In short, we need to think out of the envelope. We need to broaden the debate beyond Twin verses Signature Spans. We need to question the very notion that we need a new or expanded bridge. First, I never quite caught on to the point as to why having over 6,000 tractor trailer trucks idling at customs and then passing through our community is good for us. Dr. Michael Merrill, writing for The Buffalo News , eloquently raised the specter of a connection between this truck traffic and the asthma cluster that is emerging in adjacent neighborhoods.
Diesel exhaust is also a suspected carcinogen.
From a public health perspective putting a major truck inspection center in the middle of a densely populated residential neighborhood is lunacy. If the benefit is a few customs brokerage jobs, the cost is far too high. We re also all too familiar with the regular flow of television news images showing jack-knifed trucks or loose coils of steel horrendously tangled with cars on highways in and around Buffalo. Put simply, big trucks and little cars are a nasty mix. Increased truck traffic means increased traffic fatalities.