There is a simple solution to this problem.
You need a New York license plate on the car to park on the street.
5
Why not just ban cars from Manhattan period.This would also include the local politicians SUV’s.The idea that a street grid laid out in the 1800’s is fit for automobiles is a joke,and the sooner residents and government realize it the better.If you love the freedom of movement provided by your car leave the city.
6
@Able If you did that, a lot of people would leave Manhattan. Employers would leave as they'd find many of their workers unable to commute as they don't have access to good public transit.
5
There should be allowances for low-income, diverse physical abilities and work requirements. But otherwise, sorry, keeping the planet viable for future generations is going to require sacrifice. Too many of my able-bodied, middle-class/affluent, child-free neighbors keep a car in the city, when they could have purchases delivered and otherwise walk/subway/Revel/car share/Citibike or rent a car for the day if they really need it.
9
The elephant in the room - Uber. Most of the woes we are suffering with traffic, parking and bad driving, can be tied DIRECTLY to the 100,000 Uber cars on the streets every day.
People survived for a long time without Uber. They can do it again.
15
The suicide of a once-great city--what sophomoric drivel!
1
Parking spaces seem to be our guns... "The gov can't take out parking!!!!"
8
Everyone complains about poor bus service--but bus service is poor because buses are competing with car traffic. Duh!
Expand bus service with more buses connecting to subways, especially in the outer boroughs.
Use phone apps that track where your bus is, and eta’s.
Have a liberal policy granting special permits to drive to those with hardships. Simply put--the city should be looking for reasons to give special permits to those with hardship claims--instead of assuming that people are trying to cheat.
Ban cars from street parking in certain neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens,in order to allow trucks to make deliveries efficiently and quickly, and garbage trucks to pick up trash--a boon to business operators in those neighborhoods. A boon to tourism, pedestrians, and bike-riders.
Have congestion pricing for driving in Manhattan.
After a year or two, people will wonder what all the hubub was about.
12
I love how many people are citing cancer patients as a reason to keep parking free in Manhattan, losing all irony that car fumes CAUSE CANCER. People will stop at nothing to protect their free space. Yeah well if you get a studio sized spot of Manhattan for free then I should too. :)
10
A chicken in every pot and a parking space around the the block, a new political slogan to unite left and right.
1
NYC makes half a billion dollars from parking tickets.
1
I live in the Flatiron and the only free street parking is from 7:00 pm till 7:00 am. Gramercy Park has a few streets with free daytime parking but street cleaning rules require moving the vehicle in the morning. So for practical purposes it’s a nightmare.
The Parking garages range from $500 to $700 a month and daily rates are ridiculously expensive.
It’s so typical of NYC Politicians targeting car owners when they let Uber and Lyft jam the streets and let bicycle riders totally ignore all traffic regulations.
5
For those who say there are a horde of people driving their cars to work in Manhattan on a weekday and taking parking spots, who in their right mind would put themselves through that punishment!? This is a discriminating class myth created by Manhattannites who have no idea how residents outside of Manhattan live. I'm all for no free parking during the day, but give us a break in the evenings and weekends so folks outside of Manhattan have a form of self-reliant transportation when they come into the city for a night out.
6
Just another gentrification set of tools under the guise of protecting the environment. I predict 20 years from now, NYErs will pay more but still have subpar transit, little change in air quality and greater inequality. I also predict that a backlash will emerge against these policies and politicans that support them in the next election cycle.
4
NYC is like an open Darwinian jungle.
Clearly, residential parking permits would be a giant step toward reducing the car infestation in the City.
Political leadership lacks the vision and the courage to limit the hoard of drivers invading the streets every day.
As noted in the article, virtually all other cities around the country provide some privileging of local taxpayers and property owners who drive.
6
@Michael McAllister
Sorry to hear that you experience "NYC like an open Darwinian jungle."
For me it is my home.
But I guess it's Survival of the Fittest that makes you believe it's all "car infestation" and "hoard of drivers invading the streets".
Have a nicer day.
3
It’s about time. The cost of parking should be factored into the cost of car ownership, like maintenance and insurance.
NYC has some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Giving away manhattan square footage for free so that car owners can save money is ludicrous.
Charge those who can afford to own a private vehicle and use the money to improve the services for the larger multitudes who cannot afford private transportation.
17
The city needs to begin publicizing ways for people who live outside the city area (upstate, New England, south of the city...) to leave cars. Many people, especially tourists and those with no city connections, are not aware about where you can park to enter the commuter rail system and leave your car behind.
Many people in New England, including me, leave cars in New Haven, for example, and take Metro North into New York, but this option is never publicized and lots of drivers have no idea what the options are.
If we lived in a country that actually prioritized the needs of people and the environment, we would have more transit options in the hinterlands, but until that happens, we need a stopgap solution of, hopefully affordable, paid parking to keep cars out of Manhattan.
7
Those impacted by a street parking ban will be people who cannot afford to pay for a garage and unfairly targets low to middle income households. Homeowners, even if only part-time residents, pay high property taxes and should not be required to pay to park in their own neighborhoods.
4
Cry me a river. It’s about time. The cost of parking should be factored into the cost of car ownership, like maintenance and insurance.
NYC has some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Giving away square footage for free so that car owners can save money is ludicrous.
10
Charging for a street parking would be a tax , And implementing it would require a new army of fussbudget city workers
If you promise to reduce existing taxes by three dollars for every dollar that is gained by this new tax I’ll consider it
1
A lot of the issue, in particular concerning outer reaches of Queens and Brooklyn, northern Jersey, Westchester and Nassau from whence many middle income Manhattan workers reside is- the subways have really been degraded. The subways also don’t have the reach necessary since none have been build except part of Second Ave and G Line in virtually a century. Buses were the flexible fix but with traffic not a panacea. Giving buses a truly express lane would alleviate some issues. Allowing comfortable, app logic services like VIA to thrive will also help.
5
The sticker idea is nice yet mark my words on the new side hustle. Entrepreneurial but relatively poor residents will use their qualifying core Manhattan addresses to register cars for folks from outside the restricted parking zone for a cash-in-the-pocket fee.
3
How about one sticker per family, as per registration? Pennsylvania license plates registered to bogus addresses need not apply.
3
If there were no street parking, the City would have to improve mass transit from the boroughs into Midtown and Downtown. (Sorry, but you can't run an office if you don't hire people whom you don't pay enough to live in Manhattan).
If there were no street parking, car owners who could afford it would rent garage space where they would pay extortion (income-tax-free tips) to garage employees.
2
Simple solutions
1. Bike transportation measured by ratio of people to dedicated space is not efficient. Add other words like dangerous, emboldening bike riders to think they own the streets against cars and pedestrians, and tourists are another matter. Take the subway.
2. Regulate number of taxis (I.e. Uber coming into Manhattan). Again, take the subway.
3. Walk or take the subway.
NYC always has traffic, but not like this. What happened, ride sharing service, bike lanes, and massive construction ripping our streets apart. The former two can be addressed immediately, the later will get addressed over time.
1
as always "entertainment" easily overpowers "reality" - the fantastical desire for the mechanically powered steed at the curb to alter our earthbound reality for brief episodes of "the open road" easily tamps down acknowledgement of the often grim experiences we have both behind of and in front of the wheel
2
Right across the river in Jersey City and Hoboken, residents pay a fee to park on the street and have parking stickers. For non-residents, there are parking meters or lots. It works very well. They also have a light rail system, which we don't have, while our public transportation is often abysmal, especially the buses. I would have no problem with a plan like that, which could easily be adopted here.
11
And I believe light rail is easier, faster and less expensive to get going than subways or anything else underground. However, when the idea has been proposed in Manhattan (like for 42d st) it has failed because drivers object to loss of at least one lane.
5
Have you ever paid for street parking or a garage in Manhattan? Parking in Jersey is significantly cheaper. This ban is unfair to low - middle income drivers
2
"Mr. Yaruss, the transportation committee chairman, described watching an ambulance with lights flashing get stuck behind a double-parked car next to his apartment building."
Since when is double parking legal? Can't the law be enforced? He's a member of the Community Board for heaven's sake
5
Double parking is a scourge in NY. It is an ‘privileged’ act of ignorance or laziness. To be frank, it has become more common that decades ago in my observation. And, I attribute it somewhat to the influx of new drivers from overseas. Double parking habits in other parts of the world are rife. Particular noticeable on the boulevards in Queens nowadays. Nobody can simply go to the corner and stop on the side street or park appropriately.
7
Without double parking, plenty of businesses would Lose customers
@Phantom And I'm 100% sure that every driver stuck behind the double parked cars are the ones patronizing those businesses.
I’m really bummed by the tone of this - there are so many biases (that drivers have a right to free parking), tropes (every conversation about parking includes the grandma with a million doctor appointments that she absolutely must drive a car up), but mostly the glibness when it comes to
Climate change. The NYT knows climate change is real, and should know we need to get cars literally off the street to address it — and this is one of the very few possible solution, yet the article mocks it.
5
I imagine this battle is going to play out similar to when we banned smoking in all public places. The smokers were probably up in arms, saying that their rights were being infringed upon. The smokers felt that their rights were more important than the remaining majority. But eventually, as new laws were implemented, and people were forced to comply...to change their behaviors...eventually it became the norm, and the 'furor' died down. And with less fury, those former smokers were able to stop and really consider their behaviors, and realized that in fact, the previous notion of smoking in public places being 'normal', was in fact quite perverse.
And so it is with private citizens thinking it's their right to navigate deadly private possessions through our dense neighborhoods, and that we should also give up so much of our public space, in order for them to do so.
On a somewhat related note, we also need to ban 'police chases', except in instances where someone's life is at risk. Far too many police chases result in injury/death to other parties (either in other cars, or pedestrians on the street), and often these 'chases' are simply to catch someone who had a warrant...or someone who 'stole' a car, etc. In other words, cops should be making better decisions...a cost/benefit analysis. Is it worth racing 80 mph through neighborhood streets, all to catch a 'robber', knowing that there's a very good chance there'll be collateral damage to other innocent bystanders?
6
I would like to know if anyone on that panel that decided such a thing actually drives on a regular basis, because if not, then this shows how biased such a panel is to everyone else. Many of those who are parking for free and live in the city itself are actually paying for the streets. In a way, they are being paid for even if not on the spot. Part of the reason I've never been to keen on the parking permits is because I feel that they will be abused just like the placards and so many having them will be clamming it's a blank check to park wherever they please. If you don't believe me, just look at where all the vehicles with the placards are parking and are never ticketed for such even if it's a place they're not supposed to be in otherwise anyone else who parks there would be ticketed for such. Let's not forget that there is a push for residential apartment buildings to include little to no parking minimums which would mean even more would be looking around for parking spaces. At least the cities that are mentioned do have properties that have this off site, but if that isn't going to be the case, then it shouldn't be taken away from others. All this really does in the end is just turn certain neighborhoods into gated communities and forces others to park even further. As for congestion pricing, nothing is really final about it, and I feel that there should be more open hearings on it, not less, but I know the supporters won't like this either if means stopping it.
2
My husband commuted for many years from the Lower East Side to West Orange. It was absolutely necessary to commute by car because he often worked until late at night - and even if he’d wanted to spend several hours commuting by three types of public transit in each direction, there was no public transit anywhere remotely near his place of employment. We paid an obscene amount of money to park our car in a garage, but it was our choice to live in Manhattan. We always said we’d get rid of our car when my husband stopped working and that’s exactly what we did. We use public transit at all times within Manhattan and we rent a car when visiting my family in MD.
5
As a car owner & former resident on West 75th Street for many years, parking should be (like a car) a luxury. There should be residential permits (they should be expensive) and also street parking (also expensive), just like in London, Paris, Sydney etc... not rocket science.
5
@D Wainwright I'm betting that "resident[s] on West 75th Street" have plenty of dough.
It's a funny pattern to see all the Richies wanting high prices for parking.
They alone can afford it. They'll have it all for their entitled selves, and be done with those poors once and for all.
5
Could New York eliminate free street parking (and reduce the number of cars and pollution in NYC)?
I sure hope so. As a lifelong pedestrian, that would be amazing.
6
What a reactionary, and regressive proposal squarely aimed at hurting working people, who most depend on street parking. The rich will continue to park their cars in garages, or pay the fees without a second thought. Once again the US has the most regressive tax and fees system in the world. The rich pay no taxes while the poorest pay the most. What is needed is free, efficient and comfortable mass transit. That alone can actually do something to make for safer and less congested cities. Tax the billionaires.
5
@AR Ah, it's the clever 'it hurts working people' ploy, aimed at the heart strings of the politically-correct.
Nice try but.... the true 'working people'...the poorest and most overworked and underappreciated...the dishwashers... the food delivery guys...the nail salon workers... the home healthcare aides... I can assure you that the majority of them are not worried about a loss of 'street parking'. What a luxury that would be ..to even be able to Afford a car, never mind a $40k gas-guzzling SUV.
No, they are too busy catching much-needed zzzz's on their 1.0-2.0 hour public transit commutes, to worry about such petty things.
4
I would suggest that many of the recent traffic "engineering" by the city is unlawful because it has not, in fact, been done by licensed Professional Engineers."
Article 145 of the NYS Education Law requires that engineering work be performed by people with engineering licenses. Not Eric Beaton's crew of City Planners. Not members of the City Council.
The first traffic problem in the city is that DOT people violating the law have not been incarcerated.
The second problem is that police officers charged with enforcing the traffic laws have not been dismissed and incarcerated for giving NOT a pass on its gross violations of the law.
But ultimately the fault lies with our crooked District Attorneys who have neglected taking any action. Perhaps Melinda Katz will bring DOT to heel when she takes office in Queens.
1
@Eugene This is a very informative comment, thank you.
In my very congested neighborhood, the traffic "improvements" came in a can of paint.
New lanes were painted, turn-arrows drawn, lots of cross-hatching, and plenty of swervy lines.
Of course no one, aside from the traffic planners have any idea what some of these drawings mean.
So often you will find pedestrians, thinking the gridded area is theirs, coming in conflict with cars, thinking that it is for cars.
This must be some kind of a sick joke from somebody who just didn't care enough to do the right job.
2
@Eugene Glad you brought this up. I agree 100%. More and more our streets look like the Wild West, a melange of cars (massive SUVs that look more like military vehicles, or things that belong in the desert or off-road...)...we've got scofflaw cyclists, electric scooters, mopeds, scofflaw food delivery guys on eBikes, sadistic bike messengers, clueless tourists going for a 'ride in the park' on their Citibikes, cars double-parked with reckless abandon, car idling in MTA bus stops, in Bike Lanes, in Bus Lanes....
And yet where are our City Planners, the DoT and the NYPD? Nowhere to be found. The only thing the DoT is good at is ticketing parked cars that have exceeded the parking meter by One Minute. But as for managing the flow of traffic...the movement of people...ensuring safety? Completely inept. The DoT and NYPD turn a blind eye.
It's utter chaos on our streets, and I absolutely feel I'm in far more danger these past few years, than in prior years. Part of this likely stems from the fact that my neighborhood in Astoria has become over-saturated with new 'luxury apartments' going up. Everyone is a 'developer' now looking to cash in, and all these projects get the rubber-stamp, yet none of our city planners or politicians are considering the big picture. There is simply no planning taking place. It's just 'act now, and deal with the results later'.
1
Until personal helicopters become practical, the car is the best way of getting around, period.
The comments from car owners here just ooze with a sense of self-righteous entitlement. It's like a disease. I pay for an annual permit that allows me to use the tennis courts of NYC. Maybe I should start demanding free court time.
8
And what are the motorized and non-motorized bicyclists "oozing" when they drive through red lights and on sidewalks, terrorizing pedestrians? Oh, that's not entitlement? Puh-leeze. The piety reeks.
5
Exactly!
2
I have a car, and I would happily pay for a residential permit--especially if it is combined with limits on non-resident parking, as in many other cities. Today, when I had to take my car on errands in midday, it took me 45 minutes to find a space in my neighborhood--making commensurate contributions to air pollution. I suspect I am like many others in North Brooklyn, LIC, Astoria, and Upper Manhattan in that I dread how much worse the situation (both parking and air quality) will get when congestion pricing goes into effect.
I avoid driving in Manhattan, except to pick up a dear friend who is legally blind instead of forcing the friend to take three trains to get to my apartment. I also leave the City via the FDR and on West Street rather than get stuck in a traffic jam after paying a ridiculous toll on the Triborough (excuse me, RFK), Whitestone, Throggs Neck or Verizzano.
Additionally, like some others, I find the references to great public transportation to be a Manhattan-centered delusion. Outside the sainted island, there are many reasons to have a car--one of which is the outer borough limits on public transportation. There are many places in Brooklyn and Queens which have little access, with no subways and limited, crowded, and erratic buses.
And I have a large dog--who does not belong in public transit, is not welcome in most cabs/ubers/etc., and is technically not allowed in rentals.
Please get real!
3
I wouldn't mind paying a resident's fee, but you know what will happen: You'll never come home to that parking space.
That's because people without permits will continue to park wherever they want, and we just don't have enough cops to ticket them.
The same way we don't have enough cops to patrol the subways (for fare beaters and crazies), the commercial avenues (for thieves), residential blocks (for break-ins), low-income stairwells (for muggers), street corners in the projects (for shooters), and the like.
1
The chattering classes have had the automobile in their crosshairs for 60 years now. They blame it for pretty much everything whether it be the decline of cities (how dare we leave noisy dangerous cities for the peaceful tranquility of suburbia), the destruction of the environment (despite the fact that exhaust emissions have dropped to negligible levels due to the catalytic converter), obesity (just like every labor saving device, people used to get great arm workout working the washboard until the washing machine came and ruined everything), and for making cities ugly (I'm sorry you think freeways are ugly, but it's the fastest way to get to work). We need to fight to keep this personal freedom which is under attack by the self annointed intellectuals who think they know better than we.
1
Dude, you live the suburbs, stay there with your car. I love the city and I live here. I’ve lived in the city since the 70’s. I’ve seen the blight of the Bronx, the decay of the subways and the rebirth of the city. I have a car, I’m fine with congestion parking, resident parking permits and tolls on the crossings (with the funds going to pay for said infrastructure), bike lanes and dedicated spaces to pedestrians. the majority of true New Yorkers feel the same.
7
Hey NYC, welcome to how the rest of the world operates.
Sincerely,
The rest of the world
3
It's surprising -- then, again, maybe not so surprising -- that New York hasn't done what every other congested city has done, which is have local residents register their cars and display a sticker. Anyone driving from out of the neighborhood simply has to take alternative transportation or park in a garage, or a commercial zone with hourly paid parking.
8
I live in midtown Manhattan and my street is regularly repaved-- like every 3 or 4 yrs. Believe me, it is not because of bikes the street is repaved so often.
2
Are they going to tax bike riders to help pay for using the streets to travel, or will the city unfairly force vehicle owners to subsidize the bike riders?
Methinks the city will soak the car owner so that the bike rider can keep taking resources.
7
The amount of wear and tear a bike puts on the street is...
Zero.
The answer is zero.
And city taxes writ large go to all public investments. So if they work/live/play there, they already paid for said street.
4
Then by your logic, parking should be free and the city should be working to increase the amount of parking spaces.
Bicycles use friction and gravity to generate tractive force, which does in fact, cause wear and tear to the road surface. Want to debate physics?
3
The only personal vehicles that should be allowed anywhere in Manhattan are those whose owners live there and pay for a resident parking sticker.
3
There a lot of cars with out state license plates because owners live in NYC but claim addresses out of state to save money in insurance. Start with those people. Leave the rest of us residents alone.
8
Where do they get that the average studio apartment in NYC is 180 square feet? These histrionic so called “transportation advocates” exaggerate to the point of flat out lying to make their case.
5
@Patrick Actually, the main room in your average straight studio in a white brick postwar doorman building in Manhattan measures 10 x 20, so that is close. The kitchen, bath and closets add more sf, as do imaginative RE agents. There are many studios with smaller dimensions, like some in prewar Tudor City that measure only 10 x 13 and have pullman kitchens.
2
Sad. Sad. Sad. Slowly but surely people who drive cars are getting hammered left and right. From bus lanes that buses will not stay in, but go into the other lanes, and then back into the bus lane when it benefits them. Toll hikes to subsidize the MTA. Bicyclist (pedal powered or motor) who act is if the street now belongs to them. Roaming in and out of traffic, sometimes in the wrong direction, forcing me the driver. OBEYING THE LAW, to second guess, or triple check my mirror for the slightest movement of my vehicle left or right.
And let's not forget, the almighty, oblivious pedistrian. I drive everyday to work, and for work. See all kinds of stupidity from drivers that simply should should not be driving like speeding/not following right-of-way rules. But PEDESTRIANS TAKE THE CAKE. From jay-walking(I know everyone does it) to crossing the street while on their cellphone, crossing while it does not say walk anymore, crossing while thinking they are a superhero and cannot get hurt.
I see more egregious behavior from pedestrians than any other group using these NYC streets. But drivers are the ones faulted more often than not when an accident occurs. I know this article is about parking, but from my observation of NYC driving in the past couple of years it seems like these politicians really have it out for us.
7
Turn Queens and New Jersey into parking lots and prohibit private cars from Manhattan. Motorcycles (not trikes) get a pass but still no on street parking. Problem solved, besides what else is Queens good for anyway?
Consider how much square footage of parking garages could be converted into living space.
3
"What else is Queens good for anyway?"
For the people who call it home, it's their space on earth. Your comment is pretty self-righteous and entitled.
4
I support the idea of a paid parking permit for those residents who have cars in the city. My concern is the expansion of the bike program and the"bike" lanes. We keep on talking about cars injuring or killing bicyclists but with more bikes and motorized scooters and aggressive bicyclists on the streets , I fear for my safety and my 10 year old son who now has to look when crossing the bike lane. Can you imagine the injuries a 80 pound body would sustain if a 250 lbs combo of bike and human being hit him? The chaos that is happening on the streets of NYC are making us fear for the safety of our children. Adding more bike lanes is fine but there needs to be regulation as to how fast they go and in which direction they go and whether they are motorized or not.
