Board member and San Leandro Mayor Juan Gonzalez III cautioned the group not to have blinders on while considering the study.
“I don’t want to see us … try to attribute all variations due to air quality on the highway when there are many other factors that go into that,” he said, noting that employment and diet are also linked to health.
He also said there is more infrastructure for large trucks, such as warehouses, around I-880 in San Leandro.
Former Oakland teacher Patrick Messac called into the meeting. In 2021, his sixth-grade class helped reignite the debate over the ban.
“My students were in sixth grade when district staff said that there was going to be a study, and now they are in high school,” he said during public comment. “I just really want to encourage the district to move forward with haste and intention.”
Sixth grade science teacher Patrick Messac helps a student with his microscope.
Former 6th-grade science teacher Patrick Messac helps a student with his microscope at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in East Oakland. In 2021, Messac and his 6th-grade class helped reignite the debate over the large truck ban. (Laura Klivans/KQED)
In 2021, Caltrans told KQED it would seek to undertake this study by 2023. At the Bay Area Air District meeting, the agency said the study would be complete by 2026.
Proponents of the ban cite the higher number of people and sensitive sites, such as schools, along I-580 and argue the restriction should remain in place. Removing it, they say, will simply spread more pollution throughout the East Bay.
Opponents argue the ban, which became state law in 2000 and would require action by the state Legislature to be overturned, is a clear example of environmental racism and overburdens lower-income communities of color that live along I-880.
The public can follow the study and weigh in on the Caltrans website.