nymtc regional freight plan - New York Metropolitan Transportation ...

A Freight Plan for the NYMTC Region
• 5.1 Goal #1 – Improve the Transportation of Freight by
Removing Burdensome Government Regulations and
Restrictions
The recommendations grouped under this goal would change policies that constrain freight
operations, particularly for trucks. One policy change analyzed earlier in the project –
reducing the taxation of railroad property by New York State – was subsequently achieved.
Strategies discussed below include better managing truck routes and loading zones and
applying intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies to truck operations.
5.1.1 Strategy 1.A – Facilitate Truck Movements by Better Managing
Truck Routes
Action 1 – Complete NYCDOT’s Truck Route Management and Community
Impact Reduction Study
Description
In April 2003, the NYCDOT initiated a study of truck route management across the city.
The goal of the study is to coordinate engineering, educational, informational, and
enforcement efforts so that trucks remain on designated truck routes until reaching their
destination, avoiding residential streets whenever possible. There are two main reasons
for analyzing and re-evaluating the city’s designated truck routes:
• The city’s economy has shifted away from a manufacturing base to an information service
base, and
• The character of many of the city’s streets and neighborhoods has changed, often from
predominantly industrial to residential land uses.
The truck route study has been organized into a number of tasks, including:
• Identify needs through community, industry-, and business-based assessment of key
problem areas;
• Collect and analyze empirical data, including a comprehensive inventory of truck
routes;
• Develop a signage program and recommendations on policy and traffic rules, as well
as an education program; and
• Develop an improved enforcement strategy.
The study is expected to result in better signage, improved truck route enforcement, vigorous
outreach to the trucking industry, and better management of the New York City’s
truck route network.
Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 5-8