City Announces Major New Plan to Manage Trucks and Freight

Photo Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

“Rebuilding a cleaner, fairer, and greener city means rethinking the way trucks move through our streets,” Mayor de Blasio said.

By Forum Staff

Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Department of Transportation Commissioner Hank Gutman on Thursday released Delivering New York: A Smart Truck Management Plan, a new freight management plan to improve New York City’s freight management and truck safety.

“Just as we are reimagining how people move to reduce our dependence on private cars, we must reimagine how goods move to reduce our dependence on large diesel trucks,” Gutman said. “We cannot solve this problem with more big trucks, which endanger our aging infrastructure, pollute our air and contribute to climate change. When they travel on residential streets where they do not legally belong, they present safety dangers and harm our quality of life. In Delivering New York, we show how we can and must expand alternatives to bringing goods to and from our City – from loading zones to dramatically expanded overnight deliveries — and much more.”

Major initiatives of the plan target safety, efficiency, sustainability and expanding partnerships/knowledge, and include:

SAFETY

• Target 70 Truck Safety Priority Corridors citywide over the next five years
• Truck-involved traffic collisions disproportionately prove fatal. Starting this year, DOT will implement safety improvements on at least 10 truck priority safety corridors each year, as well as set new design standards to enhance truck safety at intersections where a majority of serious crashes occur.
• Strengthen Enforcement Efforts: Vision Zero Street Teams Corridor Enforcement and Education Initiatives
• DOT and NYPD will deploy a multi-neighborhood, multi-corridor strategy, targeting one high-crash corridor in all eight NYPD Patrol Boroughs. The 2021 Vision Zero Street Team Corridor program is a joint effort between NYPD and the DOT Safety Education and Outreach and Highway Inspection and Quality Assurance units.
• NYPD will engage in two-week deployments with each Precinct, no fewer than three times per year.
• DOT will safely deploy Vision Zero Street Team outreach effort for one week in every Precinct involved in the program, rotating among Patrol Boroughs. DOT will hand out educational materials to New Yorkers at intersections along the corridors.
• Teams will focus on locations with high incidences of truck-involved crashes. Their work will feature outreach to truck drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists about the obstructed views that are unique to large vehicles when interacting with vulnerable road users.

EFFICIENCY

• Update Citywide Truck Network and DOT’s Truck Route Map
• Recognizing the inefficient and often inequitable patchwork quilt of route restrictions, DOT will issue new rules to identify new truck routes across New York City. New routes will fill gaps, allow better distribution, and reduce “dead-ends” that lead to truck trips onto prohibited residential streets. DOT will update its map this year and add on-street signage that better identifies both new corridors and prohibited ones.
• Continue and Further Expand Off-Hour Deliveries (OHD) program
• The Off-Hour Deliveries program encourages delivery companies to shift their deliveries to off-peak hours. Deliveries made between 7pm and 6am can help to reduce traffic in the most congested areas of the city. In 2019, Mayor de Blasio set a goal to triple the number of Off-Hour Deliveries from 500 to 1500 locations by the end of 2021 – targeting focus areas in Midtown Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn.
• DOT will work with DCAS and other City agencies to examine ways the City can lead by example through smart application of procurement policies, making its own freight supply chain cleaner, greener, and more efficient.
• Improving Curb Management
• Expansion of Dedicated Commercial Space in Commercial Areas: The increase in truck deliveries has heightened the need for safe and efficient curb access. DOT will increase the number of commercial loading zones citywide with a focus on high-demand Central Business District and outer borough areas. Increased curb access will reduce conflicts between vulnerable road users and double-parked trucks.
• Expansion of Neighborhood Loading Zone (NLZ) program to residential areas: With a primary focus on narrow streets with bus and bike routes, DOT will double the number of Neighborhood Loading Zones citywide to accommodate the growing market share of e-commerce deliveries in residential areas. To date, 111 zones have been installed in neighborhoods citywide. First introduced in 2019, NLZs discourage double parking by giving delivery and non-commercial vehicles dedicated space at the curb for expeditious loading of goods and passenger pick-up/drop off activity in residential areas.

SUSTAINABILITY

• Creation of a permanent Commercial Cargo Bike Program
• As announced two weeks ago, DOT will expand and make permanent its pilot program incentivizing the use of cargo bikes for deliveries in some of the City’s most congested neighborhoods. The program expanded dramatically during the pandemic, growing to over 350 cargo bikes. It will be made permanent by:
• Creating an annual permit for businesses operating five or more cargo bikes for commercial purposes
• Creating an annual permit for businesses operating three or more cargo bikes for commercial purposes
• Pursuing legislative changes to ensure that wider e-cargo bikes are compliant with State law.
• Designate “Green Loading Zones”
• New zones would be dedicated to particular vehicle types and/or reserved for use by particular companies to incentivize electric vehicles, including “Cargo Bike Loading Only” curb regulations.
• Continue to expand the NYC Clean Truck Program to industrial business zones citywide
• Begun in 2012, DOT’s Hunts Point Clean Truck program has grown into one of the agency’s great success stories, as companies in the South Bronx replaced over 500 trucks to cleaner and greener vehicles. Under this initiative, DOT will invest $9.8 million in advanced transportation technologies and alternative fuel trucks for other industrial areas, including expanding the use of electric trucks.

PARTNERSHIPS AND
KNOWLEDGE

• Develop “Smart Urban Freight Lab”
• DOT will begin a new internal group to study, test and evaluate innovative last-mile freight strategies, including through the collection of continuous freight data.
• Establish off-street freight distribution and consolidation hubs in partnership with private garage operators
• By removing the ‘last mile’ truck delivery from the logistics chain, off-street consolidation helps to reduce roadway congestion and competition for curb access and deliveries during the most congested times of the day. DOT will also continue to work with private property owners throughout the city to develop off-street delivery hubs.
• Expand Bridge Strike Reduction Program through signage, pavement markings, & ITS technology
• DOT has worked closely with state partners to reduce bridge strikes, where errant truck drivers can cause millions of dollars of infrastructure damage and traffic congestion when they strike low-clearance overpasses, especially on parkways. DOT will:
• Leverage and strengthen multi-agency coordination with regional enforcement and infrastructure partners (NYPD, MTA, NYSDOT, and PANYNJ)
• Develop digital truck driver resources, targeted radio ad campaigns, and increase awareness through truck associations, rental companies, owner-operators, and conduct outreach to routing and mapping companies.
• Prioritize top 10 frequently hit low bridges citywide, where new signage and pavement markings will be implemented
• Add an over-height detection system along the Belt Parkway, which has some of the most frequently hit low bridges.

“Rebuilding a cleaner, fairer, and greener city means rethinking the way trucks move through our streets. As more goods than ever flow through our city, it’s time for a smart, thoughtful freight management approach that keeps our communities safe and livable,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Delivering New York charts a path toward a future with fewer and smaller trucks, which will ease congestion, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and protect our infrastructure.”

“Transportation is the leading contributor to climate change in the state and as freight deliveries continue to grow, any plan to green the transportation sector must address trucks and cargo,” Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, added. “The Delivering New York plan will help reduce traffic and increase efficiency while also encouraging a transition to more sustainable transportation technologies. Expanding the use of cargo bikes and investing in electric trucks is a win-win for both pollution and congestion. That’s why we included these types of policies in our New York City Policy Agenda. We thank Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Gutman for making our streets clearer and greener. We look forward to working with stakeholders to continue reimagining freight travel in the city.”