By Joe Maniscalco
So far, nothing the city has done has been able to effectively stop heavily-laden trucks from barreling down prohibited streets in Carroll Gardens. But this week, a traffic safety advocate said that newly developed technology already in place in other areas of the borough might be able to put the brakes on the wide-bottom behemoths. “The bad news is that we are getting tons and tons of trucks,” said Teresa Toro of the Tri-State Traffic Campaign. “We need to come up with other creative ways to manage trucks.” According to some estimates, New York City imports just three percent of its necessary goods by rail, while that number is as high as 20 percent in other heavily-populated areas around the country. Department of Transportation remedies for the massive influx of trucks on residential streets involve things like increased signage and better enforcement. But those tactics strike many as anemic at best. As Buddy Scotto, member of the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association, pointed out at Monday night’s January meeting on 1st Place, drivers straying off of prescribed truck routes often wriggle out of tickets by merely telling law enforcement officers that they were lost. “Trucks are a necessary part of our lives, even though our streets are often an unpleasant surprise to long haul drivers,” said Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association President Maria Pagano. Critics insist that the results of wayward trucking manifest in not only more dangerous streets, but side-swiped cars, increased pollution and cracked foundations. Two alternative approaches now being employed in Greenpoint could be the answer to Carroll Gardens’ trucking woes, according to Toro, and she asked CGNA members to support them. One method uses cameras to snap up license plates which can be strategically installed around sites where trucks are frequently known to go off course. Toro said that it is one thing to know that truckers are breaking the law and another thing to be able to “show it.” Another more hi-tech technique being utilized actually imbeds advanced sensors in the roadway which have the ability to detect overweight trucks and then alert authorities. “The city and state are basically in denial about truck management,” Toro said. She also advocated other measures aimed at better controlling truck traffic in Carroll Gardens like reinstituting a truck toll on the Verrazano Bridge. “This part of Brooklyn is the doormat for trucks,” Toro complained. Some CGNA members were not convinced, however. Cecile Cacace said that she favored beefed up enforcement over hi-tech sensors. “There are already laws on the books,” she said. “Let’s put the pressure there.” Other embers of the CGNA, meanwhile, announced their efforts to improve traffic safety for pedestrians shopping at the 9th Street Lowes and Pathmark stores. Some say the design of the parking lot is totally inhospitable and dangerous to pedestrians. CGNA member Jim Devor wryly joked, “It seems to be designed as population control for the surrounding communities.”