6
How about taking away all the free parking placards that the police, firemen and bureaucrats get? Ideally, the hired help should take mass transit and leave the spaces available to we the people - aka - the taxpayers. At a minimum the help should pay for their free parking privileges. While your at it- put the bike stands on the curb, remove all the remaining defunct fire hydrants, get rid of all these empty ride share cars and encourage businesses to move their freight in the wee hours of the night. As for charging to park everywhere - all your doing is catering to the rich who can afford to pay whatever you charge. Stop beating up on the middle class. This is why democrats don’t have more friends. (For the record I am a democrat and a biker)
7
"The hired help."
Could be it's just been a tiresome sort of few days, and I'm not catching your humor -- but I can't believe you're serious about calling our firemen and police officers "hired help."
6
@Jeff There is a street near me, East 51st between Third and Lex, where there is often a sign stuck up on one of the private buildings on the block saying something to the effect "parking for NYFD/NYPD only" Both the local firehouse and the 17th precinct are on that block and expect to have the entire block to park the private vehicles of their employees.
2
Ok - go with “public servants”
I feel as if they should make them pay for parking. If they want free parking go to the suburbs.
4
@Sam Lubje Hey Sam from the Upper East Side. I couldn't help but notice how you tell people to just move if they can't pay the big money.
If they don't pay the big money they should have to move away from their families, their friends, their communities, their jobs...well, their life.
Please go to see "Won't You Be My Neighbor", I think you'd benefit.
1
Well then those people who want to park in the streets would just have to move to a place where they could park in the streets. There are plenty of places where you can park your car, boats, trailers, mobile homes, garbage, you name it.
I am a woman in my 70s seriously considering moving from Manhattan after more than 40 years because, among other things, I no longer feel safe walking and crossing the street in crosswalks and with a green light. I know that if I get run over cops and an ambulance will come, a cop will say "thank gawd nobody was killed," I will be carted away, and ultimately probably go bankrupt because I will lose my independence and won't be able to afford the help I need, which is not covered by Medicare and provided by Medicaid only to "the poor."
6
@ellienyc Ellen, I think that you are on to something with that moving idea.
In a single comment you tell people who want to park to move away from their homes, families, friends, communities and jobs AND also attack people on Medicaid by suggesting that they fraudulently pretend to be poor.
NYers are better than that.
3
Most NYC car owners have a strong sense of entitlement, and really, can you blame them? The bulk of our public space has been relinquished to them. Cyclists are supposed to be thankful when given an (often UNprotected) sliver of select streets/avenues in the city.
DoT and NYPD look the other way when cars double-park or idle in bus stops, bus lanes and bike lanes. The only DoT does is Ticket parked cars. But as far as managing the flow of traffic and making our streets safer (ticketing cars who are actually endangering us....double-parkers...illegal parkers, etc.), nothing is done.
Look at the accompanying image to this story. It's yet another ridiculous Yukon or similar, already IN the bike lane, and with the vulnerable cyclist just ahead of this 2-ton monstrosity. When did mini tanks become the norm for personal vehicles?
In my Astoria neighborhood, it's not that uncommon to see a car parked ACROSS the sidewalk in front of a private home. Apparently a free spot in front of their home, and a small driveway, and their garage are not sufficient to accommodate all their mini-tanks, and particularly when their garages are laden with stuff from Walmart, BJ's etc. (in other words, so much stuff that their garage has no room for...their personal vehicles...).
Every afternoon when school lets out, there are rows of double-parked SUVs with helicopter parents picking-up their precious teens, while the poorer kids (and who live FURTHER away) are headed to the bus stops.
7
@Lisa The roads have never been meant for people, first they were for horses and carriages, then streetcars, now automobiles, buses, and trucks.
7
@Will Well the roads the Romans built (and many still survive) 2,000 years ago were to move soldiers. Walking. Marching? Some higher ups on horses. But the road, in it's inception, was for people.
2
Yes and, more recently, all you have to do is look at a photo of a NY street scene from 70-100 years ago and, even with automobiles, you see something vastly different from what you see now.
As far as I'm concerned, the fewer and smaller cars in the City, the better.
Trucks and vans ok as needed for business.
People who have limited physical abilities should be able to have cars if they feel necessary but solo folks in suvs- they can take public transit or ride a bike.
7
I think this is the best comment i have read so far! Why always so radical? Less, smaller this is the answer - not law only, only me, not you.. let’s talk together again and, let’s live each other again!
3
The reality is that car ownership methods need to change in our urban areas. We need to move away from individual car ownership to a car share system. Something that high-end car firms such as Porsche are experimenting with in various US cities.
This systems is essentially a part-time leasing arrangement where a car is delivered to a lessee when needed and then retrieved by the car firm lessor when not in use. Such a system would greatly ease to demand for street parking while still meeting drivers vehicle usage demands.
But it's a mindset change that is probably going to take a long time to instill -- particularly given Americans penchant for individualism.
1
@George I'm all for it!
Can I share your Porsche?
5
An outright ban is ridiculous. Residents who pay taxes are the actual owners of street parking spaces, and have a right to some free parking. How the city manages that is a fair debate topic. I suggest a set number of permits per family and no ability to get more. Perhaps no permits for new residents.
7
I don't have a car, but I do have a lot of other possessions. Can I store them on the street for free?
9
@PM I'd love a small plot out in front of my apartment building, where the city allows me to plant a vegetable garden. Or where I can keep a small Weber grill and two folding chairs. (I think I see a fun mini revolt idea formulating, for next Summer! What fun! ;-)
3
@PM Yes. Good luck.
1
@PM Yes you can.
Just put them out on the street.
Good luck.
1
I feel like the city is already at war with car drivers and if you don't allow car drivers into the city they will go elsewhere. The city will lose a lot of people who depend on their cars come in for shopping and going to restaurants and keeping economy going. if high rents aren't enough to drive away people taking away parking well. Of course this will not affect the rich they can pay any amount for a off the street parking space but who is going to be serving them?
6
@Steve The majority of NYC residents, and who shop and go to restaurants here, do Not own cars. So between us pedestrians/public commuters/cyclists/car sharers and the tourists, I suspect our economy will be just fine.
Also, as for who will 'serve' the rich if the city becomes more anti-car, somehow I suspect that those serving the rich aren't driving in their cars from outer Queens, the BX, the far reaches of Bk. No, they are taking two different buses and 1-2 trains, to serve their charges, and during the wee hours of the night/morning.
5
Finally! Why has free street parking been considered an inviolate right? It’s absolutely ridiculous and parking charges could also be applied to expand mass transit to the city’s transit deserts.
7
Great article, James. Polly Trottenberg should be forced to read it. More important, she should be forced to read, and be tested on, the hundreds of comments to the article. Why do I think she has a NYC car, special license plates and maybe a driver to ferry her around to her important meetings and other duties? I suspect she, like our privileged mayor, has lost touch with citizens’ driving problems.
4
Having been priced out of NYC (and CT and Long Island and NJ) 5 years ago after living there 26 years, I suggest you also:
*Charge people for looking at their reflection in store windows as it wears down the glass.
*Make people pay $1.00 to ride elevators
*Charge people for degrading the street by walking on it
*Hire large men to hold anyone entering NYC upside down by their ankles so their change falls out of their pocket and government agents can collect it
"The hustle never ends." Tony Soprano
17
Corey Johnson has only bad to worse ideas to deal with every type of parking. He seems hell bent on eliminating cars altogether. And Corey Johnson wants to be mayor, an office he is not ready for. I live in Upstate Manhattan where the parking is atrocious. Not only is it nearly impossible to park our one and only car-that is instrumental to our business- it is “suburban commuters dumping their cars in our neighborhoods” that is the main cause of parking problem. We have commuters who proudly tell us they leave their cars for days and even weeks on-end because the ticket cost only $45 per week, much cheaper than $30-40 a day to park in our limited parking garages. Many of us have called on our city council member Ydanis Rodriguez (the worst and disconnected council member to ever hold office) only to be re-directed to call another council members office Councilman Mark D. Levine because he has the best plan for restricted parking.
Levine plan is obvious and upfront. What is not mentioned herein or in the discussion is what
about hourly restricted parking for our businesses.
We have a burgeoning restaurant business in our
neighborhood but there is NO places for visiting foodies to park from 5:00 to 11:00 pm. Its costing us business and our ability to stay in business and pay our workers, purveyors and our taxes. If the good councilman Levine can fix this serious problem with a complete and comprehensive restrictive parking plan then he has my vote: Mark Levin for Mayor.
3
@Sendan Not sure where 'Upstate Manhattan' is but either way...I'm not aware of foodies who may be driving into upper Manhattan, all for the 'burgeoning restaurant scene'. Sure, there may be some nice restaurants here and there in Harlem, Wash Hts and Inwood, but the implication that foodies are driving en masse, specifically to frequent these places, sure gave me a nice chuckle.
1
“There’s insanity going on,” said Milton Ingerman, a retired physician who parks on the street on the Upper West Side.
But who is to say that the insanity wasn't to give the cars all that space in the first place?
7
Listen I’m all! for no more cars, only bikes, no factories, fresh air, clear sky and on and on and on! But really! have a bit consideration even for a law as old as free street parking! Who and What are you thinking? You, and you and you can just one day come and change everything you do not like faster than in a blink of an eye? What about a slower, more adaptive approach? A more “together approach “? Nicer, easier on everyone including me and me and me.....
Uhhhh just be careful it could happen to you too one day,unforgivably....
I am all!!! for no war, no force, no pain, no violence...
Then! live and! practice it......
Ban private cars in manhattan, save delivery trucks, Trade workers trucks and limited & regulated cabs/uber/etc.
Man would that be sweet!
6
@Fritz Raim Another Dictate for us: "Ban private cars in manhattan"
This time from Northern California, where all the NYC Parking Experts live.
6
Oh Danny Boy. The exhaust pipes, they are a singin...
BTW Danny, Not a dictate, as i have no real say in the matter. Just an idea.
But really, do you not agree that your City would be so much nicer with 1/2 the traffic?
2
This should be implemented as soon as possible.
Why are we giving very valuable real estate to car drivers for free?
6
Why is Nyc so for wealth? Might as well make gasoline 48$ a gallon. The top one percent favor a lopsided approach that the Times is endorsing.
1
Living in San Francisco, I have zero empathy for New Yorkers.
2
Free parking makes working class car ownership possible in Manhattan...The daily rhythm and grind of legal parking can come to dominate all your waking hours... you will start memorizing Jewish & Muslim holidays and your greatest joy will come from surprise realizations that “alternate side of the street parking has been suspended”... and only after you’ve gone back to bed do you recall that you parked on an avenue and not a street…
and eventually dreams Will be infused with nightmarish images of you circling your block for an eternity or not being able to remember what day of the week it is...
But the upside is… At least you get to meet your neighbors and rather well… If one of the usual crew isn’t attending, folks will take to yelling up to your apartment Hey Yellow Toyota! You’re gonna catch a ticket!
When you’re a car owner in Manhattan… You will not be defined by your career… You will not be defined by your family… At least, in your own mind, you KNOW, your real purpose in life is to move your car to the alternate side of the street
4
Wow, the Times is so thin-skinned that it can't take ANY criticism of its *extremely* anti-car reporting on the bike/car topic. Its articles are always "cars bad, bikes good" - with no actual discussion of reality.
My respect for the Times goes down every time I read such a slanted story, AND I bet you won't print this comment. Go ahead and prove me wrong!
8
@L It's a combination of reporting from a bubble and a lack of investigative reporting.
Quoting "Howard Yaruss, the chairman of the committee" without any mention of Mr Yaruss' apparent conflicts is unforgivable.
It would have taken the reporter a single Google search to uncover this: "Transportation Alternatives is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation overseen by its board of directors...Howard Yaruss [Board Member]" and this:
"1. Briefly describe the organization's mission or most significant activities: TO RECLAIM NYC's STREETS FROM THE AUTOMOBILE..."
6
It’ll probably take a couple parkingrage homicides to finally get a lid on this maybe after a couple hundred people are departed, and then someone, some political hack notices, will the parkingrage phenomena be addressed.
1
The New York Times has a clear and extreme bias, shown in every bike vs. car article, in favor of bikes. Why??
The Times is becoming tabloid-like in its coverage of this issue. The Times has engaged in the steady drumbeat of "cars bad, bikes good" for a long time already, which is as far from "impartial reporting" as one can get.
I want to know if anyone at the Times realizes that this city is not just made up of able-bodied people who can breeze along on a bike in any weather.
I want to know if the Times understands illness, old age, infirmity, or disabilities of many kinds (some of them not visible to others).
And I'd really like to know if everyone at the top of the Times's masthead - including Sulzberger - rides a bike to work, or do they use those horrible internal combustion engine-powered vehicles to get around?
I'm waiting for someone to go full-tilt and suggest that in case of emergency, we should just just hop on a bike and pedal ourselves to the ER.
13
So true!!
1
@L I wish the Times would speak up for pedestrians. I am tired of having to spend so much time avoiding both cars AND bikes.
By the way, when I had an accident and had s serious open bleeding fracture,I just hopped in a yellow cab to take me to the ER, saving Medicare hundreds of dollars.
2
@L "...folks with illness, old age, infirmity, or disabilities of many kinds (some of them not visible to others)"
There are people the world over, with maladies and afflictions far worse, and who don't feel the need to own a car. Ever heard of taxis? Rental cars? Uber? Getting a ride from a friend or neighbor?
But yet, old people and folks with disabilities...they all need their own personal vehicles?...they are not capable of car-sharing in one form or another? I'm not sure I follow how old age or a disability means you 'must' own a car? And in fact, many very old people should Not be behind the wheel of a car. After a certain age, folks should be tested every year for eyesight, response times, etc. Very old drivers can be every bit as dangerous as immature, inexperienced young drivers.
2
I, like other residents, do not have "free parking." Many of us pay tens of thousands of dollars in local taxes. However, I and I would think many residents, would be happy to pay a nominal yearly fee for the ability to park our cars in our own neighborhoods.
6
Uh...just because we have been lucky enough to have had free parking on our streets does not make it an entitlement; other large cities have parking permit requirements, and do not guarantee that residents will have parking spaces. It is not "anti-car" or "anti-car-owner" to suggest that free street parking may have outlived its usefulness, and should be eliminated in favor of parking permits, even if they do not guarantee a parking space.
2
Not everyone lives in Manhattan.
We come to the City once in a while, on the weekends, to take advantage of the multitude of great cultural events.
We do commute to work, dealing with the subway fiasco and continuous saga every single day.
I’m sorry, but we want to be stress free on the weekends, when the subway is even more unreliable, so we drive.
Anyone ever thinks of that demographic?
5
@Gab Caz So that you can be "stress free" on weekends I have to feel I'm risking my life every time I try to cross the street within a half a mile of the 59th street bridge? I'm a woman in my 70s being forced out of New YOrk because I CANNOT FIND A STRESS FREE DAY ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.
2
Ellie, from your two comments, and particularly this one with its capital letters, probably your stress is due to more than cars.
I am also up there in years, I am a New Yorker born and bred, and I like to stroll around. Cars are the least of our problems although I admit that the honking is bothersome.
Shouting bi-polar types, bikes coming at me from the wrong way of traffic, slow-moving crowds -- worse.
I wonder whether the same no-parking rules, should they happen, will be in effect in the boroughs and particularly near the projects --.
1
@Gab Caz It's one thing to want to drive now and then, but is this to say that you also feel the need to actually own a car, versus renting one?...or...just taking a taxi or an Uber? It's this notion of 'one car for every American adult' that is so perverted and wasteful, especially since most cars are sitting parked/unused, for 20+ hours of every day.
TANSTAFL
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
Parking is not free; there are costs. A cost for the infrastructure: buying it, paving it, maintaining it and monitoring it. [¿How much is the land worth?]. Then there is the cost in miles driven, gasoline and pollution searching for an unoccupied space. Then the foregone cost – limits on loading space for goods/services as well as dropping off/picking up
passengers.
Add to all of this – less space for bus service stops.
¿Is this a good use of the space? ¿How efficiently do cars move people? Each car usually has one occupant.
1
Most public garages in NYC have been razed for all the huge expensive residential building going up. So where is everyone supposed to park? The wealthy will always be able to park in their new buildings that have parking spaces. Or the wealthy will be able to park in the few public parking garages that still exist. If NYC wants to further drive out what’s left of the middle class it’s a brilliant idea.
11
@Ozma You are correct.
It is even more insidious though.
Behind all this are the rich people living in those "expensive residential buildings going up". They demand their amenities and, at the same time, don't want poors to have any access to THEIR neighborhood. Of course, "their neighborhood" was a community before they arrived and broke it up. They continue to break up that community by insisting on high prices for anything in now, what has become "their neighborhood". Parking, access to midtown streets BELONG TO THEM, and NOT to those without heavy money.
It is the Developers who represent these interests. The Developers know that they can't get top dollar if the neighborhood is mixed income, or God-forbid, has Poors.
Watch how every public amenity gets a price on it that ends any possible use by anyone but the rich.
Mission Accomplished!
9
Wow talk about an administration that cares not a twit for its residents. I guess no one in NYC has a job that requires a private vehicle. I guess no one from outside the city wants to visit the city and provide income to businesses. I guess the rich can afford this administration. I guess the parking industry will be able to inflate their fees exponentially.
7
@David J There is plenty of public transportation for people like you from New Jersey. Or, you can give up your car and cut the square footage of your home by half and move into the city. Many of us who live here have been making those sacrifices for years!
@ellienyc, I just visited a friend whose apartment, which cost $800,000, is smaller than my living room.
The noise, the roaches, the rats, the lack of parking, oy!
The city is for the 2% and up.
My nuisances are deer, fox, wild turkeys, and bears.
No noise, except landscapers and fireworks on the 4th. I’m 45 mins from NYC and an hour from Philly.
I take the train in for a play. For seniors round trip $9.00.
Parking spaces should be only for handicapped.
1
Why do people bother to drive in a city like NY?
It's much more pleasant to walk or use a bike. Good exercise. Time to think. Moments to slow down a bit and watch the wonders of a vibrant city.
3
@wihikr It's not pleasant when you're a college student emptying out his dorm at the end of the semester.
2
@wihikr Advice from a Wisconsin walker to a NYC driver.
Take it for what it's worth; who would know better?
1
@wihikr Well good luck with "moments to slow down a bit and watch the wonders of a vibrant city" when all you can see when you try to cross the street (in a crosswalk, with a green light) is the giant black SUVs bearing down on you.
2
This is ALL ABOUT removing parking from people who can't pay heavy dollars.
Don't try to dress it up.
I'm sure that the rich would like all of the parking available.
I'm also sure that they want all the access to midtown.
And they don't want anybody who's not rich around them.
They are pretty close to making Manhattan THEIRS.
It's Parking for the Rich, and NOTHING for anyone else.
Manhattan for the Rich, and NO ONE else.
Stop them.
10
I would definitely begin with all crosstown streets- NO parking at all. Then perhaps only one side of street for paid parking on side streets.
get the City Council to spend its time and energy on transporation problems and not on foie gras and fur!
3
Ok so let me see - I can park for free on the street or - I can Park in a garage for $500 per month and as my reward for taking the car off the street I have to pay @18% tax ? What’s my incentive here ?
And then on my block I see that half the block on both sides is taken up by private vehicles belonging to the officers of the precinct on the next block, the teachers taking over the playground of the school around the corner as their private parking lot , and FD commandeering all the spots around the firehouse for their private vehicles ......
3
Many NYC blocks are 900 feet long. The average parking lane is 10 feet wide. Most streets in Manhattan are 60 feet wide.
On most blocks, 33% of the square footage (18K sqft) go towards parked vehicles. How many parked vehicles? Approximately 80.
Imagine what the city could do with 18k square feet on each street... parks, plazas, healthcare popups, an olympic swimming pool -- 3 lanes wide, 6 lanes long, or perhaps tiny businesses or affordable housing.
Why should the city continue to let such valuable land sit idle, collecting no money, when only 80 people per block are able to reap the benefits?
3
@Jack W To utilize that space as you propose, you'd have to demolish every single city block and then rebuild them closer together, it wouldn't be practical.
2
Your math is good, but in essence you're talking about narrow strips.
I wouldn't like to have a swimming pool, a playground, or a healthcare pop-up beneath my window.
3
I am happy that the city is putting in more dedicated bus lanes and putting in more bicycle lanes.
But instead of removing a lane of parked cars, the city instead removes a lane intended for driving thus slowing the traffic flow and creating more greenhouse gas.
The city should work with a group such as Google's Sidewalk labs to come up with innovations that improve traffic flow and make people less dependent on individual cars.
Here are some ideas:
1. Mandate that delivery trucks that drive on city residential streets (UPS, Fedex, Freshdirect) be no wider than an SUV, by lengthening the truck so that it could delivery the same amount of cargo. This helps to prevent trucks when they double park from blocking the entire street.
2. Insist that delivery trucks at least with major delivery services register a GPS with the city so that the city can know if a truck is illegally double parked and automatically issue *very expensive* tickets. Drones with AI can also be used to monitor the city traffic for double parked delivery trucks.
3. Mandate construction that blocks streets to occur at night when there is less traffic congestion.
4. Mandate rate caps for Uber and Lyft so that they charge New Yorkers rates similar to Chicago. Making these services less expensive would help people to leave their cars at home.
5. Put in parking spaces at the ends of subway lines for drivers to leave their cars.
3
Bikes are horrible in cold weather and impractical and dangerous in rain and snow. And what if u live in queens and work in the Bronx, you’d have to be a marathon athlete to bike that commute everyday. Trust me I’ve tried. Also, city buses and trains are so packed during rush hour now, how would they be able to handle everyone that currently drives?!!
