A recent evaluation of truck traffic on Skinker Boulevard, undertaken by the city Traffic division at the request of Women for City Living, points out the need for traffic control on Skinker if the residential character of the neighborhood is to be preserved. During the six-hour day, two-day evaluation period, 400 dual-wheel trucks per day rumbled down Skinker from Clayton Road to Delmar. This is somewhat over one big truck per minute. The count included only those trucks of sufficient size and weight to require a double set of wheels. 98% of the trucks were non-stop or passing through, making no stops for business between Clayton Road and Delmar.
Women for City Living and a group of Skinker-DeBaliviere residents who live close to Skinker are urging the St. Louis Department of Streets to take action against this through truck traffic, on the grounds of adding to already hazardous driving conditions and excessive and constant noise. Women for City Living has mailed out two thousand sample letters outlining its plan for Skinker to Mr. Paul H. Spelbrink, Department of Streets, City Hall. Anyone wishing to obtain a copy of this letter can obtain one by calling 231-0425.
The plan put forward in the organization’s letter calls for projects to outlaw commercial through traffic on Skinker between Delmar and Clayton Road since this stretch adjoins Forest Park, Lindell, the churches along Skinker, the Washington University campus and many outstanding urban residential streets. Further plans would place a parkway divider, for which the right of way is available, in the center of Skinker, running from Clayton Road to Delmar.
Many residents feel that the increased volume of heavy truck traffic is a serious hazard in ‘turning on and off of Skinker, and that the additional damage done by traffic noise is out of place in a residential neighborhood.
Originally published in The Paper, April 1971.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1971_04.pdf, printed page 4.
