Community Board 7, via the residents of 20th Street in the Green-wood Heights section of Brooklyn, has put forth a proposal to change the truck route currently on 20th Street from a two-way truck route to a one-way eastbound truck route. This seemingly small move to alleviate truck and traffic congestion would potentially cause drastic rerouting of trucks through extremely busy school areas, as well as potentially cause an increase in overall traffic from 3rd Avenue near the Gowanus Canal and into Windsor Terrace.
A .pdf was presented May 30th at the CB7 meeting that I’ve requested a copy of, but was told by the CB7 individual spearheading this that he was unsure it would be made available to the public. updated as of 6/1: the DOT has said they will upload it to their web site and provide a link, this process will take one week.I’m reluctant to publish what their plans are since it seems to be a moving target at this time, however, if 20th Street were to be made into a one-way eastbound truck route, potential plans could include rerouting streets from 19th Street – 23rd Street, in addition to making 7th avenue a truck route routing trucks to Prospect Ave.
A petition to stop this potential proposal can be found here:
To clarify, the proposal, based on a petition, is to make 20th Street a one-way truck route heading eastbound.
There will be a public meeting to hear testimony on June 18th.
Members of the community are invited to attend, however, WRITTEN testimony can be given anytime through June 18th by sending it to the community board’s email:
communityboard7@yahoo.com - please make sure your email contains your Name and Address.
If you’d like more information on the Community Board 7, click here for their web site.
The Truck Re-Routing was not passed Community Board 7 click HERE to the CB7 web site, but here is the letter.
Dear Commissioner;
At the June 20, 2012 meeting of Community Board 7, our Board Members voted to support the following resolution:
Community Board 7 recognizes that 20th Street is too narrow and dangerous to remain a two-way truck route, as it is only three feet wider than surrounding one-way streets;
Community Board 7 also recognizes that the street was not built to accommodate modern trucks of such large size;
Community Board 7 also recognizes that the lack of enforcement against off-route, over large and non-local trucks by the NYPD and DOT greatly contributes to this danger;
However, CB7 does not believe the proposal presented by DOT at our May 30 Transportation Committee that would reroute westbound trucks to Prospect Avenue satisfies the needs of the community as a whole;
Therefore, Community Board 7 asks that DOT continues to study the 20th Street truck route for viable alternatives that are safe and efficient, without pursuing the current Prospect Avenue proposal. Community Board 7 also calls on DOT to work with the community to develop an alternative plan, as they did for the 4th Avenue corridor with a short time-frame for study and implementation. Additionally, CB7 calls on DOT to reconstruct the roadbed of 20th Street that wasn’t designed for such heavy vehicles which cause vibrations and damage to surrounding properties and finally, and most urgently, CB 7 calls on DOT and the NYPD to immediately begin vigorous and sustained enforcement efforts against oversized, off route, speeding and non-local trucks throughout Community District 7.
The Board’s vote on the motion was 32 – in favor, 0 – opposed, with 4 – abstentions.
The Board held a Transportation Committee and a Public Hearing on this matter and more than 130 people provided testimony. We are pleased that so many residents of our community have taken their time to weigh in on this matter and to help guide our thoughts. Although we do not wish to pursue the proposed strategy, we also recognize that the two-way 20th Street truck route remains a dangerous corridor and needs to be addressed without delay.
We look forward to working with DOT and the local community to find a solution to the truck route problem. We believe part of the solution to the volume of trucks is vigorous enforcement by DOT and the NYPD and we ask that you immediately assign personnel to help enforce the law in the interest of public safety. Please keep us apprised of your actions.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.