13
I really hope that Corey Johnson does not become the next mayor of New York City; he seems even more oblivious to the 7 million or so residents who don’t live in Manhattan than even Bloomberg was! So many parts of this city are inaccessible without a car, or involve ridiculous, illogical commutes. I can get to the middle of the Bronx in as little as 20 minutes by car from Queens, or I can spend about 2 hours on 3 buses and spend two fares. I attend a church that is about 4 miles along a major road from my home, but if I want to get there by bus, I have to ride in the wrong direction and transfer to a second bus. My child attends a school 7 miles due west of our home, still within Queens, but has an hour long commute on public transportation. I rarely shop, other than groceries, but I end up doing most of my shopping in Nassau county, because there are parking lots. I drive my car into [upper] Manhattan at most once a year; sensible New Yorkers know the easiest way into Manhattan is the subway. But there are four other boroughs, with large swaths of underserved or inaccessible areas. Target the Ubers and Lyfts causing congestion, but leave car owners - who have few other options - alone!
12
If you can't live in a place without a car, then don't live there. You think a two-hour commute on public transportation is a pain? Don't do it; decide to live closer to your work or work closer to your home. If people refuse to take jobs that require exhausting commutes, then the jobs will naturally diffuse out to places where workers can actually afford to live. No one is enforcing a population singularity in Manhattan; it's only crowded until people and companies realize that any supposed benefits are not worth dealing with the crowds and their sequelae.
3
@Gary The people of New York have jobs, families, and friends. Just getting up and moving to Houston isn't very easy, although a ton of people are doing that.
5
"Don't live there."
D.C. seems to be a city of transients, who come and go with various administrations.
Many of us New Yorkers were born here, as were our parents. We live in a difficult present but everywhere see our past -- our grandmothers handing out cookies on our stoops, our cousins playing hopscotch.
Sorry. We don't want to move.
And often subways and buses just won't do. We don't necessarily drive a lot, but those sometimes times happen.
5
Include a property tax surcharge for those who live closest to subway station. Those who reap the benefits should shoulder the burden too..
2
In Toronto, city residents pay $150 a year for street parking. No cost will deter enough cars. Best to just end on street parking.
6
@Richard wrote: "Best to just end on street parking."
I just love the dictates that Canadians have for NYers.
2
Yes, public transport needs to be improved. But when car parking must be removed to facilitate improving transit options, we can’t let ourselves get into a catch-22 where we won’t remove ANY parking until transit is equally or more convenient. And yes, it is problematic when bikes run red lights or break other traffic laws. It is problematic when ANYONE breaks traffic laws (including pedestrians!).
In short, what-aboutism is not the answer. Insisting that everyone, including cars, act better is.
For what it’s worth, for several years, my family drove into Manhattan for a parent’s cancer treatments. MSK in the UES has a free parking garage (NYU, I believe, valets for a nominal fee). We would have paid to park in a nearby garage rather than circling the block endlessly for a free spot that would probably be too far away. If we had lived in Manhattan, we might have taken cabs. I can say that throughout three years where we drove into Manhattan regularly, sometimes daily, I never parked in a free street spot.
1
The problem is that too many people in Manhattan own cars and barely use them - which punishes those who actually need their car to commute some place public transportation does not adequately serve (I work in New Jersey - 2.5 hrs by public transportation vs. 45 min by car). By the time I get home, all the spots in my neighborhood are taken and I have to circle, waiting for someone to leave. On days off, I have witnessed all the people who move their car for alternate side parking, double parking across the street and moving back an hour and half later (often spending the time sitting in their car). That is probably the extent of their car use that week. My fantasy is a permit system that costs the equivalent of 200 days of bridge tolls - and is actually a pre-payment of bridge tolls (i.e., it credits your E-ZPass account). Maybe this would give all the people with weak excuses for keeping a car in Manhattan the final incentive to get rid of their cars. If you live in Manhattan and have a car but never go over a bridge, you almost certainly don't _need_ a car, so it is fair to pay extra for the privilege. Maybe some of the money could even subsidize access-a-ride.
3
I'm sorry, but it's not the government's job to provide FREE subsidized street parking to car owners. Plain and simple.
6
Does anybody know someone who has never gotten a parking ticket? Instead of including parking tickets as part of the household budget, why not just include parking as part of the household budget? We pay to ride the subway and the buses so why shouldn't motorists pay storage on the streets that belong to more people than who own cars, I should point out. Let the people who stock our stores and earn a living doing deliveries have the streets back. Let the FDNY and NYPD down the street without freeloading cars in the way, thank you very much!
2
“Ideally, the entire city of New York would ban on-street parking or at least limit it,’’ Ms. Thompson added, “and price the parking that’s left over.’’
I guess Ms. Thompson has never been to the other 4 boroughs, then. Sure, try to ban street parking there and see where that gets you!
BTW, now that Bloomberg has apologized for stop-and-frisk, his next apology can be for installing bike lanes without ANY input/vote from the citizens of NYC. He did it for spite, and he deliberately created congestion in NYC for spite, and he did not bother to consider that bike riders would need to obey the traffic laws.
Bloomberg unleashed ALL of this on NYC just b/c he was angry, and I await his sincere apology to ALL pedestrians who cannot cross the street (or sometimes even walk on the sidewalk) without having an entitled bike rider threaten our safety, health, well-being, or even our lives.
10
Cuomo’s congestion pricing plan, which was passed without revealing the details, is bound to be a despised failure.
Here’s my modest proposal. Make all bridges and tunnels to Manhattan carry tolls. Allow a deeply reduced toll to any vehicle registered in Manhattan. This will go a long way toward solving the problem of New Yorkers registering vehicles out of state. Ever wonder àbout how many Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia plates you see in NYC? Then offer vehicles registered in Manhattan to either pay to garage their car, or pay for a street parking permit. Offer both further reduced tolls and parking permit fees to those with handicapped plates. And it will be necessary to extend street parking permits to much of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx to keep residents from being frozen out of parking by those seeking to avoid tolls to Manhattan.
4
The way things work in NYC is someone comes up with a cute idea..some niche group loves it...they jump on the band wagon with now planning and no strategy for helping anyone cope with the change that will sure be dislocating. It’s fun rhetoric but no one does the work. Most of us are tired of these “Im more radical than you are” games. It’s damaging and it’s lazy and disingenuous. And they will suggest all of this where they have drivers and cars and some like our mayor uses a helicopter to get to a gym when he has one close to hand.
6
This is an attack on the many (though quickly dwindling) working-class New Yorkers who still actual remain in New York City who actually have to do real back-breaking work, which includes driving into and around the City and actually parking.
People need to actually drive and park because they are either not able bodied, or because they can't carry massive items they need to drop off at the ever-dwindling number of small business still in New York City which this rule will finally decimate. Uber won't let them use the service to make such deliveries, and even if they did, these New Yorkers, (unlike those who cavalierly write here as if the cost is nothing), couldn’t afford it. (They can’t afford a trucking service either).
Despite the spin here, what is proposed isn't actual about congestion. It is all about revenue and class. At a time when affluent New Yorkers make themselves feel superior shilling for candidates who speak about income inequality, they’re the greatest champions of income inequality. If you can't pay for the honor of living in New York City, even if it's been you home for life, they want you to Leave.
This is nothing but maximizing yet more space for the wealthiest at the expense of the working class. It is a typical Times piece by the affluent, for the affluent, and lauded here by the affluent who want those not in their rarified economic and education class gone.
"They had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
Charles Dickens.
9
How about finding part of the solution in lower cost parking garages?
1
You can not rebuild a city that is already built, with all the other things going on in the city, making citizens pay for something that was once free is taxation and theft by taxes. The city should make every new building over 3 stories included parking, at least one per residential unit and, 3 to 4 for commercial unit
8
There is a absolutely no good reason why we shouldn’t ban all cars in the most congested parts of Manhattan
2
@Stefan I got surgery at a hospital in Manhattan, when i was discharged, I was in no condition to use public transit for the ride back to Connecticut, where I lived. I support reducing the number of cars in Manhattan, but eliminating them is going to create all sorts of problems.
3
@Will (1) You could have hired a private car service or (2) you could have gotten your surgery elsewhere. I am sick and tired of people from the outer boros and suburbs claiming (with our mayor's support)that they "have to" go to docs and hospitals in Manhattan. If the top this and that is so important to you you should have made the sacrifices necessary to live here in the first place, as I and many other people have.
Ellie, if you lived in southern Connecticut, you'd want your procedure done at Hospital for Special Surgery.
I will hazard a guess that your vehemence regarding this issue of cars is due to some snowballing of other irritations.
3
Try giving out more tickets to double parkers and bike riders who ignore trsffic regs.Have more metered municipal lots near transport hubs all overthe city so people who need their cars for work or dont have nearby public trans can park and ride.
3
Another money grab by NYC politicians disguised as a "solution" to traffic problems. Do you remember once upon a time when NYC officials sold state gambling (Lotto) on the promise those funds would go toward repairing the (still) broken NYC public school system? LOL
7
Seems totally insane from an economic point of view to have free parking in NYC. You are giving huge subsidies to drivers that do nothing but encourage driving.
2
@David
Well then.. what about smaller electric cars... Also no more an option.... Only bikes.. also for me one- legged...
So. The curbsides will be free for bike racks, delivery vans, construction vehicles and demolition trucks to squat all day and spew toxic dust and horrendous noise? Great.
7
I would love it if you charged for street parking
Let’s soak up those saps that park outside and have the time to sit there in their car idling every week to move it over for street cleaning
They should be able to afford a 500$ per month garage on top of paying our outrageously high taxes for a disminished life under DeBlasio’s misguided regime that ignores his real tax base and working families
Yes, a family of 4 should have to be forced to visit family and in-laws In the tri-cities via Uber or god forbid they can have access to their car to take a drive out of this godforesaken city filled with the DeBlasio’s misery
Let’s continue to make everything so expensive so that working families drain their entire set of resources for the privilege to live in a place where the mayor doesn’t fight for you
6
So only the super rich would be able to own a car or park in Manhattan. A city for the rich by the rich.
Who cares about the middle class or the poor unless they are part of the massive underclass serving the well-to-do.
Manhattan is a coffin.
10
Does he mean all of NYC. Impossible.
3
On street parking ought to absolutely be banned throughout all of Manhattan, and for densely populated Outer Borough neighborhoods, or those which are proximate or adjacent to Manhattan, or major traffic arteries into Manhattan. The rest of the areas within the municipal boundaries of New York City should feature Permit Parking, Metered Parking, or both. It is important to end the windfall benefits to motorists. The permit parking should be hundreds of dollars a year, and the fees that are collected from paid permits and new meters should be allocated to expansion of Mass Transit.
1
Here in Toronto we have zoned residential street parking (about $190/year - if you can’t afford that you shouldn’t be driving); you put a sticker in your windscreen and you don’t get ticketed when parked in that zone. Some residential streets outside the main downtown allow 2 hours of free parking for visitors: others have metered parking. We switch sides every month to allow for street sweeping. Arterial roads all require payment and are off-limits during rush hour. It works. Absolutely ridiculous not to pay for parking when you think of the costs of maintaining roads and the environmental costs.
2
Street cleaning once a month!
Canadians must be very clean.
1
Automotive companies transformed US cities decades ago - and not for the better. And having so many cars on the road makes things a nightmare for everyone, car commuters and others alike. Drivers are already subsidized by 1) not fully charging them for the cost of providing the infrastructure they use and damage in the process, 2) not charging them for the environmental and public health impacts of driving and burning fossil fuels. Equalizing things a bit is not an "attack" on drivers. For the record, I am currently a car commuter, although I would commute by bike if it was feasible for me.
They are claiming that the size of a parking spot is the size of a studio apartment. That sounds more like a jail cell.
In that case, the City could take away a bunch of parking spots and build affordable housing for the poor and homeless
1
Other cities (including Boston and London) have residential parking permits: people who live within a circumscribed area are allowed to park there--people who do not, cannot.
I live in Upper Manhattan. People from the suburbs routinely clog the streets, leaving their cars for the workday, taking the subway downtown, and leaving no spaces for local taxpayers.
New York should implement residential parking permits.
6
The bike lane on CPW removed parking spaces for cars up to 81st Street. Now. Trucks and tour buses park alongside the lane, so pedestrians, bike riders cannot see what's coming down the bike lane. Very much more dangerous than it was when cars were there.
3
@Carol Colitti Levine Welcome to the Weird World of Avenue Reconfiguration.
It hit West End Avenue first. Now you cannot cross the Avenue safely.
4
Another dimension of the problem, which this article misses, is the use of street parking by out of town commuters, specifically those from New Jersey and north of Manhattan. As one who lives near 79th street and Riverside Drive and has been walking his dog for nearly 15 years, the abuse by commuters is readily apparent. Every morning drivers exit the Westside Highway and begin prowling the streets, blocks from the 79th street Number 1 Subway entrance, looking for day parking before taking the subway to work. The street parked cars with New Jersey plates evidences the problem. I would have to assume the problem extends to the 96th Street and the 125th street exits.
Pay to park on UWS streets would certainly encourage use of mass transit. Why should Manhattanites subsidize free parking for out-of-town-commuters?
7
James Sanders says, “When you have a curbside parking scenario, you’re privileging the people who have cars over the pedestrians.” Clearly Mr. Sanders does not recognize that sidewalks are privileging pedestrians over drivers, seems to think that pedestrians belong in that space where we now park cars. Finally, everyone one seems to forget, unlike pedestrians, drivers, I.e. car owners and users, are constantly taxed via registration fees, tolls and motor fuel taxes. These are large contributions toward the use of roadways including parking. What supplemental taxes have the pedestrians contributed for the privilege of walking in our city, painting of cross walks, walk signals and pedestrian overpasses? And bicyclists contribute no supplemental taxes either. Those who feel motorists are being targeted, are probably not far from the truth. Yes, I walk, ride, take the train and bus, and I drive too.
3
This is such a no-brainer. There should be no free street parking anywhere in the four boroughs within a mile of a subway stop. I’ll go further and say there’s should be no street parking in Manhattan at all for more than an hour at a time.
5
Easily done and not radical. When I lived in DC I had a residential sticker for my car. This prevented folks from the burbs from parking in my area for commuting purposes. On the UWS where I live, yer a lot of NJ plates on the street. This will get worse after congestion pricing. I’d gladly pay an annual fee to park. A garage is $800 a month up here, not $500. It’s the commuters who should take mass transit instead of me losing my car. You don’t want o to drive everyone out of the city. Oh, the ridiculous street sweeping rules have to change - no parking 2 days a week for 2.5 hours? All that results in is people double parking, which created more congestion and hurt feelings, and half the time the street sweeper doesn’t even show. Make it once a week, or every 2 weeks, or whatever. This ain’t rocket science!
3
I’ve lived in Manhattan all of my life. My building, like many others, used to have a yellow line in front of the door so that a space was free for building residents who needed an ambulated, taxi or to quickly load or unload a car. Then the city decided to charge so much for those yellow lines and my building like many others gave up. Ever since one or at most two cars have parked for free directly in front of my building. Elderly residents now have to squeeze between cars to reach the front door when being dropped off. Any taxi or relative or ambulete dropping them at their front door completely blocks all traffic on our block while trying to help them (often by lifting their walkers over the parked cars’ hoods). It is an absolute nightmare to try to help my Aunt reach the front door through the parked cars whilst the traffic we are blocking all honks their horns. Absolutely get rid of street parking at least directly in front of large apartment buildings. No single driver should be allowed to block a whole building from having easy street access at their front door.
6
Free?
They are paid for by all the taxes already collected!
Property taxes paid by owners, included in rents. Taxes to the general fund. Fees and gas taxes. They all go to the maintenance of roadways. How much road/fuel/fees do bicycles pay?
Do you want residents in your city or are you going to raze all the old homes wotjout parking?
Here is another thing most resident cars stay put till needed. Not contributing to traffic.
5
About time this was discussed. I live in Boston and San Francisco and would like to ban all parking on the street unless you paid (through the nose) for it. Most people do not need their cars in the city - in my neighborhoods 1/2 the cars stay on the street during the week, change sides every week (to avoid street sweepers and snow days) and only disappear on the weekends.
2
Rationing public street space is the way to go. Nearly all UK cities charge residents and visitors to park. Outside my house in central Brighton residents pay up to £140 ($175) a year, less for lòwer emission vehicles, and the hourly rate is $6.
3
I think that for my next trick, I'm going to built a small cabin in a parking space on the Upper West Side, and explain that its my "right" since this is first-come-first-serve space, like for cars; otherwise you're "penalizing" me for not having enough space in my apartment.
3
Huh?
In 25 years here, I've never seen more street-side parking than there is today. Most streets now have parking on both sides, leaving just one lane for traffic.
I don't get it - if the city's stated goal is less traffic, why make it easier to park? The extra parking is a big factor adding to congestion.
3
@ChrisD Car ownership has gone up
@ChrisD Not only has car ownership gone up, but aggressive behavior by car drivers has gone up as well. Someone in my building was recently killed when he was struck by a driver backing up (that is, going the wrong way on a one way street) at a high rate of speed to grab one of those coveted parking spaces. Like other people, the pedestrian knew he had to look both ways before crossing the street, but this crazy person dying for a parking space came out of nowhere. As usual, I don't believe any charges were filed because the driver (1) wasn't drunk and (2) remained on the scene, and I have been told that is really all a driver has to do to avoid being charged in an "accidental death." I think knowledge of this hands off attitude of the police has probably emboldened some drivers.
1
An excellent idea for Manhattan where there is a good public transportation system and residents really do not need cars except to escape from the city once in awhile!! I grew up in Manhattan and didn’t even get my drivers’ license until I was 21 I never owned a car while I was living in the city. People who have to commute into the city and have no good train station or MTA access could perhaps get to write garage fees off their taxes or something.
1
"A transportation panel in Manhattan". How many of them were car owners? This can become a full blue-red divide, with right and wrong being "clear cut" depending on your starting point.
3
Of course there should be a charge for parking. Currently, all New Yorkers are 'donating' space to car owners and that space could be used for the benefit of all, instead of for the benefit of car owners. Should we not have more green spaces, pedestrian spaces, playgrounds, real bike lanes, rather than have real estate being taken up in the most unproductive (and ugly) way, as is currently the case?
We should have stopped de facto subsidizing car culture via free parking a long time ago, had we done so, we would all be healthier and our cities would not be more enjoyable. Right now, NYC in many places is just one large parking lot. And that often includes the streets as well.
5
New York is not a European city. It does not have an abundance of grand boulevards with liberal parking. There are few ample plazas where bike traffic can flow freely. Long ago, it was decided to take upper Manhattan and the close-by neighborhoods of Brooklyn, among other areas, and make narrow grids. Now, NY is strangling in an impossible bottleneck and it is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Best of luck.
1
@tc lasky Something else New York doesn't have that European cities have is car-free pedestrian zones in the center city.
So, the City offers residents of low-income housing lots to park in—at vastly discounted rates—but cannot come up with a permit plan?
Since you used a picture of my block (my building is in there), let's talk about who parks on my street—as I know the streetscape well. People who live on the block take up about a fifth to quarter of the spaces, and at least six of those cars are owned by supers and doormen who work in the buildings. At least 10 cars on my block are owned by people who work at the nearby physical rehabilitation center, assisted living home, or schools with many working odd and overnight shifts. There is crazy competition on my block from contractors in the mornings as there are two brownstones under construction at any time and numerous apartments. Verizon and ConEd regularly double-park but the contractors cannot afford the tickets. Oh yeah, there are at least two vehicles with NYPD placards. (Neither of these vehicles are moved for alternate side and the sweeper turned around the other day as it could not get past one of the parked NYPD car.) The remainder of spots have out of state plates, with many day-trippers coming into the city. The only time that there is big traffic trouble is when trucks double-park to make deliveries, but this is a short-lived inconvenience.
Those who can afford a garage pay for the convenience. But the majority of "regulars" on the block are working people, not millionaires.
11
Precisely.
It could be that resident permits are the way to go. That would take care of commuters from Connecticut and New Jersey. But as you say, what of the working stiffs with odd hours? Taking a subway home late at night is iffy and exhausting, and cabs are expensive.
New York City is in trouble. The City Council really are clueless. Look at that law they passed, and the DOB is enforcing, that homeowners are responsible for all retaining walls abutting their properties. Residents of Flatbush and Bay Ridge were treated to letters warning them to hire inspectors and to repair the retaining walls of the B, Q, and N trains.
They are insane.
Re the retaining walls: I think the MTA intervened on that one.
2
Reducing on street parking solves so many city problems: buses get fast, bike lanes become not-deadly, sidewalks can be widened and traffic moves faster for everyone.
It's hard for people to adapt to massive changes, and clearly car owners are understandingly thinking of their own hardships over the broader public good, but it has to happen. 22 people have been killed riding bike so far this year. And many other walking in crosswalks. Who are car owners (myself among them) to prioritize their free parking over people's lives?
I am concerned that the city will monetize the spaces, get addicted to the money, and never remove them outright. Or worse, privatize it, dolling out contracts to monetize the space. No, we need much of these spaces given over to busways and bike lanes.
2
As a commuter who often has to drive, I’d be thrilled if the city made public transportation a more viable option as part of the plan to reduce cars. As it stands, I am not able to park at the Metro North train station in our town; there are very few metered spots and it’s a 2 year wait for a parking permit. And, frankly, taking the train is more difficult than it needs to be. Trains are too crowded, often leaving standing room only, and in the evenings and on weekends, it can take 90 minutes for the local to get from Grand Central to my town. Until these things are resolved, the rest of these strategies for reducing cars on Manhattan streets are useless. This means that for plenty of us, there is no choice but to drive to work.
10
@Peggy Clarke You need to get a new job outside Manhattan.
Ellie, you really have to stop. You are not being helpful. People can't just "get a new job." We are lucky to have any jobs.
3
@B. I am retired and am looking to move far away from Manhattan just to get away from the crowding, congestion and broken public transit and infrastructure. If I were 20 years younger and employable, I would already be out of here.
The bike lanes are great for Kids and food delivery men. Not so much for senior citizens like myself.
I often wonder how many pedestrians are hit by bikes every day.
