What's a log truck doing here?

[jr98664]

I was looking forward to the rain this morning. I had my rain gear on, and luckily, it rained just enough to make me glad that I wore it.

I was riding my normal route to school, heading southbound in the bike lane on 136th Ave in Vancouver towards Mill Plain. Check out this map (http://tinyurl.com/4pqsdp), and take notice of that sign in street view. A high school cyclist was killed there by another student at the end of the school year two years ago. You can read the article here (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/13439190/detail.html). If it is of any consequence, both students were from another high school in my district, not my school.

I ride up and down this road every day, and it irks me to no end. Heading around the same curve in the opposite direction, for instance, the already narrow bike lane (~48") narrows down to a tiny 39", and that is counting the unridable part up against the curb all of the way to the outside edge of the lane line. Before the lines were repainted last month, the line here was completely gone as a result of cars cutting the corner.

Back the story at hand: I was heading southbound and contemplating the sign when I hear a loud diesel behind me. I don't think much of it as I see a large truck in the corner of my eye. Then in a few seconds, I realize that this isn't a small delivery truck; no, it's a full-sized logging truck, logs and all. What the heck is a logging truck doing on a minor arterial road? Considering how must log truck drivers drive, I was quite thankful that I wasn't hit.

[t27]

Did you happen to get the company name on the side of the truck. There is a good chance that the driver was using the company truck and fuel for personal use. Most trucking companies take a dim view of their drivers running a log truck through a residential area. Let them know when and where the truck was and that it was being operated in an unsafe manner.

[the Wumpus]

I wouldn't be overly surprised to see a log truck there. It's a big arterial road, and there is a lot of standing lumber north and east of there. Timber's been expensive enough to support small scale harvesting (ie, small private plots closer in), so loaded log rigs do pop up in strange parts of Clark County sometimes. And with 136th being a big I-205 feeder/arterial through the otherwise poorly connected high density developments, a random log truck isn't out of the question.
Yes, it's creepy when they pass! The only thing worse is an unloaded modular container trailer, the spine-down-the-middle kind, with those unshielded wheels of doom rolling by... Right out of Mad Max!


I've been down 136th once or twice, anymore I wind up skipping it through the neighborhood on the east side when I'm out to that side of town. I'm a huge fan of scenic traffic avoiding detours whenever possible. Don't know if that would work for you, it would take a few more minutes, but it might be a lot quieter and nicer to look at.