The NYC Dept. of Transportation has hired a consultant – Edwards & Kelcey – and is set to begin the first comprehensive review in memory of the city’s truck route system and map.

City neighborhoods are beset with ever-increasing truck traffic, and designated truck routes are often ignored by truckers seeking faster ways through traffic and around town. With truck traffic projected to increase further in the future, New York City needs a truck system that is clear to truckers, residents and the police, and minimizes trucks’ impacts on communities.

NYC DOT’s web-site says a public roll-out and meetings for input into the study are coming soon. In the meantime, DOT and its consultant have established an on-line survey to begin collecting input from civic leaders and citizens about truck impact hot spots around town. The survey can be reached through the truck route study web site: www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/truckintro.html. We urge all of our NYC readers to look at the survey and submit truck complaints for the study’s consideration.

The web site directs readers to respond to the survey by May 2. DOT should extend that deadline, since it has undertaken no publicity work to promote the survey’s existence.

The city study was initially broached in 1998. At the time, its goal was stated as moving trucks more quickly through the city. An outpouring of neighborhood sentiment and intervention by many City Council members led the DOT to revise the study’s goals (MTR #’s 199, 300), and reduction in community impacts from trucks is now central to the effort.

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