What can I do about trucks driving in front of my business or my house?

January 16, 2018

Here’s a question we’ve gotten from a customer recently. What can we do about trucks that drive outside our houses? In general, the answer depends on who controls the road, and if it’s public or private.

For public roads, maintained by the government, it’s the government’s job to set the rules for specific roads. This means that the appropriate solution is to petition the government– talk to your elected representative and tell them what your problem is. After all, that’s what they’re there for! Your elected representative’s staff should help you contact the appropriate agency as well; it may be your city, your township, your county or the state itself that is responsible for maintaining a particular section of road, and it may not be immediately apparent which is which. For example, at this intersection in California, one road (San Pablo Avenue) is maintained by the state of California, the cross street is maintained by the city of El Cerrito, and the entry roads to the adjacent parking lot are maintained by BART, the local rapid transit district.

Once you figure out who’s responsible, that’s when you start lobbying them: show up to the agency’s public meetings, write letters to your representatives, and try to convince like-minded people to join you to place restrictions on trucks on a public road.

As for private roads, maintained by a private entity, like a homeowners’ association (HOA) or a single property owner, that’s the property owner’s decision. Your HOA can limit truck traffic on certain roads that it owns, or if the road is your property, you can place limits on who uses it, such as by banning trucks altogether, or by setting time limits on when trucks can use the road.

The one thing you can’t do is just put up signs on property that isn’t yours. That’s a crime, and it’s technically vandalism of other people’s property.

If you need to restrict trucks on your property or your HOA’s property, SmartSign has a full line of no trucks signs, available at the lowest prices on the Internet.