10
It's pretty obvious that New York City has too many people. Transport links to the suburbs should be improved to encourage people to leave. 6 million seems like a good number for population, it would give a lot more breathing room while still leaving New York as by far the largest city in the US.
3
'Ms. Thompson of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy said many cities that had adopted policies to discourage the use of cars had found that “people move to public transportation.’’'
Two points:
1. All the subway need to have elevator and all the bus have to kneel. Otherwise, the disabled and parent with strollers will not switch.
2. ALL the city and state agencies including police would have to give up their private parking spaces. ( Can't understand why the City Planning department need a reserved parking space 24/7. )Otherwise, there would be a riot. This is what sank most efforts to eliminate free on street parking.
8
Although I don't live in Brooklyn as I did for 30 years, I am a fan of resident parking and being charged some nominal amount for it. It could be tied to your registration as it is in Boston and it would force many people with out of state plates to get their car registered in NY and insured in NY. I think the congestion pricing plan is ridiculous especially for those of us who travel great distances to get to our jobs and don't have a reliable means of public transit to get there on time. I don't work in Manhattan but it is the quickest and most direct route to get out to the hinterlands in Queens where I do work. I challenge Polly Trottenberg, Corey Johnson, Heather Thompson, and deBlasio to live for 6 months out in the suburban land of two buses to get somewhere or taking one or two buses and a train to get to work everyday by 8:30 am. Fix our public transportation problems first.
11
Why not solutions like Boston and other European cities do...underground parking. Central Park, and other parks and playgrounds around the city could be used as underground pay parking. There is a real shortage of parking garages in the city and I'm sure they can be build economically.
3
@theatergoer New York City can't build anything economically.
3
Garages in Manhattan charge around $500 per month so if the city is giving parking away for free, it’s leaving billions of dollars in the street. With 1.9 million registered cars, and more coming from Jersey and the Island, DeBlasio could collect nearly $10 billion a year by charging what private industry charges. That would pay for a lot of subway improvements, homeless services and schools.
San Francisco is another city that charges for on street parking, $144 per year if you want to park longer than two hours in many neighborhoods.
6
As an advocate for the homeless. I have often been confounded by the willingness of government to give cars what they won't give people. 180 sqft. Free parking, just another Monopoly space.
1
Storage of private vehicles consumes the vast majority of public space on the streets for FREE.
Huge numbers of vehicles have out of state license plates. These people are already subverting the system.
Delivery vehicles, USPS, etc need this space but it is almost all taken up by private vehicles.
This forces delivery vehicles to double park or use the bus lanes or other travel lanes, contributing further to even more congestion.
Any reasonable person can see that this is not tenable and will not scale for the future. NYC cannot keep adding more and more cars.
7
There are only two steps needed to solve the problem but both require more imagination and business sense than we possess.
1. Build car free cities using modular technology and architectural courage -- mile wide shells, integral (work, live, play), walkable interiors, no bearing walls, 3 or 4 levels, etc.
2. Link cities by a yet-to be invented means of moving us along existing surfaces at reasonable speeds 25-40 mph. Probably electric train-like buses.
This is the future. #cybercommunities
2
People complain endlessly about shared bikes / scooters taking up space in our cities, yet somehow ignore the giant abandoned metal boxes taking up even more space and only being used for a few hours per day!
11
The real issue is people who don't live in NYC who come and park in neighborhoods like the upper west side. As NYC residents pay taxes they are entitled to something, like god forbid, a parking space. Permit parking is the answer. Let visitors use parking meters, as they generally don't stay overnight.
Also both meters and permits would generate income for the city.
The other factor is the cost of a garage space, which can feel like another rent. Guess what, we're not all rich. How much more does NYC want to kill the quality of life? People like to have a car to travel out of the city and have a right to park on the street, near where they live, if the neighborhood is residential.
6
The only constant in life is change. Because we are in a climate crisis radical change is necessary. It is difficult, but unavoidable. We will adapt and probably enjoy a better quality of life for it in the long run. The city was largely shaped by cars, just imagine a future where some streets have been turned into greenways. As for those with disabilities who rely on cars, perhaps funds made on congestion pricing and parking frees can go toward a transportation system that serves all, not just the able bodied.
1
I lived in NYC for 14 years, then I bought a car and drove away. Reading this article only confirms why it was an easy decision to trade a skyrocketing cost of living for an affordable house on the beach and a driveway, only 60 miles outside of Manhattan. Trade up, people. You actually don't have to live there.
7
Require every building to build parking spaces.
We need cars
3
We need cars? When we have public transportation and cars cause major pollution. Maybe we need clean air to breathe instead of cars.
4
@NYC Born What about the horrible trucks especially huge loud toxic demolition machines?
@NYC Born the Diesel powered buses put out more smog than the automobiles with their catalytically cleansed exhaust fumes
We all pay for the maintenance of NYC's public streets. NYC vehicle owners pay additional fees to NYC as part of our registration fees. Parking fees would be double taxation and an administrative nightmare. Would my 'Staten Island' permit be valid when I visit family in Queens or the Bronx? An administrative nightmare. Middle-class residents of the less dense outer boroughs rely on their cars for shopping, doctor visits, etc. You can't bring back lumber from Home Depot on the S78 bus.
If you exclude Manhattan, 53% of NYC households own a vehicle. This is the NYC middle-class, leave us alone.
NYC vehicle ownership stats -
http://pc.cd/rYOctalK
16
Fact check: emissions from transportation are not the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the city. Buildings are.
On my rare visits to Manhattan,
I leave my car in New Jersey and
take a bus over.
7
The fact of the matter is 91% of Americans own a car, and growing, so of course our cities are going to be designed to accommodate the automobile, as they should. How far that should go is an open question, but if you think cities should not have any expressways, that lanes of traffic should be given over to the small number of cyclists, and that parking needs to be as difficult as possible, you are just deranged.
3
@Will It's endogenous. Car ownership is high because we plan our cities / suburbs to accommodate them, and it all feeds back.
2
@Greg B Developers created cul de sacs because that's where people wanted to live, they built sprawling office parks because that's where we wanted to work, they built vast shopping malls because that's where we wanted to shop. There's no grand conspiracy that caused us all to drive, it was our choice.
1
@Will - But 91% of Americans do not live in Manhattan. So, irrelevant.
2
Yes, this needs to happen.
3
Not having a driver’s license is a badge of honor for many life-long New Yorkers. A car? Fuhgeddaboudit!
6
Sez youse
Let’s eliminate on-street parking and give the roads back to pedestrians, cyclists and MTA riders
2
@Eric The roads were never theirs at any point.
Zip cars - owned by Avis, $8 billion company - get reserved spaces for nothing. Will they have to pay?
2
@Neighbor2
Zipcar pays a lot more ($765) than others who park their cars for free.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/nyregion/nyc-zipcar-parking.html
Required reading, especially for anyone writing an article on this topic:
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/17/realestate/streetscapes-cars-when-streets-were-vehicles-for-traffic-not-parking.html
The key takeaway, which should be in the first paragraph of every new article, is that street parking, free or otherwise, was banned until 1950. It was changed by a lobbying organization, AAA, which has never been on the write side of any debate.
Basically, no stable no horse, nobody else's problem.
And if you look at photos of NYC streetscapes from 70-100 years ago you will see a much more pleasant scene than you see today.
This debate is so utterly stupid it hurts my head. At least for the concentrated areas of Manhattan, free parking should be out of the question. How are so many people supposed to survive next to each other? Clearly the answer to that question becomes much easier to provide an answer to as soon as we get rid of the idea that everyone has a right to drive a couple thousand pounds of metal through the streets. Improve the subway, improve the bike lanes. NYC will flourish as never before.
3
@J Ok, but what about the outer boroughs? Staten Island and much of Queens don't have good public transit and there's not a shortage of parking.
5
I hope this won’t interfere with that black SUV going from Manhattan to Brooklyn every morning to go to the gym. Of course when you have chauffeurs these rules don’t affect you.
13
@Rich Murp
Yes, that SUV's passenger is our Hypocrite-in-Chief....
1
It’s too bad that the MDC guards arrested yesterday weren’t part of the royal family.
2
When cars are outlawed, only outlaws will have cars.
2
Which will make them do much easier to catch, cars being large and visible especially when parked out in the streets.
@DaveD How so? Won't that make the outlaws rather... conspicuous? Well, I guess it sounded truthy at the time of posting.
"When you have a curbside parking scenario, you’re privileging the people who have cars over the pedestrians,” said James Sanders, a Manhattan architect and author who has studied parking patterns in cities.
Well, there seems to be no problem privileging biking, ebiking, scootering, mopeding, etc over pedestrians.
I mean, all that space of the bike lanes could've been used for expanding the teeming sidewalks. And 1/2 the cyclists don't even use those lanes as intended. Build a useable public transportation system and expand pedestrian space!
5
@The F.A.D. They should extend the high line throughout Manhattan and have all the adjacent buildings hook up. It would mean pedestrians would not have to worry about being hit by vehicles and it would offer far more walking space than current sidewalks.
1
As much as I love the simple pleasure of getting a parking spot directly in front of my apartment, street parking is not the best way to store cars in the city.
I'd certainly be in favor of transitioning free street parking to neighborhood garages - but not simply removing the parking without an alternative.
As we move away from internal-combustion engines and battery-electric vehicles start to become the norm, New York is going to be majorly left behind when most of the population doesn't have access to overnight charging stations. We could build the infrastructure into public parking garages, which could include monthly parking and electric charging for a fee not much higher than buying gasoline. But that needs to be built - garage parking is too expensive for most people (myself included) because of its scarcity now and the existence of a free alternative.
2
As a car-free New Yorker, I’m in favor of getting rid of street parking altogether. I’m sure it’s great to have a car in the city, just as it’s great to have a car at your disposal anywhere. But to take up that much public space where space is scarce and streets are congested, especially when a car is not absolutely necessary for daily... At the very least, that’s not a cost that should be borne by all of us.
8
Institute residential parking permits
City residents should not have to pay more in “taxes” than we already do
5
The very rich will continue to pay for parking, which already costs the equivalent of a second home, even after the prices go up. No luck for everyone else. And will this really help traffic? I suppose to an extent as there will presumably be wider streets without cars lining the curbs. But it wont really reduce the number of vehicles actually on the road. Car owning New Yorkers really don't drive all that much during the workday, unless driving is your business (uber, cabbie, delivery, etc). For the average Joe, it takes waaaay too long to get anywhere , then you lose another hour circling for a spot. So, this measure will keep the middle class from having their weekend escape cars. Evil plot to keep people spending in NYC instead of somewhat up the Hudson Valley? I don't know.
4
Or they will rent a zip car to escape. Unless you go away every weekend renting a zip car is not much more expensive than owning a car, it can actually be cheaper. I think a lot of people in Manhattan that own cars do so because they did not grow up in Manhattan and can’t imagine life without a car, even if they don’t really need or use one.
2
Alexandra, I'm only an occasional outer-borough driver.
The times I have taken car service and cabs to, say, the airport or back home from a medical procedure, I've been assaulted by smells -- air sanitizers, Febreeze, body sweat. I feel like hanging my head out the open window -- you know, like a puppy.
One worries about bed bugs too.
The drivers are usually very nice. If only they'd eschew the air fresheners.
1
Yes, I see a lot of that in Manhattan. Many young post-collegians moving into NYC come with cars and drive them. Perhaps one of the reasons why some call the Upper West Side the new Scarsdale.
I live in Brooklyn and welcome residential parking permits. I drive almost exclusively and have no problem with bike lanes and making the streets friendlier to pedestrians and bicycles. Am I contradictory by having a car and advocating more pedestrian and bike friendly policies, yes, but that is because as a life long New Yorker I have seen traffic increase four fold, air quality go down and bigger and bigger automobiles take over my streets. I believe if you correlate the popularity of automobiles in the last 80 years and urban decay in the entirety of nyc you’ll find that many neighborhood communities suffered from flight to the suburbs to get away from the undesirably thus decimating neighborhood. Let’s bring back communities and limit automobiles.
2
Regarding bike lanes: where are the cyclists?
There are cities with a lot of them: Amsterdam, Berlin, Portland, and there are cities with but a few: Naples, London, New York.
The newly added bike lanes on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn are EMPTY of traffic and becoming filthier by the day. I use them to commute to work and, except for an occasional deliveryman on electric bike, I'm alone. ALONE. For 30+ blocks. Wave to me if you happen to be driving down (or up) Fourth Ave.
Meanwhile car lanes have been reduced to 2. What's that doing to help the environment? A little-used bike lane and more congestion for cars.
The city needs to make decisions based on stats, not on news stories of bike fatalities, as heart-rending as these may be.
12
@mijosc This same thing happened on Queens Boulevard. I never see anyone using those bike lanes.
3
@mijosc "...and there are cities with but a few: Naples, London, New York". Have you been to London recently?
@Fed Up
Because you aren't looking. Plenty of people use those lanes. Certainly a lot more than used those parking lanes before.
I think non resident cars should stay out of Manhattan and that the resident parking pass should reflect the price of subsidizing public transit. To make public transportation perfect, why not create a public sector on demand electric van to replace uber and lyft and the taxi business. Make all the vehicles electric and the drivers union members.
3
The City legalized street parking 70 years ago. Every decision to develop new housing, or to buy a coop or townhouse, to renovate, or to rent, that has been made since has been based on this. And the City has more recently affirmatively discouraged the building of garages and participated in the tearing down of existing ones.
35% of the population of the Upper West Side lives in houeholds that own cars; every one of whom bought or rented based on the rules. What would a change cost these people? (and as street parking is removed make no mistake garage costs - already absurd - would just get higher, so everyone with a car would pay more).
The only people with cars who could care less are those rich enough not to notice an additional several hundred a month in living costs.
Owning a car involves expenses in cost and in time. There are few who do so for frivolous reasons. Some reverse commute, others have babysitting or parental care obligations in the suburbs, etc.
And the curb space? It's there for whomever uses it, first come first served. Including the people who think today that they'll never need a car but who may wake up tomorrow with one of the many circumstances that cause people to decide to keep one.
7
"the traffic lanes have been diminished because of the bicycle lanes and the parking areas have been diminished because of the bike rentals. It’s punishing drivers.”"
No, not punishing drivers, just pushing them to take the bus, subway, bicycle or walk like the rest (large majority) of us.
4
I grew up in Brooklyn back in the days when most people didn’t have cars and families that did had one. We didn’t have a car and did just fine with public transportation.
2
@NYC Born And I'm sure you were also happy with rotary phones and black and white tvs. Well we have higher standards now.
2
There is nothing about owning a car in the city that represents progress or modernity.
3
@Will Color TV and cell phones represent higher standards? What do they have to do with cars?
1
Simple: Issue permits for people to park in their neighborhoods. When people pay high rents or taxes on owned RE, they are paying for parking, it's not free. It's the people who don't live in the city that should pay to park here.
4
Manhattan has large apartment buildings. There is not enough street space to give more than a handful of residents parking permits.
@Alexandra Hamilton: In those areas of Manhattan with high rises, you don't do it. There are plenty of neighborhoods where this would be feasible, in Manhattan as well as the outer boroughs.
Manhattan's streets should be built on two levels. An upper level for pedestrians and cyclists and a lower level for traffic. It will all but eliminate pedestrian collisions, it will make walking much more pleasant, and it will allow the ground floor of each building to be used for parking.
3
Can we eliminate the absurdly high NYC tax on rental cars for city residents so we don't have to even ponder buying a car and contributing to the already overburdened parking system? It shouldn't cost $650 to rent a small compact car for a weekend. If it was more economical, I would dump my car immediately. I hate owning a vehicle here, but with aging parents I need to be able to come and go freely on weekends.
17
This has long been a huge pet peeve of mine! Exempt local residents from rental car sales tax!
4
“Manhattan real estate costs on average $1,773 per square foot, and yet we are giving away 180 square feet of prime city space, almost a studio apartment, with every free parking space,” said Heather Thompson, the chief executive of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, a nonprofit advocacy group.
In that case, the BIKE LANES are ALSO being GIVEN AWAY FREE to the bike riders. Why are the bike riders entitled to free space if car owners aren't? Why are bike riders more "worthy" than car owners?
Further, the bikes lanes permanently take up their expensive space, even when no one is using them. Do we maintain bike lanes 24/7/365 for FREE, just in case someone wants to ride a bike at 4 AM? I think we need to charge bike riders their fair share if they want their expensive lanes.
And, BTW, Ms. Thompson, I don't know where you live, but 180 square feet is NOT "almost a studio apartment" - it's more like you're discussing prison facilities.
16
@L If you're going to call bike lanes free space being given away, it's entirely disingenuous not to call all roads for cars the same. I'm not sure in what world bike riders are not paying their fair share yet car owners are.
5
@J: Car owners are paying for fees for driver's license, license plates, registration and insurance - all of which are mandatory. Get back to me when the same is true of bike riders.
7
@L Most local roads are funded not funded through tag and registration fees, but through other means of general taxation . . . which bicyclists do pay. And (outside of NYC, anyway) most cyclists also own a car, so they are, in addition, paying those plate and registration fees.
2
One of the reasons I no longer go to Manhattan (too many Starbucks is another good reason). If I must go for work my employer has to rent a car and driver for me.
2
Great idea. Now only the wealthy will have cars.
5
This situation is rapidly becoming mote. First, Millenials are already abandoning personal car ownership. They are the public trans/bike, scooter/Uber generation. They have the highest percentage of 'no driver's license' of any age group. And now comes self driving cars. Why own when you can call an inexpensive (no driver, the highest part of overhead) vehicle, sit back and relax as it takes you to your destination. These vehicles can be parked/stored in remote locations until called. Problem solved.
1
@Jimmy A driverless car costs just as much in terms of fuel, maintenance, and insurance as a personally owned one. You also lose a place to keep personal items, you lose the ability to go anywhere when you want, and you have to sit in shared taxis that will inevitably get covered in vomit and urine.
1
If the City of New York decided to enforce law that you need to register your car in NY if you live here it would open up thousands of spots overnight (not to mention bring in loads of cash).
Every day my neighbors in Brooklyn have PA plates on their car that remains parked on city streets throughout the year. I bought a used car once and it had a random Virginia plate on the back which allowed the seller to park it on the street for 2 years.
Perhaps most egregiously I see trucks with NYC business names and phone numbers painted on the doors with 1 random Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, or Florida plate on the back.
Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and look at the beat up vans for hire on your way out; mostly a single out of state plate.
Look on Craigslist for cars for sale under $3,000 - most with out of state plates even though it might have a NY Inspection sticker in the windshield!
I only hate this because I pay for insurance and registration in NYC, and get parking tickets while they don't bother with out of state plates.
7
@RickNYC PS - there was a study years ago where the city looked into this abuse. They found a single PA home address that had something like 750 cars registered to it. They still decided to enforcement wasn't worth the effort. In this modern age of plate readers being mounted on the trunk of every cop car it would be easier to accomplish.
6
Maybe the city should eliminate taxes on rents cars to incentivize using them instead of buying one. My parents used to rent a car when they left the city but eventually bought one since it got so expensive in part due to taxes.
7
Excellent idea. Cities are for people, not cars. I recently moved from DC, a city built on a human scale, to Dallas, a city built for cars. With one, you get walkable neighborhoods and community; with the other, you get strip malls, vast parking lots, and structures built facing the parking ramp.
3
@Eric Sustad Dallas has much cheaper housing. And cars transport people. Designing a city for cars is designing a city for people. "Designing a city for people" usually means designing a city that makes rich hipsters feel good and is extremely difficult more residents to get around
6
@Eric Sustad You don't have to travel very far from DC to find suburbs that look identical to Dallas. The thing about it is it may not be pretty but it works well. I like not having to walk. I like having my own personal space when I travel.
The majority of the comments here completely ignore the fact that disabled people cannot “just” get on a bus or train. My car is the only reason I have been able to maintain my independence (and sanity) while have numerous surgeries that greatly affect my mobility. Parking is extraordinarily difficult in my neighborhood and hobbling home is often a monumental task. Parking at my job costs an arm and a leg. I often feel that NYC does not care about disabled people, and if this happens that feeling will be confirmed.
11
@Kristin Jung - This would actually work to your advantage, as there would be exceptions for the disabled. If the number of non disabled drivers decreased, the disabled would have an easier time finding a parking spot.
1
I’ll get rid of my car as soon as the subway is clean ,safe and efficient. So never. It all sounds like just another new tax I’d like to know where all this money will go. Wasn’t the lottery supposed to fund schools I am the politicians will make this disappear too
9
Happily after 32 years I will soon be bidding farewell to the rapidly Rotting Apple. Joyfully, I will not be here to see street parking transformed into little basketball courts just like in the suburbs. I will miss the chance to dine alfresco with cars, bikes, scooters and unicycles whizzing by inches from my foie gras. Oops, scratch that no foie gras either.
Somewhere down the road someone down the road will run for mayor on a ticket to make New York great again. People will ask, when was New York ever great? Was it ever? My answer would be from about 1988 through January 1, 2014 when mayor Bill began to run it into the ground.
Good luck to those that remain!!!
9
We also need to regulate bikes which are now often motorized or electrified to go at dizzying speeds. My wife got sent to the ER a couple weeks ago when she got hit by a bike going the wrong way in a bike lane and got a broken wrist out of it.
Yesterday, I was nearly hit on the SIDEWALK, when a bicyclist decided he'd rather not dodge street traffic. And it's only going to get worse.
16
Last week in one of these never ending bike advocacy articles the editor never noticed behind the bicyclist was a one way sign pointing the opposite way.
2
Yes, tonight as I was walking down my street toward home I saw a light coming at me. It was a delivery guy on a bike looking at his phone.
1
Interesting. Seems if a product (curbside parking) is in short supply, raise the price. We have subway fares for the same purpose. The parking spaces in question are not owned by drivers, they are owned by the entire public. Charging for parking generates revenue which can be used to good purposes, even tax relief. And it doesn't stop anybody from driving if they think they need to, it just has then pay part of the cost of maintaining the streets they want to use.
