I received a call from a Buckhannon citizen who lives on Kanawha Street. He voiced concern over the noise large truck jake brakes make especially in the wee hours of the morning. The noise wakes his family.
A jake brake works in conjunction with the trucks compressed air system and slows the truck by venting high pressure air through the cylinder heads which dissipates engine energy thus slowing the truck. The venting of high pressure air through the exhaust system causes the increased noise level. Add this to the fact that large coal trucks and some logging trucks operate in the early morning hours to get a start on the day when traffic is the lightest. That's the cause of the early morning noise problem.
How to solve the noise problem from jake brakes may be more difficult to solve. Here's what might work. The city passes a jake brake ordinance if it does not already have one. Then post signs on Route 20 at the city limits advising no jake brake use. Advertise in the papers that jake brake enforcement will begin on a definite date. Rigorously enforce the ordinance for a short period of time and my guess is the trucking community will get the message loud and clear.
I don't think it would be a wise use of police officers to to focus solely on noise abatement. Periodic noise blitzes would be better.
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