NYC Department of Transportation Seeks Public Input on Truck Route Network Revamp

Trucks. The ones that cut through residential blocks, are too big to be on local truck routes, get stuck under overpasses, speed on local streets, block traffic, kill residents … I could go on. We've all seen them.

But it took the city council passing a local law to get the city's transportation department to finally take a comprehensive look at its truck network and to solicit resident feedback on where and what the issues are. (The deadline to provide public feedback on Truck Route Network Redesign Public Feedback Portal is June 30, 2024. So far there are just 221 comments.)

Our city needs working waterfronts and industrial areas, we need food and toilet paper in our stores, and while some of the issues that frustrate many residents have been exacerbated by our recent addiction to instant delivery of just about everything, most have been frustrating residential communities surrounding Brooklyn's industrial areas for decades: too many trucks, trucks not obeying routes, being too big, going too fast, and polluting the areas they travel through among others.

"More than one in five vehicles on Red Hook’s streets is a truck or a commercial van — well above rates in some of the city's busiest trucking corridors," Streetsblog reported last fall.

And while one cannot say there has been no action from the DOT – they have introduced better signage, dedicated delivery times and locations in some locations, and other piecemeal improvements over the years – communities like Red Hook and Sunset Park have been asking for a comprehensive reevaluation of the network that was set up in the 1970s for decades.

That is changing as the result of a law that was passed last November requiring the department to redesign the truck route network to make our streets safer and more efficient. Led by the Sunset Park Councilmember Alexa Avilés, just about every Councilmember signed on in support.

As the result, last week NYC DOT started soliciting feedback from parties they are required to consult, like community boards and last mile trucking companies, as well residents on truck issues.

So if you have thoughts, share them: Truck Route Network Redesign Public Feedback Portal. The deadline to provide public feedback is June 30, 2024, and all it takes is a click.