Trucking News · Illinois · October 25, 2026

Illinois Homeowner Says Semis Have Used Her Street as a Shortcut

A frustrated man on a sidewalk holds his head and gestures at a white semi parked on a narrow residential street lined with fall trees — Illustration for this story. Not a photo of a specific location.

A homeowner in Cairo, Illinois, says semi trucks have been rumbling down her residential street for four years, instead of taking the posted truck route. She is asking local authorities to do something about it.

Her story was reported Oct. 23 by KFVS12 Heartland News. The account below is hers, as told to the station, along with the city's response.

A shortcut to Commercial Avenue

Nichole Evans lives on 22nd Street in Cairo. She told KFVS12 that trucks use her street as a shortcut to reach Bunge Chevron on Commercial Avenue instead of taking the designated truck route.

"They built a weight station down there, and they've been traveling this road for a shortcut since then," Evans said.

According to Evans, the traffic runs "as early as five in the morning till nine o'clock at night," and it has been going on for four years.

A house that shakes

Evans works from home. She told the station she cannot hear her clients when the trucks go by.

"They don't understand what it sounds like in the inside of my home when they're riding by. You know, it's loud, it's shaking, the vibration. And then the rocks are kicking back those big tires kicking back on my cars," she said.

The sign she wants

Evans said trucks are supposed to turn on 20th Street, where a sign marks the truck route. She would like a similar sign on her street telling truck drivers not to turn there.

"No semi-trucks. I don't think it's that hard," she said.

Reporting trucks, two or three a day

Evans told KFVS12 she has reported trucks to the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. She said those reports have stopped some companies from using the street, but that one person can only do so much.

"I can report about two or three, if I have time to even do that, you know, and that's capturing them, showing them the footage, and making a report about it," she said. She added that by the time a report is handled, it is "probably a month later."

Her biggest frustration is who is responsible.

"The state stated that no, they are not supposed to be traveling the road. Local said they can't enforce it," Evans said.

What the city says

A city employee told KFVS12 that signs are posted throughout Cairo designating truck routes to help semi trucks reach the Bunge Chevron business. The station said it had reached out to the Cairo Police Department and was waiting to hear back.

No response from the trucking companies involved was reported, and the companies were not named.

Two sides of a familiar fight

Evans believes the drivers know better. "They know the designated route. They just refuse to go the designated route because this is a shortcut," she said.

None of the drivers using 22nd Street were interviewed in the report, so their side of the story is not known.

What is clear from the report is that the city says the truck route is posted, the homeowner says the trucks ignore it, and she says no one has taken responsibility for enforcing it.

For drivers who want to know the rules before they roll into a new state, the truck laws by state guide covers truck speed limits, chain laws and idling rules, each linked to the official source.