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They'll keep on truckin' - No respite for traffic ills
Brooklyn Graphic, October 11, 2007
By Stephen Witt
That is according to Gerry Bogacz, planning group director for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC), a regional government entity required under federal law.
Bogacz attended the recent Concerned Citizens of Bensonhurst (CCB) meeting specifically to address the problems of truck traffic in the local neighborhood.
"We know regionally that forecasts are for increased goods movement throughout the region and some of that will end up in southern Brooklyn," Bogacz said.
"Any new activity like that will increase truck traffic, but it depends on what that development is and where they are moving goods and services," he added.
CCB Chair Adeline Michaels said she invited Bogacz to come to the meeting to address the truck traffic coming off the Verrazano Bridge and taking unauthorized truck routes through Dyker Heights and Bath Beach, often on their way to Kennedy Airport.
Michaels said she also notified all the elected officials that Bogacz was going to come to the meeting.
"I was very surprised that none of the legislators showed up," said Michaels, adding she invited all the city, state and federal elected officials and none even sent a representative.
Michaels said as the trucks come off the bridge they use both legal routes such as Cropsey Avenue, 86th Street between 14th and 18th Avenue and 65th Street, as well as roadways that are illegal for use except for local deliveries.
Bogacz said one way to keep truckers on the right route is through better signage and another is through better enforcement.
The city Department of Transportation (DOT) is opening an office of freight transportation, which will focus on truck routes and issues of enforcement, said Bogacz.
Captain John Sprague, commanding officer of the 62nd Precinct, said that top police brass has notified precincts to pay more attention to illegal truck traffic and they are working out plans for increased enforcement.
"Truck traffic becomes an issue, because when they go off their truck routes it creates adverse road conditions such as noise and safety concerns," Sprague said.
Several residents at the meeting also brought up how the truck traffic increases air quality hazards.
Bogacz responded that the federal government has allocated significant money for incentives to trucking companies to either use filters or switch to cleaner fuel.
There are also new air quality regulations affecting trucking in place so the prospects for trucks getting cleaner are good right now, he said.
The issue of the mayor's plan for congestion pricing was also brought up, in which drivers from the outer boroughs would be charged to go into Manhattan.
Bogacz said the NYMTC has not taken a stand on the issue and will wait until the joint state/city commission issues its finding in March 2008 on how to reduce congestion in the area before they make a statement on the plan.
The plan has not come before the regional table yet, he said.
The potential for the proposed Cross Harbor Tunnel and its potential role of moving goods in the region was also discussed.
Regionally, a Cross Harbor Tunnel stretching from New Jersey and into southern Brooklyn and Queens could reduce truck traffic by switching some parts of the trip to rail, said Bogacz.
Bogacz pointed out that another regional government entity, the Port Authority (PA), is now going to revisit the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the tunnel – a document that was started and never completed.
Bogacz said the situation in southern Brooklyn is a unique traffic situation because there isn't a limited access roadway that crosses the borough from east to west except the Belt Parkway, where large trucks are not allowed.
Widening or making improvements to the Belt Parkway is very constrained because it is surrounded by parkland, he said.
Public parkland has been almost sacred for the past several decades and utilizing some of it for additional roadways would be extremely hard to do, he said.
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