One local group is tired of too much traffic.
OUTRAGE members, are preparing to send a letter to Mayor Bloomberg, thanking him for passing the Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) and opening the Varick Avenue Rail Transfer station, but urging him to reduce truck traffic throughout North Brooklyn.
The letter argues three points: to coordinate truck enforcement by the NYPD, Department of Transportation, and Department of Sanitation, to fix signage and street modifications to keep trucks on their routes, and to look at the impact of the Kosciusko Bridge repairs on truck traffic.
“We still have a lot of waste and trucks, including construction waste which was not really dealt with in the SWMP. The Metropolitan Avenue traffic study, done after the SWMP, proposed a solution which would shift trucks from Metropolitan Avenue to Meeker Avenue, another street which is already overburdened with trucks and traffic,” said the letter.
Community Board 1 Transportation Chair Teresa Toro noted that truck traffic is a problem that many different committees and city agencies are thinking about simultaneously, which could help reduce traffic in the long term.
At a CB 1 Transportation Committee meeting held this week, State Department of Environmental Conservation officials unveiled a pilot program called “I-Watch for Cleaner Air” to reduce truck emissions in the borough. Toro explained that while reducing emissions remains a neighborhood priority, it must be done in a way that does not interfere with local commerce.
“Everyone is thinking about the same thing at once,” said Toro. “We need to separate trash trucks with trucks needed to support our businesses. If you have a double trailer, yes you should access your facility but not through residential streets.”
For the past two weeks, OUTRAGE, whose name stands for Williamsburg/Greenpoint Organizations United for Trash Reduction And Garbage Equity, and which shares an affiliation with St. Nicholas Neighborhood NPC, has been monitoring traffic in the neighborhood through their Community Truck Survey.
A response to several months of community anxiety over the presence of commercial trucks traveling through residential streets, OUTRAGE, the grassroots survey will track the kinds of trucks that utilize streets in Williamsburg.
Volunteers consisting of high school students at Williamsburg’s the Grand Street Campus (850 Grand St.), seniors and veterans have been standing on street corners for two hour shifts during either the morning or afternoon rush hour to note whether a truck is leaking fluid, has overflowing cargo, is on a long-haul or short-haul trip, and has out of state plates, to name a few categories.
The purpose, according to OUTRAGE member Alison Cordero, is to mark as much information about a truck as quickly and easily as possible in order to get an idea of who is riding through North Brooklyn streets. Cordero said the project is coming along but some challenges remain.
“In this community the largest polluter is the Brooklyn Queens Expressway,” said Cordero. “How do you separate air quality from the highway and the intersection at Vandervoort and Meeker?”
OUTRAGE is still seeking volunteers for the study. To sign up, call 718-388-5454 ext. 124 or e-mail [email protected].