3
NYS needs implement new registration and insurance laws for cyclists.
They use the same roads as drivers do. Cyclists get into accidents, cause accidents and are victims are accidents. They as well as drivers and pedestrians need recourse in case of an accident.
Also cyclists, many times chain their bikes on people's private properties without paying any fees to the building's landlord.
My point is charge equally!
9
Bike, maximum weight including rider ~ 250-300 lbs. Car, SUV, large trucks ~ multiple tons. The bikes are not destroying the roads.
2
@South Of Albany - it's not about "destroying" the roads - it's about usage.
3
@BK Christie It's amazing how the bikers will argue about not having to follow the rules like everyone else.
As a car owner who uses their vehicle for frequent outdoor excursions out of town, I’m 100% in favor of residential parking permits.
It’s aggravating to see the amount of people who skirt paying NY registration fees and insurance by keeping out of state plates when they clearly live in NYC. Even more aggravating is that the city effectively subsidies parking for those already taking the aforementioned illegal car ownership subsidies. It is extremely unfair to those who play by the rules, registering and insuring their vehicles to the address where they reside.
Forcing residents to register in NY would de-incentivize this practice and lower the overall rate of car ownership; ease the burden on parking to those who actually pay for their fair share of maintenance through state registration and city residential permits; and incentivize the use of public transportation by making it more difficult for drivers to park for free outside of their zone.
11
@Ben L. this is my #1 gripe in the city!
1
No one is entitled to a parking space on public streets. The streets should be used for the greatest good for the greatest number of people, which includes bikes and especially buses. Cars are a blight on our cities and our environment and should be given lowest priority.
10
Owning and operating a car is not a right...it is a privilege. In New York City, it is a luxury; and drivers should have to pay for that luxury...in all the boroughs.
Free, on-street parking amounts to storing one’s private property on public property....another luxury subsidized by the city. The idea is absurd.
Perhaps a nominal $5.00 fee for leaving your car overnight on a public street, with the monies collected dedicated towards better public transit; as I hope congestion pricing will do.
I hear certain arguments against such proposals, that it would hurt the working people relying on their car for transport. (I myself am a low-income person who does borrow and drive a car for work sometimes.) But frankly, in my book, if one can afford a car, with its attendant costs of fuel, insurance, and maintenance, AND pay rent in NYC?.....you are doing okay, and should pay up for the luxury of driving in the city.
8
The increased traffic problem is self-made. UBER. Why is there no cap on the amount of for hire cars on the streets?!
I live in Manhattan. Yes, I have a car. Never had one before I was 55, but I'm 60 years old now, and I like to visit my relatives and you can't take the family on a bus all the time. Should I be penalized for that? Not to mention that it gets 55 mpg, and I'd happily get an electric if there were charging stations available other than in parking garages.
my 2 cents.
8
LLP I am 72 and thinking of buying a car to do errands, go to dr appts, etc. I live in midtown Manhattan and am finding public transit increasingly unreliable and taxis increasingly expensive with all the new surcharges. So a personal vehicle may be the way to go for me. Could also ferry friends around.
1
It is high time to get rid of free street parking in Manhattan. If you can afford to keep a car in Manhattan, you should have to afford to garage park it. The traffic and congestion has gotten out of control, and has been made much worse by all the delivery vehicles double parked everywhere. Time for radical change.
7
@Rob wrote: "If you can afford to keep a car in Manhattan, you should have to afford to garage park it."
Ah, the old: Cars For The Wealthy Only argument.
I guess ensuring that only the Monied have access is one way to look at it.
But a bit elitist.
6
@dannyboy
It's a fact that car owners in Manhattan below 96th street are significantly wealthier than those who do not.
Poor people shouldn't have to subsidize rich people's free parking.
@Brian, I don't live below 96th Street but I do live in a community.
In a community people try to respect each other's needs. We each try to keep our neighbors' children safe, even if we ourselves have no children. We hold the doors for the elderly, even though we are not old ourselves. We try to get along and DON'T COVET EACH OTHER.
I wish I saw more of that here in this discussion, but instead I hear from people insisting that their NEIGHBORS just pay up.
Disheartening.
1
I make some money each year. Not enough to save any, but enough to pay for my family's needs. We have a car, and we often have to decide, for economic reasons, to drive to places, and not take the subway--because it is cheaper than three metro-cards in two directions, and even with the inconsistencies of traffic, usually more reliable than the subway.
Maybe on the upper west-side residents have the option to park in a garage, or pay a parking fee, or sit in their cars and wait for a free space on alternative-parking days. Maybe they have enough income security, to not have to worry about whether the subway or their cars fits better with making their monthly nut.
This report doesn't go to the history of this community board's decisions about development or support for more and larger buildings in their neighborhood, but I bet they gave the go ahead to adding residents to their neighborhood....Caveat Emptor my fellow NYers. You move into a crowded neighborhood, that costs millions to buy into, with your car then you take the responsibility to either have a life-style to move your car twice a week, or pay for a garage.
But, with the options those worrying this issue into existence out of thin air have to deal with their own cars, they shouldn't have the power to dictate to those of us without options, trying to make it month to month, an actuarial idea that takes more money from my income.
I also bet the city would lose millions a year without parking tickets.....
4
Quote: “There’s insanity going on,” said Milton Ingerman, a retired physician who parks on the street on the Upper West Side.
He is right, of course. Why do we still let people burn toxic fuels in the middle of our cities? That is indeed insanity, especially when there are so many much cleaner ways of getting around in our dense city centers. Well, I guess we should not be surprised that a physician is helping to raise awareness of the health impacts of lousy air and sedentary lifestyles.
@meltyman It's not the 70s anymore, automobile exhaust emissions are very clean now.
2
@Will If only they were; actual studies say otherwise. For example, from today: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/20/us-air-pollution-deaths-study-jama But hey ho, who needs science when you can just make assertions, eh?
At minimum, NYC should issue residential permits for about $50+ per year. But better, I agree -- a better idea -- is to eliminate all street parking in Manhattan (south of, say, 125th St) -- and to create protected dedicated bicycle lanes on EVERY street -- and dedicated, protected bus lanes on all streets that buses run on.
Why? Because this city has a very capable mass transit network. Get people out of cars, onto subway, bus, or bicycle!
5
@David Seems you haven't taken the subway lately. I walk to work on weekdays but occasionally take the train downtown for dinner or uptown for an appointment in the evenings or on weekends. Every time I do, it's a major hassle -- late train, sick passenger, signal problems, weekend schedule, you name it. "Capable" is about the LAST word I'd use to describe the NYC subway system.
9
I'm ok with this along as the city also severely limits truck access during the day.
2
want to eliminate congestion? eliminate ubers/lyfts. ban double-decker tour buses. Put day-part restrictions on food delivery trucks. Establish local UPS/Fedx pick-up centers. Identify under-used bike lanes and rip them up.
If the city is simply angling to boost incremental revenues via on-street parking fees, well, that's another story. But if congestion is the real issue, my ideas will work.
8
I am both a bike rider/advocate and a mass transit user but I also have a disabled spouse and own a car. What some folks who want more restrictions on car travel and parking spaces sometimes forget is not everyone can use the subways/buses and a far larger number cannot even consider bicycle commuting. My wife has portable oxygen which it makes it pretty much impossible for her to use mass transit. And Access-a-Ride requires a one day reservation in advance. and has major problems which has been well-documented. So...when we go out together I generally have no choice other than to drive her to our destination. Corey Johnson and company need to understand that overzealous car restriction policies can be highly discriminatory toward the elderly and disabled. I urge folks to keep this in mind when moving forward.
19
There is already something called handicap parking and nothing says you couldn’t keep it.
2
The issue of who pays and how much is open to debate but street parking is hardly “free.” Drivers pay registration fees, which in the downstate counties includes a mass transit surcharge; bridge and tunnel tolls, the majority of which go to mass transit; and fuel taxes which were instituted to pay for roadways but which eventually became part of the general revenue.
6
I'd be all for government regulation of parking prices. I'd be willing to buy a 100% electric car as a requirement of subsidized and affordable for-pay parking. But this is a city that favors the rich. I'm lucky to be middle class, and I count my blessings. My complaints are small. But when you take away street parking, it's just one more way in which the middle class get kicked aside while the rich just keep on coasting.
I'm a public school teacher. I don't want riches... just a place to park my car. How is that such a big ask?
10
Yes, please! Long overdue! Protect humans over cars!
Tax SUVs (there’s always only one person in those tanks that take up the entire street). Tax cars coming into NYC. Make real bike lanes (like in most European cities). Enforce traffic laws (traffic related deaths are on the rise).
We must undo this insane car-centric urban planning that we’ve inherited from Robert Moses and for some reason keep perpetuating.
4
@Maude The drivers creeping along 5th avenue beg to differ on car centric planning. Insanity would not be trying to accomodate a device that the vast majority of us own.
@Will You cannot win Will: the easier you make it, the quicker it will fill up (roads, parking spaces). We are way beyond peak car, at least in dense city centers.
1
@meltyman Transit ridership is declining and car ownership is going up, not down.
Until the day that the subway is fully accessible, having a car is pretty close to a necessity for parents who are dependents on strollers. But nothing is more frustrating than looking for a spot and seeing one out -of -state plate after another and cars with TLC licenses parked overnight. Creating resident permits for nighttime parking in residential neighborhoods is a common-sense solution that has been implemented in many other American cities including Philadelphia and Washington, DC>
7
I am amused by drivers who feel "punished" by having to pay for their mode of transit.
Was I punished when I had to pay for my lunch? Am I punished by paying a fare for public transport? Drivers pay only a small fraction of the cost of their use of motor vehicles, considering that there is no carbon tax, no pollution tax, and free parking.
You aren't being punished by the expectation that you pay your fair share.
12
Car owners have rights too. The City is owned by all, including the people who own cars, who, by the way, pay exorbitant gas taxes.
People who own cars should have the continued right to park their cars in their streets.
10
MIKEinNYC - Fine. Just like we all have the right to take the subway. But we don't have the right to take it for free.
2
@MIKEinNYC But they pay teeny tiny real estate taxes on their outer borough abodes.
I wish the city would provide dedicated parking on each block for car share vehicles, such as Zipcar. There are many residents who use their car infrequently and would forego ownership if they could walk out their door and jump into a nearby Zipcar on a moment's notice. I use Zipcar about twice a month, but it is a pain to go to the nearest garage and wait in line to get a vehicle.
4
@Rory
Paris has a car-sharing system just like its bike sharing system. Cars are parked in designated spots on the street, and can be rented by the hour, just like a bike.
2
@Rory I've used Zipcar. It would be nice if people actually cleaned up after themselves after using one. That's my main gripe. Too often I've gotten into a dirty car (think pet hair), complaints to Zipcar do nothing.
2
Residential parking permits are long overdue. The city needs to crack down on all the people who live in NY and register their cars out of state to save on insurance and registration fees. If they're not willing to register their car at their real place of residence, they shouldn't be allowed to park on our streets.
4
I live on a block in the east 50’s where Fed Ex, UPS and Amazon delivery trucks not only park, but sort packages for delivery; both on the side of the street, even the side of the street where there is no parking. They are interspersed with Uber and black car drivers waiting for their next ride. These vehicles occupy 100% of the block from 8 am to 7 pm, with no payment, or impunity. Never ticketed.
As a coop owner, I pay property taxes. Shouldn’t these vehicles get ticketed or pay a parking tax?
6
Typical blue city neoliberalist effort: force people to accept$30-$50 per day and $300-600 monthly parking garage fees as normal with some fantasy that it’ll force people to drive less in a metro designed for cars and considerable public transit gaps and deficiencies (e.g. mass transit options potentially doubling commute times).
5
There should be no parking on city streets. This should have been done 30 years ago.
8
There should be absolutely no parking allowed on avenues ever. Trucks who wish to unload must park directly adjacent to the curb. No more double and triple parking. Anyone who is double parked gets a massive ticket.
It took me 40 minutes to go 30 blocks on 2nd Ave. the other day. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
5
Please send that lightweight back to Boston unless he wants to be a real leader. Improve public transportation, what ever it takes. Come up with real ideas that help real New Yorkers; No more half-baked ideas like scooters and bikes that only help those coming to the city to use it like a playground for a few years and then abandon it for where they came from.
10
@T Yeah, we don't need another Mayor from New England
2
Thank you! Am I right? First Mayor McWeekend and then Mayor Pay For Play. Are they sent here on purpose to ruin us?
1
Until we get serious about mass transit cars will continue to rule.
6
Fix the subway and bus problems first.
16
@jen
Why not both?
3
This is fantastic news. The city needs to limit on-street parking, and charge for it. It's insane that the city offers it for free, essentially subsidizing a privileged minority of folks on the backs of the transit-riding majority.
And the city needs to reduce car lanes drastically. Almost all the major north-south Manhattan avenues had their car lanes expanded after WWII, taking sidewalk width. That mistake has to be corrected.
7
@Osito
Yes! Hopefully starting with restoring Park Avenue.
2
@Camille - No Park Avenue.
Only eliminate it in Manhattan if you absolutely must, but do not do it to the other boroughs. As a Queens resident that is the last thing we need. We do not have reliable subway lines like Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. It is crazy how this city is starting to charge for every single thing out there and I see no positive results. The Subway is getting worse, we have poor hospitals, the NYCHA is corrupt, and our mayor has an administration where the gender pay gap is ridiculous. Our police system is far from perfect, and people are not allowed to take advantage of the capitalism or free market because there is a street vendor cap that is an outdated law. Again the last thing anyone in Queens or any other borough besides Manhattan needs is to pay for parking because a bunch of lunatics can't figure it out in that island.
5
@Omar You are correct, excluding Manhattan 53% of NYC households own a car - http://pc.cd/rYOctalK
If we can have free parking, we should have free public transportation.
4
@Dev One is a lot more expensive than the other
To whom?
Our empty suited limited mayor has an agenda and apparently Speaker Johnson concurs but mabye rethink this or don't implement before your mayoral run. (you may lose) Everything in NYC is Alice and wonderland-like. Cyclists ride into crowds of pedestrians. Developers create war zones after greasing Deblasio's coffers and now cars will be banned. Sharpton is the man behind the curtain on crime control. Where will it all end and when.
2
I propose this; a bicycle registration tax, plus a bicycle riders license with a free, both to pay for the public space appropriated by them in the form of bike racks and dedicated biking lanes.
Additionally, hefty fines and proper enforcement for the crisis of road rule abuse by bike riders.
If there's one thing NYC can do without it's the bleating of one more group of self righteous progressives.
7
@John L
What a preposterous thing to say. We should be encouraging bicycling as much as possible. And biking is hard enough as it is, dealing with bad weather and putting your life at risk because of bad drivers.
3
@John L I agree we need less bleating of self righteous types - but on nothing else. Are quiet, clean, affordable bicycles really the bane of the city? Or is this just tribal "othering"?
@Samuel Russell OK millennial, way beyond the end of your nose is an actual world that consists of human beings with needs different to yours. NYC's population, like the rest of the US, is aging and older people generally, do not care to negotiate city streets, bike lanes or not, on bicycles.
And since you mentioned weather, yes, NYC has a bitter winter when even millennials, bless their hearts, choose other forms of transport, you know, Uber and Lyft etc., and those aren't bicycles.
Actually, I have no problem with people wanting to cycle more, what I do have a problem with is the demonization of automobiles - people own them and use them for a raft of reasons and need. These people are not villains.
You're welcome.
3
Anyone who lives in the city knows that the streets are congested. There is no reasonable solution that allows for more cars in the city, the only solution is less cars and more public transit.
The only solution is less cars in the city.
4
@Dev How about less people?
I would be happy to pay for yearly parking permit so I can park close to my house!
45
In HK, all huge skyscrapers had garages for cars to park, NYC building all of these new buildings, and none of them have accessible garages. How behind is America....such a shame.
81
Really? You would prefer the street level to be all parking in New York? That would be a quite awful downtown to walk around in.
9
@Dev Then you can move the sidewalks up 1 story
1
@Dev there are multiple floors of garages built inside of the buildings or in the basement of the buildings. No cars are parked on the street level, there are still stores on street levels. Reading comprehension needed? Maybe you should travel more.
16
It seems that if the city would make the subway and the buses more available and accessible, more people would use them instead of buying a car. Before doing anything about the cars, the city is going to have to put a lot of work into the public transportation system in NYC.
1
According to Curbed, the average studio apartment in the city is 550 square feet, nowhere near the 180 square foot figure Heather Thompson cites. Maybe it's dealing with Donald Trump for three years, but I'm pretty tired of people who invent facts whenever it suits them. Heather Thompson should be able to have this conversation without making stuff up, it’s dishonest and irresponsible.
8
@Eric Weinberg I know that figure sounds ridiculous; however, the dimensions of the main room in your average "straight"(non-alcove) postwar doorman studio are about 10 x 20, and that is very close to 180 sf. Of course, the kitchen and bath add more, as do imaginative RE agents. I once lived in a 570 sf one bedroom in a large 1980s building and often thought to myself they should just not have put up that wall -- it would have been much better as a studio. I know there are many recent one BRs that size.
In Tudor City, a large prewar complex with many studios, some studios are only 10 x 13, with Murphy beds.
1
Correct. There should be NO free street parking in Manhattan. As a bit of a compromise, you could do sort of like what SF has done for years: divide the city up into zones, you can get one residence annual paid permit per documented rental/apt owner, for a specific vehicle, maybe with a sliding scale based on income so you can charge huge $$$$ for those who can afford, allow parking in zones without such a permit is can then be paid AND limited (none, certain number of hours, allow overnight or not, etc). It is truly insane to me that Manhattan doesn't do this. And the acres of space allocated for parking in NY housing authority units should be re-developed by them for RENTAL to poor/working class folks. And no free parking for those folks either, but more free MTA passes and that sliding scale permit thing for those spaces while they exist as well.
Eliminating on street parking will please a handful of residents in the city but make life more difficult for everyone else.
The automobile is the primary means of transportation and neither bicycles nor e-scooters nor powered skateboards nor buses nor light rail is going to replace them. There is this idea that making it as inconvenient to drive in cities as possible will force people to find some solution which the advocates cannot find.
If people lived as they did in the Middle Ages, automobiles would be unnecessary as well as impossible. In the global world in which we live, automobiles are here to stay.
Slow vehicles like bicycles should never be ridden with automobiles. Parking for visitors to the city of New York must be provided. Park and ride arrangements and trains might help for commuters but nobody else.
1
@Casual Observer, the automobile is the primary means of transport in LA, perhaps.
In New York, the automobile is far from the primary means of transport. In most European cities, the same is true.
Getting around without cars isn’t something from the Middle Ages. Rather, it’s the future.
Perhaps that’s hard to see in LA, the epicenter of America’s 20th century disastrous love affair with the car. Come visit the future some time. You are welcome. Your car is not.
5
@Objectively Subjective
Trying flying into one of the airports in New York. Beyond Manhattan, the surrounding region looks like every other place with big congested highways and cloverleafs. The highways through Manhattan are full.
If one lives in Manhattan and never travels far, sure, one can do without an automobile but those who do business or work or visit or shop in Manhattan, mostly, need long distance transportation and that includes huge numbers of automobiles.
The automobile free village in which no long distance travel is required is just not to be expected, anymore.
When people talk about getting rid of “free street parking,” what they really mean is street parking in Manhattan and northern Brooklyn, much of which is actually metered parking. But the vast majority of the free street spaces are not located in those parts of the City, but in the thousands of miles of streets in the outer boroughs. In that respect, the statistic that 95% of street parking consists of free parking spaces is somewhat misleading. I’d be surpassed if even the most ardent proponent of eliminating street parking seriously envisions installing meters on residential streets in Staten Island, the eastern Bronx, or eastern or southern Queens.
7
Able bodied people with good transportation options in their neighborhoods are always in favor of these proposals. What they fail to realize, is that not all of us are in their positions. If you were a cancer patient trying to get to NYU for radiation treatments, if you had small children and had to commute to buy groceries because you’re neighborhood doesn’t have a grocery store with fresh produce, if you were in a wheel chair and couldn’t take the subway because there is no elevator or the elevator is always broken, if you have multiple babies and have to hold two children while folding up your stroller before taking the bus, if your commute on pubic transport involved a bus, a train, another bus and took 2 hours each way on a good day, if you live in one of the neighborhoods where the Citibikes are always gone by 6am, if you are elderly and waking a mile or more to the nearest subway station isn’t an option, if you like many New Yorkers have needs that are not met by our problematic public transportation system, you would have a different opinion about cars. New York needs to do better before they start penalizing people who drive.
222
@Ann Thank you for saying this. People with regular medical treatments suffer the additional burden of a transportation system that quite simply doesn't work for them. We need to include and involve them front and center when these proposals are formulated. They should not be an afterthought. And for those who are able bodied today, you never know what tomorrow may bring. By taking care of those in need now, you may help yourself or your loved ones in the future.
39
@Ann Where in Manhattan are there no "good transportation options"? And why can't these "non able-bodied people yet able to drive" folks take taxis, Uber/Lyft, car service or disabled access transit? A disabled person has no right to free parking in the most expensive real estate on earth.
77
@Ann
But this is just about Manhattan. So complaints about things in the outer Burroughs dont apply.
25
The argument that the public subsidizes cars with free parking is offset by the fact that we’re currently doing the same thing for bikes by building bike lanes. It should be noted that cyclists make up less than 10% of NYCs population. Probably close to 5% by my calculation. Cars actually benefit more people.
We also need to stop conflating what’s happening in midtown Manhattan and the UWS with the situation in upper Manhattan and the borogouhs were public transit is not as good and people actually need their car.
168
@Bennett FYI -- bike lanes aren't there for bike storage, they're there to keep people who ride bikes safe from other, larger vehicles. When people who want to ride a bike feel safe doing it, they're more likely to do it, which means that we'll have less crowded subways and fewer people in cabs.
Even if riding a bike isn't your thing, we do need to keep people safe.
