With an approaching deadline for selection of a consultant to redesign New York City's truck route plan and regulations (see MTR #199), the groups agreed that their first priority would be to influence the content of the contract. Although the consultant will be chosen soon, the final contract for the new truck route plan will not be signed until May.

The groups - fourteen community-based and several city-wide organizations - are developing demands that the plan address pedestrian safety, air and noise pollution and vibration damage caused by trucks. They want to ensure that people living in areas with high levels of truck traffic such as Hunts Point, Sunset Park, and College Park see relief when the truck routes are redesigned.

The meeting built on momentum begun in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights communities where elected officials and Community Board 10 have already written to the City DOT to express concerns about the truck plan (see MTR #208).