Last modified: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 12:32 AM EDT Dismay over traffic on South Attleboro street BY GEORGE W. RHODES/SUN CHRONICLE STAFF ATTLEBORO -- Residents of Carleton Street have been pushing for years to ban trucks from their narrow winding road and they finally won a partial victory -- but they want more. The state Highway Department gave the city permission to impose an eight-hour, nighttime ban, but residents, who are tired of big, noisy trucks lumbering down their tiny road and banging into cars, want the vehicles kept out 24 hours-a-day. The ban offered by the state and approved last week by the city council restricts trucks from the street between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. Residents doubt it will help. `` What good will it do to put off traffic between 11 and seven,'' Manuel Sousa asked the council that held a hearing on the ban last Tuesday. `` I don't want it to be for 11 to seven, I want it to be for 24 hours.'' Sousa said his car has been struck twice over the years while parked in the street and once while parked in the driveway. The state Highway Department sets strict rules about what roads can be declared unfit for trucks and Carleton Street does not meet the requirements, according to a letter from the department. Carleton, connecting Route 1 and Route 1A, doesn't meet the requirements for a partial ban either, but the state offered it anyway. The city must put the restriction in its ordinances for it to take effect. Another resident said the night ban is pointless. `` We don't get that much traffic from 11 to seven,'' said Robert Gagnon. `` What actually is going to be stopped from coming down -- nothing.'' Residents say they are so desperate they'd consider creating a dead-end or making the road one way to stop the flow of trucks. Local officials, led by City Councilor Walter Thibodeau, worked on the issue for more than a year and recommended a positive vote to adopt the partial ban, arguing it will keep some trucks out. Thibodeau, who drove a big rig professionally for 25 years, said even a partial ban will help. The cumulative effect is likely to extend beyond the nighttime, he said. A number of drivers will see the `` no-through trucking'' restriction and seek an alternate route that can be used at any hour of the day. `` As a truck driver, if I see a `no-through trucking' sign, I'm not interested in the hours, I'm going to find an alternate route because I never know what time of day I'll be there,'' he said. `` The signs alone could prompt drivers to look for other routes so they don't have to deal with it.'' Thibodeau also said signs for an alternate route via Barrows Street can be enlarged and improved to encourage truckers to take that way. While Council President Barry LaCasse said another request to the state could be in order, Thibodeau doesn't think it will do any good. `` We have exhausted all the avenues with the state,'' he said. `` I don't believe in all honesty that it would work.'' Councilor Jim Hanley, who represents the Carleton Street area as Ward 1 councilor, backed the partial ban because it provides a place to start. `` I think we can build on that base, rather than reject it out of hand,'' he said.