Pickup Trucks on New York Parkways

[Duke87]

The biggest issue with bridges in NYC is the Hutchinson Parkway when coming north off the Whitestone Bridge. Truckers regularly fail to exit onto I-278 or I-95 (Bruckner or Cross Bronx), and wind up ramming a bridge about 11' tall. Despite all the warnings, it happens regularly.

The notorious Westchester Avenue overpass is 10'2" northbound. Bruckner Boulevard, before it, is 11'1" in the outside lanes but considerably higher in the middle.

It's also fairly common to see trucks get stuck or can-openered by overpasses further north on the Hutch and Merritt whenever there is particularly nasty traffic on I-95 (especially if it's closed for some reason). Many truckers not familiar with the area will get on the parkway to continue on their route and avoid arriving late, thinking that all they're risking is a ticket, unaware that the restrictions against large trucks are physical as well as legal. King Street, at the state line, is a common spot, and a few years ago NYSDOT installed an overheight vehicle detector approaching it on the northbound side (southbound approaching it is in Connecticut and they haven't done anything).

[dgolub]

But the signage at entrances to the New York (state) parkways still reads "passenger cars only," right?

It depends.  Back in late 2005 through early 2006, they replaced all the old parkway signs on Long Island that read "Passenger Cars Only" and replaced them with new ones that read "No Commercial Vehicles" and give a height limit.  In New York City and the Hudson Valley, though, the signs generally still say "Passenger Cars Only."