There isn't a pedestrian or a motorist who's ever been anywhere in New York City who doesn't wish there weren't so many trucks on the roads. On the other hand, there isn't a consumer in New York City who doesn't want more convenient access to goods.Therein lies a constant push-and-pull inside this island metropolis. As the city continues to rezone more and more industrial areas into residential, and as the population grows, this tension is only going to become more acute.This summer, the Department of Transportation (DOT) is conducting its first comprehensive study of truck routes, signage, and ticketing policy since 1982. The consulting firm Edwards and Kelcey Engineers has already issued a preliminary report, thousand of pages long, which the public will be invited to comment on all summer long.Public hearings have already been held in all five boroughs, with the final one occurring last Tuesday night at Borough Hall in Brooklyn. Most of those in attendance were community residents frustrated by the danger to home and limb that large trucks constantly pose to residential neighborhoods. "Trucks are a huge problem," testified Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives. "From Greenpoint to Sunset Park to Bushwick, everybody has screamed for help."Greg Bellows of Greenwood Heights complained that the infrastructure on many designated truck routes, like 20th Street, were not up to modern truckage. "There's cobblestones under the asphalt," he explained. "We already have a lot of cracks and cave-ins and houses bouncing up and down. These streets were never designed to have 18-wheelers carrying crushed cars."Tim Malloy of Kensington, meanwhile, pointed to a more immediate, human danger. "I see kids on bikes get hit on Caton Avenue in front of my house all the time, and a lot of the times they don't report it."David Stein of DOT was sympathetic to these concerns of residents, but he pointed out that in many ways his agency's hands were tied. "Right now there's no way for a truck to go across Brooklyn without going up into Queens and coming back down."Indeed, according to the preliminary report's executive summary, "There is no direct east-west truck route connecting southern Brooklyn with Queens and Long Island. Eastbound truck traffic from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge must continue along the Gowanus Expressway, and either exit to Local Truck Route streets, or continue on the BQE to the LIE."It is the option to avoid the Queens detour by traversing Brooklyn's local streets that frustrates residents. But, according to Dave Woloch of DOT, "The problem is if you take the trucks off 20th Street they have to go somewhere else."20th Street is currently labeled a local truck route, even though, like many other local truck routes, it is primarily residential. According to the report, "Only 5 percent of the City's streets are designated as truck route streets. Most of these truck route streets operate at or near capacity. Commercial deliveries are essential to the City's economy; thus, a further reduction in the number of streets in the Truck Route Network is not practical."This is not what most residents wanted to hear, but it is the grim reality. "We're in the center of the world's largest consumer market," testified Phaedra Thomas of the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation, "and we're growing and we're surrounded by water. Trucks are our lifeblood."After south Brooklyn Councilman Bill de Blasio advocated for more "intensive signage and ticketing blitzes at hotspots," Matt Mihovich, a local trucker, interrupted."Can you get what you want," he asked, "by ticketing truckers to death?"During his testimony, Mihovich presented a new idea for reducing large trucks. "De Blasio mentioned economic growth," he said. "Well, you don't grow if you drive us all away with fines. What about us little guys? If you give exemptions for us you might convince the big carriers to go smaller." Mihovich drives a 14,000-pound truck, which only has two axles and six wheels. If he could be allowed to drive anywhere, he was suggesting, then maybe bigger companies would buy more smaller trucks to navigate the city.Thomas had another idea. "More manufacturing zones would actually reduce truck traffic," she argued. "We need more smaller distribution zones like we currently have in Red Hook and Sunset Park. We need more of those throughout the city."In the meantime, a police officer Malloy recently complained to had a suggestion. "Last time I said something," recalled Malloy, "they told me maybe I should move upstate."