Trucks Keep Crashing Into Red Hook Citi Bike Dock, Resident Says

RED HOOK, NY — Trucks driving through Red Hook keep smashing into a Citi Bike dock because drivers don't have the space to maneuver through the narrow streets, residents said.

The vehicles, which locals say are too big for the neighborhood, have clipped the Citi Bike dock on Van Brunt and Van Dyke streets several times while drivers attempt to turn onto Van Brunt Street. Cars parked across the street are also often damaged, business owner Mary Dudine Kyle said.

"Anyone who lives here knows that you don’t park within two car lengths of a corner because you lose your car," said Dudine Kyle, whose business Dry Dock Wine and Spirits is across the street from the dock.

"The placement of the dock has cause many a truck to not be able to make the turn onto the street because there’s no clearance at the end of the block to make the turn."

Dudine Kyle's husband snapped a photo last week of a truck crashing into the dock and he said it was the second recent time that he saw the station get hit.

City regulations ban trucks more than 55-feet long from driving through Red Hook, but drivers regularly flout the law. Trailers as long as 70-feet tall have been spotted driving in the area amid complaints from residents, DNAinfo reported.

Police started a crackdown on oversized trucks in the neighborhood in 2012, but Dudine Kyle said drivers went back to ignoring the law soon after.

"They think they can get away with it over here because we were a barren wasteland," said Dudine Kyle.

Dudine Kyle asked the city to move the dock, possibly onto the sidewalk, to regain the parking spaces lost when it was installed, or regularly enforce what size trailers drive through the blocks.

The city's Department of Transportation, which oversees the Citi Bike program and the truck traffic regulations, did not respond to a request for comment.

Image by Ron Kyle, used with permission.