104
Your argument is that bike lanes are equal to parking spaces by total size taken up? I haven’t seen those numbers, but if you could link them that would be great.
Regarding your conclusion, is it your honest opinion that cars are a net good and even better than bicycles, walking commutes, or surface street public transit? How have you factored in pollution, opportunity cost, and vehicle deaths into that equation?
58
@Brian You write "Cars can benefit more people than bikes?" How many bikes can fit - and move - in the square footage taken up by a moving car?
I have often biked around a car stuck in traffic. One stuck driver recently yelled out, smiling, that bikes are more efficient. And they are.
Do this thought experiment. If the city allowed ONLY bike transport or car transport, which would move around the greatest number of people? Yes, accommodations have to be made for the disabled, the elderly etc., so that should be the focus when regulating cars. Still, the overall direction should be away from cars, to other modes.
36
New York is not just Manhattan. This may work fine on the UWS, where subway service is everywhere and frequent.
Out here in the rest of New York, we need cars. I live in south Brooklyn. The nearest subway stop is the last stop on the 5 train, which is over two miles away. To take public transit I need to wait for the bus (it doesn't run at all at night, and only every 30 minutes on the weekends) and then ride 20-30 minutes to the subway. And that's just to reach the very last stop on the subway line...taking the subway means sitting through 10 local stops before the 'express' train actually converts to an express pattern. And let's not forget that our train network is Manhattan-centric: If I need to get from Brooklyn to Queens I have to ride the subway all the way into Manhattan and then take another train all the way back out to Queens.
I would love to ditch my car for public transit. But that's not possible unless the MTA spends the billions needed for adequate service within and between the outer boroughs.
280
@Sam Out here in the rest of New York? Speak for yourself. Sure, in some instances, in certain parts of some of the other boroughs, life without a car may be difficult. But that is not the case in all the outer boroughs or all the various neighborhoods within them. Many of us do not 'need cars'. For far too many car-owners, it is habit, pure and simple. They simply have never known any other way to live or commute, and presently see no reason to contemplate living any other way.
While I don't own a car, and never have, I of course know many people who do. And if there's one thing I've observed, it's that most of them automatically reach for their car keys, even when a number of other transit alternatives are very doable and may even make more sense. I can remember recently that a friend who lives near to me in Astoria was talking about our going to Newark for an event. She then said 'we can go in my car...though the traffic will be horrid', and I'm thinking to myself 'so then why did she so automatically mention her car?...does she not know we can easily get there via NJ Transit??'
I observe this kind of thing all the time by car-owners. So long as there is a car sitting in their driveway or out front, it often becomes their default mode of transit.
34
@Lisa says the single woman with no elderly parents they need to drive or kids they need to shuffle around? yea...thats a good one.
13
@Sam Out here in the Great Outer Borough of Queens, it's a similar story as in South Brooklyn. Only difference is I have public transportation in easy walking distance, but is absolutely 10000% Manhattan-centric. That means public transport is available and a good option for my daily work commute to/from Manhattan. However, there is no public transport available to get to/from every other aspect of my not-Manhattan-based and locally/neighborhood-based existence. No bus or train available to transport me to the grocery shopping at the grocery store a mile from my house, my kids' local extra-curriculars, etc. Living where I live, by car is not a luxury - I genuinely need it to get around.
9
This is Manhattan. If you can’t afford a parking pass, you can’t afford a car. If you want a car and not pay for parking, the suburbs and outer boroughs are available.
307
@Ben
I find it interesting that you have decided that only the monied should have access to Manhattan and its offerings.
I don't see that. Manhattan is a great public asset, but you might just be new here.
31
@dannyboy The able-bodied working and middle class people in Manhattan are not driving. They take the subway. Getting rid of free parking does nothing to those people.
29
@J the city has over 250,000 reverse commuters (overwhelmingly middle class).
Go to the 79th Andy 96th street entrances to the northbound Henry Hudson during morning rush hour and see where the car owners in this neighborhood go.
10
The majority of households in the city are car-free and that goes up to a supermajority in many neighborhoods in Manhattan. It defies belief that in places where anywhere from 60 to 75% of households don't own cars, nearly 100% of street space is devoted to storing vehicles. Even loading zones where trucks could make deliveries and drivers could pick up and drop off passengers would be a better use of this space, but an even better use would be for things like community gardens, bike parking, expanded bus stops, wider bike lanes, and more. I'm glad New York is starting a much-needed conversation about our current inequitable use of public space.
386
The plans sounds great... but with it the public transportation needs to be addressed, yes, I mean the dreaded subway. Not everyone can bike (young children, their parents trying to get to work, the elderly, those who live outside the Manhattan, me on a rainy day). I am all for cutting back the car, very much so, but good alternatives need to be in place to keep the city working.
51
@Doug G. “The majority of households in the city are car-free and that goes up to a supermajority in many neighborhoods in Manhattan”
There are 1.9 million passenger cars registered in the city and 3.4 million households. Even without the out of state registrations a majority of households have cars.
And it’s a supermajority in homes with children.
21
@Doug G.
Just a question:
If 100% of the street space in NY is occupied with parking how do the cars move?
7
A long time coming, but something that needs to be done in Manhattan. In a borough that has such a vast network of mass transit and taxi options, there is little need for private passenger car, and parking one on the street contributes significantly to traffic problems. Having a car in Manhattan is a luxury and the costs to have one should be priced as such. Eliminate curbside parking for private passenger vehicles. Eliminate all overnight parking on the street. If mass-transit, bike or taxi, are not possible - encourage the rental of short-distance electric vehicles for necessary local driving needs. Vehicles operating on Manhattan streets and pulling over curbside should be ones that satisfy the need of more than just one individual or household. Buses, emergency vehicles, delivery vans/trucks, taxis, etc.
2
It feels like it has gotten more dangerous to be a pedestrian in NYC than ever in the 40 years that I've lived here, largely because of vehicular traffic. You take your life in your hands crossing the street. Why not make Manhattan a walking capital of the world and ban all vehicular traffic except for public buses, emergency vehicles and deliveries at night.
7
If this happens my owned parking spot will end up being worth more than my co-op!
2
In a city like New York, parking should never be free. Taking up valuable street real estate with your car is a privilege, not a right. There are too many cars in New York; this fact is undeniable. If you want to impose your vehicle on the city's overburdened infrastructure, you should have to pay for that. At the same time though, we need to be investing heavily in the subways, which are completely inadequate to handle demand. We need entire new lines built so that every sector of the city is served, without overcrowded conditions, and we need reliable service, which means massive investment in new equipment, signal systems and all other aspects of the existing infrastructure. It's a little baffling that we'd be pushing congestion pricing and no free parking when the Second Avenue Subway is still incomplete and there is no progress being made on its completion. And we need better commuter rail services. PATH needs to be expanded, new tunnels built under the Hudson River. And ultimately we need a state of the art high speed rail system that every other developed country has, so people can arrive in New York from anywhere without the need for a car.
10
@Samuel Russell Subway and train infrastructure are expensive to build and take a long time. The future of public transportation in NYC, in the near term, is on the surface. That means an expansive network of buses, with enforced dedicated lanes and traffic light priority through-out the five boroughs. It also means prioritizing this public mass transit above all other vehicular options in order to make it work, including getting parked cars off the streets.
2
This problem needs a much more creative solution than charging for on street parking. Is congestion reduced in Boston because of residential parking? No. Because transit in, out, and around the city is unreliable and not a priority.
4
This city has become unlivable in so many ways. Why am I being punished for owning a house and a car in this city?
15
Doesn't really come down to one question? Which is more important cars or pedestrians?
6
@sjs So agree. Even if you drive your car, set foot in a Lyft or an Uber or use public transportation, you are first a pedestrian who must navigate a NYC street to access it. That is the one thing we all have in common. Pedestrians should be the Kings and Queens of the streets.
2
both.
I'm all for "charging" for parking -- the tax (because that's what it is) should be pegged to the size of cars. The bigger the car, the bigger the tax (or parking "charge"). Why not do it for all of the city?
3
@historyprof Don't forget a bike tax, they use public space, roads, their owners must ante up as well.
6
Yes a bike tax is fine as long as it’s prorated relative to size and environmental impact when compared with the automobile.
1
@historyprof can we do that with clothes as well? I'm petite and I pay the same price for an XS shirt than someone that buys an XL. How is that fair? My shirt uses less material and takes less time to make than the L, XL, and XXL shirts.
There is an easy solution for this problem. Establish neighborhood grids and issue numbered residential parking permits (1/household only; car must be registered in NYC) for each public parking space in that grid- no more no less. First come basis- renewable each year. Those who miss out must pay for private parking or sell their car. They can try for a permit next year. No out of grid/town cars taking spaces. Unlawful parking results in expensive towing. Don't know why the city is not implementing this procedure.
7
Why isn't this article and all of the responders mentioning the parking for free and anywhere permits that saturate the city? Encouraging police, teachers, administrators, government employees, etc. to drive their personal cars into Manhattan. How many permits are there? No one seems to know.
Start there. Rescind and/or limit these gratuitous permits. It would make a huge difference.
25
@John And YES no permit parking for city vehicles. Each dept should get a limited, very limited number of permits for which they have to make a written justification and for which they should pay out their budget. And only for city-owned/city employee operated vehicles. And they should have to update who is using said vehicle if the operator changes.
1
Motorists eat up enormous amounts of street space in order to store their private property. You can live in a city and pay for storage of your private property, you can go without a car, or you can move elsewhere. You shouldn't get special consideration or get to have it all at public expense because your private property happens to be a motor vehicle.
27
@Multimodalmama NYC drivers pay a lot for their "free" parking. They pay the state for the right to use the streets (NYC is part of NYS.) Secondly NYC also charges drivers to us the streets and parking is part of this use. Meters are more than other cities and fines are way out of line.
9
@Multimodalmama Tell that to an elderly person whose family member uses their car to help them get to doctor's appointments. An elderly person who is not eligible for an Access-a-Ride and who can't afford to call an Uber.
The solution isn't simple here and people who own cars aren't evil freeloaders.
5
yeah right. car owners actually contribute to the city coffers with taxes and paying for parking.
1
The fact NYC offers free parking in Manhattan and the denser part of the other boroughs has always struck me as odd consider how much nearly everything else seems to cost. In comparably tiny and much less dense SLC pretty much everywhere downtown, by the university, and other areas with density charges for on street parking on weekdays from 8 AM to 6 PM. Though you can also park on the street overnight for free. And most neighborhoods near those denser areas have neighborhood parking permit restrictions.
6
An honest question... what do the majority of people living in New York with cars need them for? Is it primarily to drive themselves out of town when they need to? I lived in Brooklyn about 15 years ago for a short time (worked in Manhattan) and never once got in a car during those six months. I thought it was wonderful.
14
@LN As a native NYer who has always lived in the outer boroughs, I am happy to tell you that your experience is an anomaly. Try commuting via public transportation if you work in Long Island, a bordering town where it is a public transport desert. Try commuting to the other side of the same borough without catching 2 buses to get to the nearest subway. This is life commuting in Queens, an area that has an incomplete transit network.
PS: Most people I know that commute to Manhattan or some places of Brooklyn drive to the train. We already know there is no where to park.
9
@LN My experience is that many of the cars are coming from folks who live in Queens, LI that don't like to drive. At least in my midtown east neighborhood. The difference between weekday/weekend is HUGE.
sure if all you are doing is spending your entire life within a 5 block radius or are fortunate to live near the metro and doing all your business near metro lines. otheriwse, thanks to the utterly inefficient public transportation, significant percentage of people need cars.
3
One of the apartment buildings recently completed here in St. Paul has provided at least a partial solution to the problem. The renters can also rent electric vehicles stored in the underground garage. That gives renters the best of all worlds: convenient access to a zero emission vehicle, no maintenance responsibilities, the sure knowledge a parking space is waiting for you when you get home. It's a sign of things to come.
31
@WmC That's a good idea, however, I almost feel as if NYC developers are too cheap to include garages in their developments. It removes space that could be used for an overpriced apartment.
3
When I ride transit, I have to carefully plan out how I will get from A to B, because I cannot assume there will be a good option to do so or that the trains or buses will be running. When I bike, I have to carefully scout out the bike lanes to see if there is a safe way to get through the city. That often fails when the bike lanes are occupied by cars and tracks.
But when I drive, I don't have to care about these things. I can assume the infrastructure will be in place for me to safely drive to and then park my car. It is absurd that the form of transportation in the city that is the most hazardous to its inhabitants and uses the most space should also be the easiest.
19
@John Motorists subsidize the MTA to the tune of almost a billion dollars per year. Would you like your bus and subway fares to double?
1
@Art Wrong. https://taxfoundation.org/gasoline-taxes-and-tolls-pay-only-third-state-local-road-spending
Other taxpayers in NYC subsidize your driving.
3
Charging a modest fee for on-street parking (say, $1 a day for up to six days) is now easy with the existing Bloomberg-era parking meters. I don't see why we wouldn't do that, at least in Manhattan.
My neighborhood is definitely oversaturated with cars, so we spring for a $375/mo spot in a garage that's a 10-minute walk from our apartment. Compared to that, $30 a month for street parking would be fair.
5
My boomer colleagues love to gripe about how entitled everyone is (cyclists and pedestrians, that is.) I love to start complaining in the same register about how everyone wants something for nothing these days, and once I've got them nodding along, reveal I'm talking about parking.
41
@ReadtheIron Parking in NYC is not free. We pay NYS fees and NYC fees. In addition we subsidize the MTA to the tune of almost a billion dollars when paying tolls.
2
@ReadtheIron
Sounds like you have a lot of disagreements with your colleagues.
But you do take pride in "owning" them.
Have you tried listening and discussing things?
I promise, it works.
2
@ReadtheIron Yup. I think others of us need to start 'demanding' that the city provide more public street space so we can set up our own private vegetable gardens, BBQ grills and chairs, etc. and in close enough proximity to our homes. We shouldn't have to walk for blocks on end, just to try and find some public space to do some gardening or to have a little BBQ.
4
Every single car parked in the street is getting in the way of many other vehicles, including buses and emergency vehicles. A street by definition is meant for moving people and vehicles, not parking.
Street parking is a waste of the most valuable space in a city, free street parking is an inappropriate use of tax payers dollars. If you want the city to give you free parking than you are asking them to build you a parking lot.
Other than emergency vehicles during an emergency, no one should be allowed to park on the street during the day.
13
@Ted
You must know that saying " A street by definition is meant for moving people and vehicles, not parking." is just not true.
But I suspect that you already know that.
5
Almost all free street parking in New York City is on residential streets in residential neighborhoods, not on busy thoroughfares. I realize you are talking about all parking, but eliminating the “free” aspect of free street parking isn’t going to eliminate the problems you describe.
5
A similar issue in Seattle. Just wonder how much these anti-car and anti-parking organizations are supported by ride share corporations like Lyft and Uber. In both Seattle and NYC, the majority of cars I've noticed in downtown congested areas the last few years are ride shares.
10
Similar in NYC (every other car is a ride share), especially Manhattan. These anti-car efforts are co-opting liberal concern for carbon footprints to frame the aggressive anti-car efforts and city councils seem to be eating it up
5
@GM It's even more insidious.
The lobbying group behind this whole thing is Transportation Alternatives, whose stated mission is to "Reclaim NYC's streets from the automobile".
They have worked their way on to the Transportation Committee being quoted in this article. The chairman of the "Community" Transportation Committee sits on the board of the same organization out to rid rid NYC of automobiles!
He get's quoted in public media, without these very real facts.
The last chairman left to go promote electric scooters. I heat that there's REAL money in that!
6
@AF What people fail to consider however is... Lyfts and Ubers are in many instances replacing the taxis which were already on our streets. Sure, there are now probably more Ubers/Lyfts than there were ever taxis, but my point is that the number of Ubers/Lyfts on the street are not necessarily double that of what taxis previously were.
Also, there is a huge difference between car services (...whether they are taxis, 'gypsy cabs', Lyfts, Ubers, etc.) and privately-owned vehicles. In the case of car services, they are more or less in the same category as delivery trucks. All of these vehicles are in constant active use, and are serving dozens if not hundreds of city residents. Conversely, the majority of privately-owned vehicles are typically serving just 1-2 persons (i.e, the driver and perhaps One passenger), and are typically in active use for 1-3 very short trips per day. For the majority of any given day, privately-owned vehicles are sitting Parked, and Not being actively used. From that perspective, owning a private vehicle is extremely inefficient and needless.
While we're at it, we also need to address the fact that private cars are getting larger and larger. We need to implement a special tax to DISincent the purchase of SUVs. Here in NYC, it is positively stupefying to see that most private vehicles are now Yukons, Ford F1500s, Escalades, Jeeps, Suburbans, RRs, etc. Why on Earth do NYC drivers feel the need for such deadly monstrosities?
#NYCfarmers
9
I support whatever it takes to get rid of cars! No free street parking (no metered parking unless it pays for the meter maids who issue tickets). Turn those parking lanes into bike lanes, gardens, tree pits, etc. More people using public transportation helps pay for MTA improvements. I've lived in New York City since 1984 and have never owned a car. My disabled husband uses Access-a-ride. Car drivers, get over it: time to give up your gas guzzling horse and buggy!
32
@R. Turner The city makes millions from meters and almost a billion dollars from tolls to subsidize the MTA. We pay millions in NYS fees and millions more in NYC "auto use" fees. Who do you think helps pay for your husband's Access-a-Ride ride?
8
@R. Turner There are a record number of riders using the MTA as it is, still no improvements.
7
@Fed Up You're right--subways and buses are overcrowded and slow. Seems like there are always service delays due to maintenance of some kind, and yet: elevators are being modernized, service lines extended (2nd Ave subway and L west to 12th[?] Ave), ETA signs for buses /subways and quicker 14th street transit since cars were banned -- all these are serious improvements. Considering the subway is 100 years old, just keeping it running is an expensive and difficult "improvement."
2
There's a lot of comments about subsidizing car ownership and the idea that a free street parking space is somehow further catering to the already privileged automobile driver. The reality is that drivers are subsidizing NY with our tolls, our taxes, etc. We are NOT privileged. People work hard and spend money to have their cars because they are trying to get some small portion of their life back so they can spend it doing something other than commuting and working. Like having a few minutes for your children. All this haggling about bike lanes and safety is just a lot of rhetoric to convince everyone that people with cars should be bled dry. The changes being made are not making anyone safer, it's just making movement through the city slower. Wanna make streets less congested, control Uber and Luft. I'm a New Yorker, and i commute to work every day, however i refuse to use public transit for my errands and on the weekends.. Unless you live on the golden block where everything you need is within walking distance (only possible in small corners of Manhattan) Driving is necessary. Mass transit in NYC simply cannot get you everywhere you need to go within the time you have as a New Yorker after you've wasted 3 hours a day on commuting every day to your 9 hour shift
31
As a New Yorker who commutes to work by bike every day (and uses public transit on snow/inclement weather days) I find it baffling that drivers disguise their privilege to congest and pollute (and thereby make others’ lives more difficult) as an immutable right.
This city has major congestion problems, and there are no easy solutions to tackle these. But it’s pretty obvious that regular privately-owned cars take up a lot of valuable space and are used very sparingly (when compared to public transit, ride-shares, or bicycles).
15
@Ph I agree-public transit on the weekends is horrendous. How many lines are rerouted or out of service due to "signal modernization"?
3
@Ph WELL SAID!! IT'S the TLC drivers, not the average family with a car.
2
Great, I would be happy to pay to have a reserved designated parking spot in front of my home. Bring it on.
10
try reducing the number of Uber and Lyft cars in the city. driving on the FDR, west side highway, half the cars have to be Uber and or Lyft. that will help the traffic issue
10
@mcb It can be argued that the availability of Uber and Lyft enables more people to not own cars. Thereby reducing the number of cars parked in the city overnight.
13
Yes but prices for ride sharing are astronomical in places like NYC, making the replacement of car ownership cost prohibitive. I was quoted $50 for a four mile trip and on many occasions, quoted $20 for a one mile trip. Unsustainable, yet that was known when these ride sharing companies launched with subsidized fares to expand market share. Neoliberalism on steroids (e.g. companies expanding unnaturally while saddling consumers with the true costs).
6
@GM Yes, and when everyone starts using the ride shares because they got rid of their cars, there will be surge pricing. I've been quoted $90 for a three-mile trip in the past!
1
The only reason I own a car is in order to leave the city. I use it only on weekends and the rest of the time I freak out trying to find a new parking space every couple of days for street cleaning to do it's thing. I would be willing to spend money for a residential parking permit that would limit how much I have to pollute to find a new spot every few days. I would pay even more for on-street charging of electric vehicles so that I could give up my gas powered vehicle. I realize my car is a luxury and I'd be very interested in giving it up if there were more affordable long-term share options whereby I could have a rental car every other weekend that I pick up at a designated location like ZipCar. If I did the math I assume I am probably near break-even comparing ownership to rental. Forcing me to pay for on-street parking would push me to more actively seek out an alternative to full time car ownership. It would be inconvenient (ignoring the hunt for a new parking spot) and I would be all for it.
11
@Sidney Blank In the meantime, you can park in an outside Manhattan garage and get to your weekend car by transit. This is what I did when I was only living in NYC. Very affordable covered parking options in the Bronx, accessible by subway or MN to Botanic Garden, etc. When I needed to tote big items in to my apt, drove in to do that and then drove back to parking.
1
@Sidney Blank I can recall, in the 70s, low cost long term parking on old piers downtown on the west side, perfect for people who used their cars once or twice a month to get out of the city.Those no longer exist, but maybe the city could develop something similar, and in the meantime you could use a private garage.
Similar actions are being taken in major metro areas around the country to disincentivize driving and encourage the use of cycling and public transportation. Except many of the latter options outright ignore suburban areas/residents who make up a huge portion of daily commuters.
It's a bit of a double-punishment; people can't afford to live inside city limits because of skyrocketing housing costs and now they're being punished for driving a vehicle from outside the city when no viable alternatives exist.
