckers, with weight/route restrictions everywhere you turn, and a complete ban on overnight parking in many towns. Also, truck stops (of any kind) are few and far between.
I will be adding more maps, links, and directions over time.

This page discusses local truck stops, fuel, and parking.
The information can also be of use to RV'ers, who are driving large vehicles with similar practical requirements.

Bay Area Truck Stops

Every urban region has its own traffic patterns, and local truckers know them all too well. Bay Area roadways bring in a huge number of people from outlying areas, starting very early in the morning; then it reverses each afternoon, and well into many 'getaway day' evenings. (Weekends, too!)
The 'inner road' patterns are much too complicated to describe here.
Happily, there is a web site that displays 'live' traffic conditions, so if you can access it in a timely fashion, here goes:

Live Traffic Conditions

You can also tap into many CalTrans traffic cameras.

Traffic Cameras

Major Destinations map

This section describes a selection of SF Bay Area towns and situations, and some dilemmas faced by truck drivers while making deliveries in or near those areas.
For the purpose of warning truckers about severe new enforcement policies, we'll begin with San Leandro, then move on to several other towns. Street maps and some on-site photos are included.

Tickets

Just about everywhere your route takes you, you'll find large areas 'walled off' by No Trucks type signs. These must be routinely violated, by every trucker with business in or near the 'marked' area.

Some Bay Area towns will specify Local Trucks Okay, but most do not. Some areas have vague Truck Route signs, while only a handful make it clear which roads a truck should and should not use to gain access. (Happily, in 2010, many local towns added more specific Truck Route signs. Also, do a search for a city's web site, which often has an official Truck Route map.)

I recommend that truckers, if unfairly ticketed, seek relief through the Traffic Court system. Bring photos and maps if appropriate. Don't hold your breath over winning, but if you don't even try, you won't get justice for sure. If the ticketing officer doesn't show up, at that second court appearance, you might win by default; and even if you lose the case, there's a good chance the Judge will reduce your penalty.

Better yet, the state of California allows a driver to contest a ticket entirely by mail! You can file a Written Not Guilty Plea, and then a Trial By Written Declaration. You stand a very good chance of winning, and thus getting your money back. I've succeeded with this procedure, myself. (Check out Ticket Assassin and Highway Robbery for a lot of helpful details--and be sure to give those busy court clerks plenty of time to get around to processing your paperwork!)

Here are my observations about the spectacular April 2007 gasoline tanker crash in Oakland.

Tanker Crash

Truckers are gradually expanding their presence on the Web.

Some informative links

I'm a lifelong science fiction reader and fan, and more recently a writer of same. Here's a list I put together, with the help of many friends, of Science Fiction stories that involve truckers. There aren't many such tales in print, so I've also included movies, plus the Fantasy and Horror genres. (Together they are called Speculative Fiction.)
With the help of other forums, I went on to add some Romance novels. As for the Mystery and Young Adult genres, I could only find a very few.

Trucker Themed Fiction List

Thanks very much for your interest. I am now retired, and continue to maintain these pages. Public input is welcome.
Hopefully, many other truckers will launch similar sites, for their own regions. (And then we can link 'em.)
Email Paul Carlson at, ewriters \at\ aol /dot/ com and please make your subject line distinct.

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