Impatient truckers eager to bypass traffic and deliver their goods to Mill Basin stores are veering off truck routes and threatening children on residential streets, neighbors say.
“We have a lot of kids around here and there’s a lot of elderly people here,” said Fillmore Avenue resident Helen Cullen. “It’s dangerous.”
Avenue U is a designated truck route but drivers are dodging the congested strip in favor of Avenue T and residential blocks from East 52nd to 60th streets as they head to and from Waldbaum’s supermarkets on Flatbush and Ralph avenues, the Kings Plaza Mall, Home Depot and the site of the new Lowe’s on Avenue U.
“They have tiny signs for the truck route but do you think the trucks pay any attention to that? No,” said Jeffrey Sacks, who lives on East 57th Street between Avenues T and U. “Besides, who is around to stop them? No one.”
Police from the 63rd Precinct they regularly ticket drivers and have asked the Transportation Department to install large signs indicating that Avenue U is the only truck route in Mill Basin.
“A lot of our truck enforcement is done there,” said Captain Patricia MacDonald.
Lowe’s plans to help with that enforcement by keeping truckers in check.
“We will make every effort to remind drivers to follow DOT regulations,” said company spokesman Gerard Littlejohn. “Lowe’s wants to be a good neighbor.”
Waldbaum’s agrees and has already held a meeting to “reestablish the fact that we have specific truck routes,” according to the supermarket’s spokeswoman.