As an example: I used to park-and-ride into downtown Portland for over a year. Once my job moved to another side of the metro, my public transportation options went from an hour to 2+ hours each way, including numerous transfers. That's simply not reasonable for a daily commute, particularly when it's almost as expensive as the cost of gas.
I'm all in for mass transit and biking, but cities need to make a serious effort to put that infrastructure in place BEFORE they punish drivers, and NIMBYs need to get out of the way.
5
"But Ms. Thompson of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy said many cities that had adopted policies to discourage the use of cars had found that “people to move to public transportation.’’"
What?
Interesting discussion...where I live, my spouse and I park our 2 cars for free in our private 3-car garage, which is attached to my 3000 sq foot house that we purchased for $110/sq. foot.
1
@Lyn Robins The article is about New York. If we preferred to have multiple cars in a huge, likely energy-guzzling home, we probably simply would not live here.
17
That's nice. It's interesting how different people enjoy living in different environments, isn't it?
11
@Lyn Robins That's nice. We in the Northeast will all remember this when you have to relocate (become a climate migrant) due to floods/plagues/heatwaves caused by your carbon spewing lifestyle choices.
3
Cities should not be held back by how things have been done in the past, but should execute a plan for the future they want to go toward. I feel confident that people who place a high value on free or reduced street parking and private vehicle ownership can find the right place to live, however that may not be in a densely populated urban area.
9
@Cory Everyone can live together harmoniously in a densely populated urban area if we all worked together to make this happen.
1
@Cory
More good advice from Seattle:
People with cars should just leave their homes in NYC, their families, their communities, their jobs, and their neighbors and just move away.
4
Parking should be free for residents of each borough. They already pay city taxes. If you want to create a permit by areas, then do that for people who live in that area. They should remember what happened when sandy hit and subways were flooded and there was no power below 23rd st. How do they expect people to leave?
4
@Jonathan so people who don't own cars but also pay city, state, and sales taxes that support your driving should get a rebate in kind?
2
"....But many car owners say they feel unfairly targeted, arguing that there are valid reasons for driving, including physical limitations that make it difficult to use trains or buses and jobs that are not easily reached by public transit."
Car owners feel 'unfairly targeted'? Targeted how? ...by virtue of the City and many of its residents (the Majority of whom do Not own cars) finally waking-up and recognizing just how much of our Public Space we've relinquished to deadly 2-ton private possessions?
At intersections in my dense Astoria neighborhood, I've begun to stand on the corner and pause for a moment...to really Observe what is unfolding right before my eyes. More folks need to do the same. I firmly believe far too many of us have normalized that which, if we were to look at it from a fresh perspective, is truly perverted.
We have vulnerable pedestrians and cyclists navigating within literal inches of Moving two-ton vehicles. Many bike lanes are UNprotected, and often blocked by Cars. Many intersections are set to have Walk lights for pedestrians, while at the same time allowing for Turning vehicles (many of which turn too quickly, 'pressure' pedestrians to 'hurry up and cross', and, in instances of SUVs, the drivers are often too high up to clearly see the heads of pedestrians directly below them in the crosswalk).
Another problem? Your average vehicle is getting Larger, not smaller. What's next, mass-produced army tanks for the driving American public??
29
@Lisa
And while folks are pausing on that corner, they should inhale deeply a few times -- check out the air quality. I live on the UWS and drivers convenience should not outweigh my health.
3
@Lisa Cars are not large by historical standards, check out what we drove in the 70s
1
I'm shocked that there's "free" parking in Manhattan. In Denver, you pay for parking on the streets...including on many neighborhood streets if you don't have a neighborhood permit...AND you actually pay for parking for 95% of retail stores. In fact, one of Denver's best shopping malls requires pay-for-parking. So, Manhattan has been lucky!
5
@J. G. Smith
With all due respect, we NYers are not interested in modeling ourselves after Denver.
1
@dannyboy
Call the Whaaaaaambulance. I love NY, but you folks hardly have a monopoly on good ideas. Get over yourself.
1.9 million registered cars in NYC. How many cars when you factor in all of the out-of-state registrations by permanent residents?
11
There IS way too much vehicular traffic on NYC streets but this move is utterly absurd! And, as usual, penalizes the non-rich. Why?
The upsurge in car traffic clogging NYC streets in the last 5 years is largely due to cars from Uber, Lyft, etc! Take a look at any congested street and see how many (usually large and non-fuel efficient) black limos and SUVs there are, and how many cars have TLC license plates (not cabs). This measure will have NO effect on them. They're the MAIN cause of congestion! Why no action about them?
Lots of private limos (non car service ones) also clog the streets, especially in Manhattan. Owners of limos can easily afford $500-$1500 garage spaces. Limos also regularly stand in "no parking 9-6" or even "no standing" areas (driver inside running the engine) blocking traffic and defeating the idea of having the lanes open to traffic! This measure will have NO impact on them.
Bike lanes (and I myself ride a bike) have taken away lanes on main arteries -- like 8th and 9th avenues -- and also greatly narrowed cross streets. Now a single stopped limo, car-service, or garbage truck totally gridlocks a street; previously, there was usually room to move around them. Bike lanes have taken away 25% of vehicular capacity on many streets, but bike traffic in no way approaches this number. There's more congestion, as a result of course
And many many fewer people would drive NJT, LIRR, and subways were decent. But they're NOT! Fix them first!
15
@NYer
"And, as usual, penalizes the non-rich. Why?"
Because the rich have the power and ensure that it's the way it always has been and always will be.
1
I think the biggest issue is that city planning is a failure and has been for decades. No plan of where DSNY can put their fleet, but then people complain their streets are not getting cleaned during a snow storm. No plan for NYPD where to put their fleet and emergency equipment either. NYPD, DSNY, FDNY facilities outdated and funding not used for upkeep in these facilities. That's nice no cars, but what about the vehicles that are used to save people's lives? Does city planning have a plan?
4
Make it arduous, expensive, and inconvenient to drive a private car in the city. Bike lanes were a great idea in concept, but it gave away too much valuable space for an extremely limited population. I have never owned a car in my life and the pollution, noise (please stop honking people) and dangerous drivers have no place in a city that is truly meant for pedestrians. End of story.
11
@Ruby it already IS expensive to own a car in NYC. Do you have any idea of the over a billion dollars motorists pay to NYC? here are some way: Tolls (that are 4 or 5 times as much as necessary), meters (that are among the most expensive in the country), NYS fees, NYC auto use taxes, and of course the hundreds of millions in outrageous fines, many of which are given to innocent motorists.
1
There are no tolls on the 59th Street bridge (as well as other East River bridges). I have read that the eastside pedestrian fatality rate is highest in vicinity of 59th street bridge, and I believe it as I have nearly been run down a couple of times near there. I know someone who had both ankles crushed by two separate cars who weren't happy with having her in a crosswalk they were turning through. Also, at peak travel time traffic is often backed up nearly a mile both north and south (and sometimes on multiple avenues, like 1st and 3d,both northbound) -- filled with big hulking SUVs and drivers who refuse to stop honking.
As far as I'm concerned, they should impose a toll on that bridge that's 10 or 20 times "as much as necessary" if that's what it would take to save pedestrian lives.
1
The “transportation committee” should always be referred to as the “CB 7 transportation committee”, as mentioned in the articles in the West Side Rag.
Thrilled to see this important dialogue is gaining steam -- the City must evolve from a 20th century car-centric mentality.
Our streets are too congested, yet street parking is free and at the same time a Metro Card is $127/month. I think it would be fair to charge the same price for street parking as a Metro Card.
13
This will hurt the remaining stores that are still in NY City. A bad idea and one that shop keepers will not like in the least.
6
How so? Nothing makes for better, more sustainable shops and stores than consistent FOOT TRAFFIC! How does zooming by in a car help shops? Specious argument at best.
16
@Max People do stop and park their cars to shop, duh!
I'm pleased to know how viciously anti-car Corey Johnson is ahead of his possible run for Mayor. It confirms that he absolutely doesn't get my vote.
22
This punishes the lower classes in the same way a flat tax punishes the lower classes. The rich will still be able to afford to pay for their opulence while the lower middle class and poor will no longer be able to access travel by automobile. Not to mention how this will affect those with disabilities an other mobility issues. Look at who you are impacting before you make up stupid rules that wound like wins on the surface. And don't even get me started on the cyclists who NEVER follow the rules of the road but will do as they please with a sense of entitlement bordering on reckless endangerment for all those around them. Good luck with all that NY.
19
Hold on a New York minute, if you want to do a cost/benefit analysis of the utility of street space, you need to do the same for cyclists.
I can promise you one thing, the aging population of New York City does not use bicycles in any significant numbers. Either their own or the rentals. Additionally, because New York is so huge, even the young aren't going to commute by bicycle in any large numbers.
Plus, half the year in NYC's climate is wet and/or cold enough to make an Inuit smile.
And the notion that anyone living in NYC and paying the rent (which includes taxes), and the city's income tax, is getting park for "free", is rhetorical codswallop.
23
How much do I love the fact that I don't live in New York City?
Let me count the ways.
12
We should take a note from the Belgians (and many other European countries I'm sure!): Seek out unused space underground here in the city and turn it into underground parking garages. New major bulidings should be required to include underground parking *with* space to park bikes as well. Cars don't solely own the streets. And, of course, we need significant improvements to our public transit!
13
After the Crash of 2008, US media has had numerous articles about what a disaster Spain had become. But when we traveled to Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Granada and Cadiz, what we experienced was a very civilized country with great public transportation, including clean, on time metros, high speed intercity trains and uncrowded city streets. Lots of underground parking. At the beaches you don't see parked cars; they're all in underground lots, which serve the dual purpose of absorbing storm surge when necessary. And a relaxed population who seem to really enjoy life. As someone wrote, there's little political will in the US to solve our problems, but it is possible.
1
@Barbara petro and electric car charging!!!
1
This might make sense in Manhattan below 110th St, and in Downtown Brooklyn, but it would be nonsensical in places like most of Queens and all of Staten Island. There are lots of people in essentially suburban neighborhoods like Bayside and Rego Park who have no garage, but have a legitimate need for a car.
Congestion-price the heck out of Manhattan, and make parking there the province of the very rich, but don't let the circumstances of a small portion of the city impact the rest.
14
Eliminating this in certain areas and perhaps charging for on street parking would do wonders for traffic conditions. So would requiring deliveries outside of the business day.
3
Planners would do well to also imagine more, and more efficient infrastructure in the form of train transportation to expanded areas outside the city before considering banning cars.
4
@MichelleM Except the MTA can't build anything in a cost effective manner
3
All on-street parking should be charged with 24/7 surge-priced parking meters. Free parking subsidizes car ownership and allows for storage of personally-owned vehicles that are not serving the public good. The majority of residents don't drive, so the city should be prioritizing their transportation needs. NYC is basically giving away valuable real estate for free while studio apartments that are not much larger in size rent for thousands a month.
Residential parking permits are a horrible idea because they are not market value and encourage increased car ownership. This is what has happened in Baltimore - there are districts where people used to pay for monthly garage parking that now get their own street parking for the piddly price of a $20 a year permit.
The city could take the revenue from all of the new 24/7 metered parking and use it to make transit free for users, which would be a better public good than giving people who can afford cars free parking.
5
@Laura Bianca-Pruett I just love when people from Bel Air dictate to NYers how to live their lives. Not at all parochial, don't you agree?
My favs include the following dictates:
"Residential parking permits are a horrible idea because they are not market value" - AH, THE RING OF MONEY. You must realize that these are New York's commons. We share our public spaces here, not sell them to the highest bidder, Unless, of course, you believe that only the rich deserve to use OUR PUBLIC SPACES.
"The city could take the revenue from all of the new 24/7 metered parking and use it to make transit free for users" - Again with the MONEY THING? Just so you understand, NYC Transit is subsidized and overcrowded. Please don't make it worse for us living in NYC and not Bel Air.
4
Baltimore is absolutely nothing like New York. They couldn’t be more different both in layout, cost of living, and population. Persecuting car owners is not right. Many have disabilities, have jobs that require lugging heavy gear to/from (artists, musicians), commute to areas outside the city for work, or live in areas where public transportation is either inconvenient or poorly operating. It’s challenging to live in New York— which is why we’re so pushy. Having a car in NYC is not always the luxury people believe. It can also be a necessity due to circumstances. When Baltimore starts charging $3k for a studio apartment or cuts major subway lines for days in a row due to construction, then it’ll be good to get your take, but until then, suggesting yet another thing to make New Yorkers’ lives even more arduous doesn’t help.
4
Here in San Francisco bike enthusiasts are riders who constitute a lobbying force to be reckoned with. What's been accomplished are bike lanes on main roads throughout the city accommodating bicyclists, yes, but with far too many bike riders ignoring rules of the road. It's presented a daily traveling ordeal, a condition hazardous to bike riders, car drivers, pedestrians and to the general public safety. Crossing a street in a pedestrian cross walk I was knocked down by a bike rider zooming out from the wrong direction on a one way street. He didn't even stop. If my reactions hadn't been quick enough, he would have run flat right over me. As for car parking, to find a parking space on a San Francisco street requires the effort and commitment once demonstrated by those '49ers who prospected for gold during California's gold rush days. Good luck New Yorkers. We out here in the wild West feel your pain.
14
@Rose And that's the other issue. The bikers need to be held accountable for their actions, just as the motorists are.
2
@Rose I am a cyclist and I too get annoyed with scofflaw riders. I've even been clipped by my wife's friend (like, hey, you know me, I know you to be a tiny gentle woman, what are you doing).
HOWEVER, cars kill hundreds of people per year in NYC, and thousands nationwide. Bicycles cause a handful. I think cyclists should improve their behavior, but even if they didn't, I'd rather be hit by a cyclist than a car, and therefore I'd rather get more people out of cars and on bikes.
3
@Rose San Francisco's kind of a lost cause at this point, especially with that new DA.
This discussion ignores the fact that, due to the luxurifucation of Manhattan and unaffordable housing, more and more people are pushed out and are commuting from places that lack reliable public transportation.
In the building in which I work, maintenance staff carpool in from Yonkers. Many hospital staff, especially those working late shifts, drive - from NJ, Long Island, Westchester.
A recent plumbing repair in our building took hours longer because the plumber could not locate parking and had to go back and forth for equipment.
Reducing parking won’t hurt rich people who have hyper-gentrified Manhattan.
To actually reduce congestion, how about limiting luxury development, Uber and ecommerce delivery?
33
@SLM
SLM, I feel you.
At a recent meeting with Howard Yaruss, the chairman of the UWS transportation committee, which is behind this, I pointed to my own experience to try to help him understand the issue. In my case, I am a 4th generation NYer whose children have been priced out of the neighborhood (due, in part, to other misguided Community Board policies on affluent-only housing).
As a result my children live in The Bronx and in Brooklyn. I rely on my car to visit and keep our family close. He didn't even respond. Nor did he respond to the other 6 questions that I posed to him.
Did I mention that he is Chair of the Transportation Committee and on the Board of Transportation Alternatives, whose stated mission is to "Reclaim NYC's streets from the automobile"?
Did I mention that he parks his car in a garage and probably thinks that only the monied deserve to live in his community?
Is that community?
13
@SLM reducing parking would mean more space for commercial vehicles.
1
I will be all in favor of this when the traffic laws are enforced against bike riders. Currently bicyclists treat the streets and sidewalks as a free for all. All the pro bike riders can comment all they like to these statements but you are lying if you says bicyclists are following the traffic laws.
119
@Mkm
Moving violations should of course be addressed. But what does that have to do with use of curb space?
26
@Mkm I am a bike racer. I have been run over by 10 bicycles at a time, more than once. I have been hit by a car, more than once. I have been RUN OVER by a Cadillac Escalade (wheels over my limbs).
I can say from personal experience that its much better to be hit by a bike than by a car. Injury and mortality rates support that. Cyclists should be held accountable, but the idea that they cause more of a danger to you than cars and trucks is not valid. The NYPD disproportionately targets cyclists for traffic tickets, so your first condition is already satisfied.
52
@Mkm I'll be happy to see that enforcement "against" bike riders when I see the murderous motorists hauled off to jail and subject to civil suits for their careless and often aggressive behavior. Jaywalkers should also be fined for walking against lights and walking in bike lanes. But make no mistake: you find cyclists annoying, we find your obsession with us annoying and your lack of logic or failure to grasp statistics to be baffling and vexing. Motorists kill. Period. Motorists are also the worst scofflaws, too. Focus on the real problem. Motorists.
22
One more step away from the NYC of my youth and one step closer to a Buckminster bubble around the city with an air fee.
16
The idea that one car for one person can just sit and take up space for hours or even days in the densest place in America is insane.
23
Long overdue. There is a huge economic cost to a free parking space and for the city not to benefit from it in some way is absurd. You want to own a car in Manhattan, pay for parking. End of story.
90
@van hoodoynck Every time I take a cab or Uber I am hit with all these random fees theoretically added to improve traffic in the city. Why should private car owners not share the burden by paying for on street parking.
8
Eliminating curb cuts for off-street parking should come first. Off-street parking access brings vehicles in conflict with pedestrians, makes property into inhuman deserts gor auto storage causing conanination and litter.
2
Oh god yes please. Anything that reduces the frivolous usage of cars in urban centers for the love of god please.
7
Somehow opposing free street parking because the neighborhood was once "crack infested" shows how weak their argument is,
4
I’m thrilled by this proposal!
For far too long, entitled individual drivers have been denying the rest of us our fair share of the roads as pedestrians, bikers, bus riders and even car share riders.
It baffles the mind that the most progressive city in the US is so backwards on car culture. Congestion pricing is a start. Eliminating free parking is the logical next step. Even if this only happens in Manhattan, it would be a great step forward. There is no reason why individual car owners should have such dominance over the roadways. The idea of limiting cars is appealing enough, but add the money-making potential of residential parking permits and it’s a no brainer!!!!
As for objections:
1. Commuter deserts: Fine. Do it only in Manhattan and neighborhoods with good connectivity
2. “It’s the way it’s always been done”: please, it’s 2020 and the ice caps are melting. Time for change.
3. What about older people with mobility problems? Ok boomer. If my 93 year old, wheelchaired grandmother can master Lyft and Uber, so can you.
4. Garages are expensive!: so get rid of your car or park it in a cheaper garage farther north or off island. It’s not like you’ll need it as much.
Seriously, guys. Let’s do it. And let’s do it quickly. The recent passing of congestion pricing, the closing of 14th street and the expansion of bike lanes and pedestrian squares is proof this is eminently doable!
59
@Max I'm not a boomer, but your 93 year old grandma must have money because rideshares are expensive here.
5
Good for you. My 95 year old mother cannot manage a smart phone let alone Uber or Lyft. I drive her every week to go food shopping. Would you force her onto a bike? Most New Yorkers do not ride bikes and never will. It is just not practical for most us but it happens to be the cause du jour for our pandering politicians.
2
@Fed Up cars are expensive to purchase, to insure, to maintain and to park. The cost saved would pay for hundreds of taxi type rides.
1
Interesting few comments on truck deliveries. How about limiting deliveries from 10 am to 5 pm which would clear up space and limit congestion. Everyone needs to share in the sacrifice
5
@Patrick. When I lived in Moscow, Russia, deliveries normally occurred between 11pm and 4am. Traffic was so bad that trucks didn't even attempt to start deliveries earlier. I had a refrigerator delivered at 3am! It was great - they came when they promised and I was definitely home. NYC should try something similar.
10
Transportation and parking need a profound look. It seems that every solution is reactionary and not comprehensive. For example, for decades, the zoning resolution has not required any parking in Manhattan CB’s 1-8. Not only has the cost of parking become astronomical, but it has essentially forced vehicles to park on the streets, double park and drive in circles for hours. Short of an outright ban on cars, which would be completely self defeating, this is a reality. People need a place to stop and store vehicles. So go ahead and prohibit street parking but then make sure that car parking is available elsewhere and there is sufficient supply that consumers will not be gauged.
2
@SG1 could always do what Japan does: prove that you have a parking space before you can register a car.
2
Decades ago, when I lived in Manhattan and drove to work in NJ, I was paying nearly $250 a month to park in a garage several blocks from the high-rise I lived in. Why walk a couple of blocks? Because the building I was in wanted $450. In 1990.
Pay to park, folks. Streets are not free garages. A better way for car-owners to be able to share the road with all the other users, especially in areas that still have street-level retail, is to keep the car garaged when not in use. Free up the side of the street for short-term shoppers, deliveries, all the other double-parkers out there.
13
The city should build massive parking garages (undergound or above) for free or low-cost parking and not allow on street parking to help get cars off the roads. We have the tech to do this
6
@Jack Parking garages cost a lot of money to build and maintain, and they'd be taking up some of the most valuable real estate in the world.
2
@Will yes, but they are needed. The overall value to the city, not the expense alone, is what you should be looking at.
3
@Jason It's not the garages I'm opposed to, it's the part about making them free.
1
As I do not live in NYC (thank the Lord) I can speak only as a visitor who has observed the situation on occasion. That disclaimer out of the way, I suggest that unless the police are willing to enforce existing and new regulations against delivery trucks there is no reason to think that anything will be different. It seems to me that the double parked trucks, idling and dumping their pollution into the air without the excuse of movement, are a large component of the traffic problem in the city.
2
@michaelscody - If there weren't parked cars blocking every curb, the trucks wouldn't need to double park.
1
@PM If the cars are parked legally, then the trucks need to find some other legal place to be. If the cars are parked illegally, then the trucks parking there would be illegal also.
I own a car and regularly park for free on my very busy street in my busy neighborhood. I ride my bike far more than I use my car. If parking weren’t free, I could easily do without my car and would gladly get rid of it. The free parking tips the scales right now, but I’ve always thought it was ludicrous that so much parking in the city has no cost to people like me.
13
@Willr Good for you that can easily get rid of your car and ride your bike. How selfish of you. What about people that need a car because they need to drive their children or because they need to drive to work?
