As a general rule, when traveling through an unfamiliar area, if there's a sign that says no trucks then I don't travel down that road. No truck signs can exist for low clearances, low weight roads and bridges, narrow lanes, length limits, or other road conditions. They can also exist for political reasons like to appease NIMBY's or just reduce truck traffic through an area. However, I don't know the true reasons why the sign exists so I'll find a different route rather than tempt faith.
I'm amazed by the amount of people demanding that the government take action for these horrible highways lol. These are not highways in the modern sense. Often times there's no shoulders, lots of parkways still have fairly modest speed limits, and there's plenty of low bridge crossings. As it's been stated plenty of times, the parkways in NY are meant for cars. They were built long before the Eisenhower System standards came along. They often suffer from high levels of congestion as they were never designed to handle the amount of vehicles that use them. They were meant to be high speed scenic routes really. It's a beautiful drive down most of them, but even more so in the fall when all of the leaves are turning.
The driver in the story was simply driving down a road that they should not have been on. From my travels throughout the area I've found that most parkways are marked pretty well with lots saying "Passenger Cars Only." NY has begun installing over height sensors at the entrances in the worst areas. Tractor trailers, box trucks, and RVs all have heights and widths that are fairly similar. Think twice about going down a road marked no trucks.