1
@Labslove thank you for using vulnerable theoretical people as human shields for your personal convenience choices that are very costly to society. Very patronizing of you.
2
Anyone who thinks that any money raised by using "residential parking permits and parking meters “capable of surge pricing"" will go towards anything productive is delusional.
All the money will disappear or will be wasted like with everything else in NYC
18
I think charging for street parking is a good idea, but bike lanes continue to be monumentally stupid
6
@Will citations needed.
Creating neighborhood permits won't help the issue described. Traffic will still be terrible. The city will just have more revenue now.
2
No parking meters in NYC? Every Canadian city I have ever lived in (5) has parking meters. It’s a major revenue source for cities and a source of much profanity for drivers.
@MJM They do have parking meters, just not on residential streets.
2
At some point the world is going to have to choose between cars or people. My money is on squirrels.
14
"On the Upper West Side, the transportation committee passed a resolution"
should read:
"The transportation committee passed a resolution WITHOUT INPUT FROM THE COMMUNITY"
So now we have a Community Board who establishes Resolutions without Community input.
Does anybody else see what's wrong here?
15
Corey Johnson - I am so excited for you to run for Mayor! Finally an individual who has the courage to think forward! This city could once again become the greatest city in the world if we simply got rid of the stinking car culture. I am father with children in public school. Every day i imagine what the world would look like without the insanity and pollution of cars roaming around with one driver in the driver's seat. I bike to work every day - its my favorite part of the day. If biking and other alternative forms of transportation were made even easier more folks would adopt it. We need to LEAN IN to a greener future! More trees! More green space! More bike and scooter lanes! More pedestrian only streets! Double the taxes on the bridges!! Keep the cars out!!! Go Corey! Make the dream of a better future real!!! I will vote for you!!
10
@GR parent in public school how delusional, yea, tax the bridges, don't start wondering why trucks aren't coming from NJ to make deliveries. Just close off Manhattan to all cars, let them all fend for themselves... I'd love to see that.
1
Car owners can be the most entitled people. They think they have the right to take up space far beyond what any person needs. If you want the privilege of owning a car in Manhattan then you should be prepared to pay for it.
13
Howard Yaruss and half of the "panel" sit on the board of Transportation Alternatives", a lobbying group whose public mission is "reclaim NYC's streets from the automobile"
He also parks his own car in a garage.
15
@dannyboy
Good for him. He’s not burdening the neighborhood with toxic fumes trying to find a spot every three days.
1
@Brian So I see that you support his apparent conflict of Chairing the Transportation Committee and, he himself, drafting the Resolution to ban street parking while garaging his own car; and sitting on the Board of Transportation Alternatives whose stated mission is to "Reclaim NYC's streets from the automobile".
I see that you love these conflicts.
Are you also good with Emollients and Quid Pro Quo?
2
The former Soviet Union's failed economic policy infamously resulted in long breadlines.
American transportation policy is basically socialism for cars. By not paying money for parking and driving, we encourage overuse of a limited resource, leading to congestion which means that people end up paying, but with their time. Just like a Soviet breadline, except here it is time sitting in a traffic jam or cruising around looking for parking.
Appropriate pricing will discourage gratuitous car ownership (like the many people who keep a car just for the occasional weekend trip, and only because they can park for free), leaving the space for people who actually need it; it will also give a signal to people who want a car-based lifestyle that maybe a neighborhood with scarce parking is not the best choice of residence.
I recommend this article for a more detailed version of this argument: https://mobilitylab.org/2016/04/07/congestion-soviet-bread-line/
7
It's crazy to me that this is at all controversial. As the article notes, every other major city chargers *something* for a neighborhood parking permit. Even those prices - $35 a year in DC - are absurdly low. Why exactly should a retired doctor living on the Upper West Side be entitled to free parking for life? And the argument about people who need to drive because of disabilities falls flat. There are plenty of other ways to get around, and plenty of people with disabilities who can only dream of owning a car. Setting aside so much street space for private parking at no cost just doesn't make any sense in a city this dense.
14
Getting rid of all parking on busy streets is a no-brainer for the safety of everyone. It is ridiculous how we put up with the dangerous streets we have.
6
For drivers it’s hard to find parking. You know what’s hard for the rest of us? Just getting around New York safely! I’m tired of every crosswalk, every bike lane , every inch of supposedly public space being occupied by cars that can and do kill pedestrians and cyclists daily.
18
@Scott please specify and don't subject all drivers and car owners in this category. I believe you mean to say TLC driving cars that drive insanely and have no idea how they even get their license kill pedestrians and cyclists.
To say that the cars are parking for "free" seems to forget the registration and license fees that the auto owner pays. How much do the bicyclists and pedestrians pay for their transportation routes? Maybe we should start licensing them. If those fees are not enough to support the system, then they should be increased. I have little objection to a permit system for parking, provided that there is some way to incorporate the need for visitors to also have an opportunity to park. We typically drive to NYC to visit relatives and drive into upper Manhattan for the visit. To not be able to park (often with difficulty in finding a space) would restrict our visits (and the money we spend in NYC).
5
@BigFootMN take the train in. problem solved.
9
@BigFootMN Your vehicle registration and license fees fund the state DMV and bear no relation whatsoever to the city's real estate that your car sits on while parked.
11
@Bob
But taxes (including gasoline road taxes) do have a relation to how the road is built and maintained.
How do we maintain sidewalks and Bike lanes without the cars that pay for them? maybe we could have RFID chips implanted in everyone and they can pay for how much they walk or bicycle in NYC!
But then much like with the subway system the same people who want to ban cars would be the first to let anyone that claimed they were discriminated against get away without paying as well...
Please! I am begging the city to ban daytime parking and stopping on the side of canal street. Why don’t we have officers patrolling canal street to regulate this? I have lost a few hundred hours of my life to canal street traffic and I believe this could help.
5
@Andre Bronson I'll second that!
Canal Street traffic! ...I broke into a cold sweat just reading your comment...
In addition to those with disabilities and those without reliable transit options, parents of small children have increased need for cars. Even in Manhattan, the majority of subway stations are not ADA-compliant, making stroller usage a wild card at best, and during rush hour it's extremely difficult to navigate subways or buses with an infant. Residential parking permits are reasonable, but eliminating street parking is not a tenable option for many parents of small children.
13
@Father I raised two. I used a bike trailer. It isn't hard. There are many more options for parents 25 years later. Check out the scene in PDX sometime.
1
I believe the first step should be the minimally controversial institution of residential parking permits.
16
I split my time between Manhattan and central Boston. I’ve lived in Boston for nearly 30 years and have kept a car there the entire time. The neighborhood parking permit system works very well and is a fair and sensible approach. Why not try it in NYC? As in Boston, there could be a small number of visitor spaces in any given area as well as open parking during business hours for those with commercial plates. Everything doesn’t have to be all or nothing!
10
In NYC, most everything is all or nothing.
Unfortunately.
2
What are pedestrians supposed to do about traffic violators like cyclists going the wrong way, up on curbs and running red lights? I'm more in danger from them outside than cars that park curbside.
49
@Ames Irrelevant, since drivers and pedestrians violate the rules just as much as cyclists do. (Have you really never visited an intersection in NYC?) The point is to encourage all modes of transportation, not grossly subsidize one at the expense of quality of life or other modes.
18
@North
The cars are what "subsidize" the "bike lanes", the roads are paid for with things like gasoline road taxes
2
@Ames What are cyclists to do about jaywalkers?
2
I don't think anyone would reasonably suggest that everybody get rid of their cars completely. All of the arguments against permits seem to suggest it as if that's the goal. New York is expensive- so if you own a car, you should pay a fee to park it. No one is being forced into expensive garages- keep the fee under $500, sure. But now non-residents won't be taking up so many spots, and residents will have an easier time parking.
6
I just moved to the UWS this year. If my building is any example, the largest demographic here is aged 60-80. This cohort is most likely to need door-to-door transportation. And least likely to use a smart phone to order a ride. Expect panicked blowback.
12
@Emily And can't use those protected bike lanes.
4
@Emily well considering the article mentions people needing to circle blocks endlessly, it could be inferred that most people in your building will not be parking right outside their door. So your point is moot. They can take the bus if the need transportation.
6
@ParkingSux
You solution is for the "demographic here is aged 60-80" to "TAKE THE BUS"!!
a little cold, no?
6
I agree with those wondering why NYC does not have a system of residential parking permits. Isn’t the city forgoing millions in revenue? Plus it has a free-rider problem in the number of residents who feel entitled to free street parking. It may be tradition but it’s inequitable and inefficient.
23
The city made bike lanes and curb lanes wider, do now cars double park in them. These cars should be ticketed and towed right under people who think it's ok to double park for even 2 minutes. I think traffic will flow much better after irresponsible drivers lose their cars and have to retrieve them from the tow lot. I am so glad I moved out of Brooklyn in 2015. You can have it. I'm close and drive into to city for a concert every now and again, or to visit my few friends who still stick it out. Both have cars and need free on street parking. Why would the City penalize them, unless they double park? Why would the city stop people from coming in for entertainment? Especially when no government can seem to get public transportation correct, efficient and effective? Especially from New Jersey. I am planning on leaving the whole metropolitan area in a few years. Why? Because of corrupt politicians who think it's ok to allow double parking when they intended to just make bike lanes.
6
@Angel
Many of those people double parking are the same politicians. Hence why they are allowed to continue.....
The need to reduce the ongoing destruction of the environment far outweighs a individual's desire for the convenience of using a car in a city like Manhattan. Get rid of the parking spaces, replace them with more bike lanes and bus lanes. Driving is not a necessity. Commuting by public transportation might take longer and be less convenient, but the "we gotta have our cars" mentality ignores the inconvenience of an uninhabitable planet.
A conversation about continuing to have limited parking available, but restricted to electric cars, makes sense.
I lived and commuted in Manhattan for 18 years, about 20 miles per day, almost exclusively by bicycle and mass transit. It is possible.
20
i am happy that you can bike everywhere you need to go. that option is unavailable for many with physical limitations. suggestions public transportation sounds great, but until there are elevators to the platforms (is: no stairs) and regular, swift transport from ALL parts of New York City, you might want to step off your bicycle and consider the alternative for people who CANNOT USE A BICYCLE!
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@Chris Root
Your views on car use are myopic.
Using a car is a necessity for tens of thousands of elderly and disabled people who cannot take public transportation or bike themselves around. One of them is my 80-year-old husband, who has severe balance problems, heart disease and emphysema.
Broad generalizations such as yours are dismissive of the needs of a multitude of New Yorkers. Their needs must be taken into account as the city plans yet another assault on the use of cars within its borders.
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@Michelle Neumann the alternative is the bus.
Propose $10 fee to enter or exit Manhattan. All of Manhattan, including Washington Heights and Inwood which are inundated with entitled and often dangerous drivers. Upper manhattan has excellent public transportation between the A and 1 trains and upwards of 75% rent controlled apartments so presume majority do not own cars.. Q why we should continue to accommodate ridiculous outdated car culture there or anywhere on island.
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@Confused In Nyc All you'd need to do that is put tolls on all the bridges and tunnels.
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Let me guess the city is going broke due to corruption and bad policy. Funny how se went from being cash flush under Bloomberg to a massive deficit.
Let’s just keep finding ways to keep having people move out of nyc.
Let’s just keep punishing those in the outer boroughs that are not close to subways and the working class that needs cars.
Why not build underground parking and think logically so the streets are less congested rather than punish those with inferior transit options.
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@Location01 and if your transit options improved, you would complain that you were punished with housing prices and punished with property taxes for a service that you don't use.
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@Location01 The article states that this would only parts of Manhattan. People in Outer Boroughs can still park on the street. And if they're driving into Manhattan and are going to work, they're going to have to park in a garage because commercial areas of Manhattan don't allow street parking during the day.
I grew up in NYC but have lived in San Diego for over 20 years.
I pay to park at the mall, I pay to park at work. In our neighborhood you must put your cars in the garage.
When I go to North Park, a trendy area, I pay to park.
When I go to La Jolla I either get lucky with 2 hour free parking, or I pay to park in a lot.
When I go to downtown San Diego, I always park in a pay lot.
So if in an area where you MUST drive makes you pay to park, I think Manhattan can also handle paying for parking.
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@Liza
The last time I checked parking on Hudson Street, a major Greenwich Village thoroughfare, street parking cost about $3.50 an hour.
Many readers are under the mistaken impression that all street parking in NYC is free, which is certainly not the case.
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@Liza Why is it that San Diego has all of the NYC Parking Experts and offer the most suggestions on how Manhattanites should just pay up.
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@Cordelia I was wondering about that too. I live in midtown and people sometimes stop me on the street and ask me how to feed the meter. I have to say I have no idea as I have never owned a car.
Very few people in New York bike, why do they need their own lanes of traffic?
The city should probably build enormous parking garages on the edge of the future congestion pricing zones to really give people incentive to leave their cars behind.
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@Will more bike lanes will make bicycling safer, leading to more people bicycling more often. bicycles kill fewer pedestrians, produce less wear and tear on the roads, have greater thoroughput, and are more environmentally friendly than cars. the city should promote bicycles at the expense of cars, just as many densely populated European cities have done.
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@Al With the exception of Copenhagen and Amsterdam, biking is also uncommon in European cities. Cycling is dangerous, doesn't work for people who aren't young and fit, and is miserable in the rain and snow.
Helicopters don't kill any pedestrians (except in that one accident in 1977) and produce no wear on the roads. I don't think anyone believes New York should promote chopper travel.
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Will - you’re ignoring causality. If you build it, they will come.
I’d happily bike everywhere in Manhattan if I was assured of safe bike lanes and limited contact with traffic. I would love to bike more but I’m terrified of drivers and traffic. Having had several close calls with the notorious terrible Manhattan driver, I’m not eager to become one of the statistics.
And btw, I say this as a middle aged, overweight woman who owns a car. If I’m excited by the prospect of taking back the streets for bikers and buses, that’s saying something.
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Cars are the bane of the vast majority of New Yorkers. It took 10 just to quiet the car alarms going off day and night. And you still get the odd 3 a.m. disturbance.
Who needs the pollution, the endless jockeying for space, the horns of vehicles trapped by double-parked service vans, the wear and teart.
Make it difficult, and expensive.
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@jrd An employee of my building crossing the street was recently killed when a car that was lurking down the street suddenly raced in reverse (on a one way street), apparently without looking to see if there was anyone behind him, to grab a parking space he thought was about to become available.
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I'm not philosophically opposed to congestion pricing and increasing fees and restricting street parking for residence and non residents alike, as well as the increase in bike lanes.
As a commuter that uses Metro North and the subway I think all these proposals should be put on hold until service on our public transportation system is substantially improved.
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@Larry And, I quote: 'the New York region is the country’s biggest contributor of driving-related carbon dioxide emissions.'
We must stop coming up with reasons to continue the status quo. The subway is not perfect and Mr Byford is remedying it as fast as he can. In the meantime, a few delays are not a reason to allow drivers to continue polluting our city and our bodies. I've taken the subway to work for 15 years and, while it can be frustrating at times, it's less frustrating than dying from carbon emission-related disease.
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@T
The reason to continue the status quo until alternatives are in place is that there is not a fully functional public transportation system in NYC
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@David That is patently untrue. If you’d read my comment, you’d have understood that I’ve been commuting via subway for 15 years with a few hiccups that are in no way worse than sitting in bumper to bumper traffic and dealing with road rage.
Anyway, those who take Metro North in from their clean aired suburban homes don’t really get a say in policies about cars polluting my Manhattan apartment and the lungs of my neighbors’ growing kids.
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Hey NYCDOT: residential parking permits would be progress - removing non-residents from competition for non-metered street space. No one claims residential permits are a “panacea” so please stop saying they aren’t as an excuse for opposing a sensible step in the right direction.
I don’t own a car, but many of my Inwood neighbors do out of necessity. Many I have spoken to would gladly pay a modest permit fee to not compete with non-residents for curb space. I would welcome the reduced congestion from eliminating a subsidy suburban commuters.
A reasonable permit system will be an improvement over the status quo for transit, cycling and pedestrians as well as for those New Yorkers who need to own a car but can afford commercial parking rates. As transit, cycling and car share options improve, fewer will need or want to own a car and further parking reforms can be implemented.
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Pricing parking appropriately so that there are 1-2 empty spots per block will mean less traffic and more parking, not more traffic and less parking.
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"drivers cruise an average of seven blocks, or more than a third of a mile, before they find an empty space."
So the solution is to reduce parking spaces even further, so we can have even more pollution? Insanity reigns.
The only winners will be the Ubers and the Lyfts, as buses have become worse and worse. Walking is often faster than taking a bus.
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@Shadai Think it through. These are the same people who refuse to take the subway because of a delay once a week (as a 15 year veteran of subway commutes, I hardly even experience a weekly delay anymore). If this pattern of thinking holds, they'll give up driving just because it's too annoying to find parking. The entitled reign.
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It is worth considering banning all parking in NYC. Since Uber and taxi's are available they could transport people who don't walk or cycle. And buses would run much quicker.
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@OrdoAbChao Not all of New York is Manhattan, in fact, the vast majority isn't. Staten Island and Eastern Queens are not well served by public transit.
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@OrdoAbChao
Your comment that Uber and taxis can solve the whole transportation problem is understandable in VANCOUVER.
But this article is about NYC.
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@OrdoAbChao
Uber and taxis are unaffordable for many elderly and disabled people now that an MTA surcharge of more than $3.00 has been added to every ride. And Uber's dynamic pricing has made their services prohibitively expensive during peak traveling hours, on rainy days and at night.
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I never understood why there isn't some sort of zoned residential permit parking. Many other cities seem to have it. The whole street parking thing is crazy to me anyway: your car gets destroyed and you have to move it twice a week for alternate side parking not to mention the time you have to waste looking for a spot.
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@Reasonable Person As a reasonable person, I realized soon after moving to brooklyn, that parking on the street meant never being able to use my car. If I gave up my spot it was gone forever. Therefore, I gave up my car and saved money.
Why do we want to make our cities ever more unfriendly...and so monetized it stinks? Moderation, and solidarity, in all things, ought to be our motto. Next thing may be a tax on the air be breathe...if at all breathable. And ear mufflers a necessity for the most under-rated and widespread city contamination, street noise. Not unexpected however, in a town where we can't even use a public bathroom for it's scarcity, let alone it's prohibition in any restaurant...unless you are a client in good standing (and some are for the exclusive use of it's employees). Soon enough, as Climate warming makes it's odious presence ever more insufferable, it shall give rise to a public outcry akin to violence to our senses, making the nuisance of not being able to park a breeze.
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Be careful what you wish for. Here in Vancouver, the “people should use public transit” argument is being used by developers to justify residential buildings that have extra floors and insufficient parking spaces. The net effect is an increase in density that hurts everyone’s quality of life.
The owners of cars are mainly individuals. Street parking gives them a benefit that others have to pay for. However, it’s a widely-spread benefit that can be equalized in a straightforward way. Overbuilding, overcrowding and loss of green space is something else.
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Saying there is one space for every 3 New Yorkers is a misleading statistic. Manhattan has a lot of people and few spaces. Staten Island is mostly private houses with plenty of parking. But you can't park on Staten Island when you need to be in Manhattan.
Also it used to be free to park on side streets- now the first and last few spaces near the avenues have meters. And with the installation of muni meters the price of on-street parking has gotten much closer to the cost of parking garages.
I'm in favor of shared bikes and bike lanes. What the city needs to do to improve traffic flow is to crack down on double-parked cars and trucks, especially on avenues. It's especially nutty that a 3 lane road becomes a 1 lane road because trucks are double-parked on both sides.
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@Shaun Eli Breidbart, I am with you on this. i applaud the creation of a dedicated bus lane on Lexington Avenue in the 60's to the 90's and beyond, but now we have basically one lane on that Avenue. Why? Because trucks double park on one of the two travel lanes left. And don't get me started on the abuse of placards around Lenox Hill Hospital!
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Many New Yorkers have cars to get out of the city. We don’t use them during the week. Do residents not pay enough taxes? I would be willing to pay a $100 a month to park my car on the street.
NY is an island. Why not restrict cars that do not belong to residents from coming into the city. They can come in during the evening but, are banned during the day. In an instant we will change the amount of traffic we have in the city.
Let’s get real about bicycle riders. I am a bicycle rider. I follow the rules. I wear a helmet, follow the rules of the road. The day after there was an uproar over a cyclist dying in vehicle accident. I drove my car and saw the following in a half hour period. Bicycle riders blowing through lights, stop signs and wearing no helmets. These deaths are not only the responsibility of drivers. The bicyclists must follow the rules of the road.
Why is there alternate parking all over the city? I have, as well as, others will drive around city blocks looking for parking sometimes up to an hour. So how does that fix the carbon issue? When we get serious and not political we will find real solutions.
When there is a fair discussion of the negligence on both sides. When there is an honest attempt to deal with the real solutions to traffic. We will then find solutions.
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@Moondance $400+ per month is the market rate for parking in Manhattan. If you are willing to pay that, great. I'm sure that parking meters can be put everywhere to get the city the going market rate for the use of roadside car storage space.
I own a car that I use only weekends and I pay for the convenience. Thank heavens that transport options in the city mean that car ownership is a convenience rather than a necessity.
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@Aseem Your position that everyone should have to pay $400 because that's what you pay shows how much you believe that only those with as much money as you have deserve anything.
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The city spends $600,000 for one mile of bike lanes. What do cyclists contribute for that? Zero. Car owners pay taxes, fees above the cost of purchase of vehicle, gas and parking.
We can go back and forth. We have to sit down and find a real way to remedy the issue. I thought $100 a month for street parking permit is more than generous. Considering most cities charge $25-35. Maybe charge based on your car. Cars over $75,000 should pay more.
We cannot complain we must offer solutions. Or, it ends up in the hands of people who will not make good plans. If you own a bike $25.00 licensing fee. If you ride without a helmet $100 fine first time, $250 and up. I never ride without a helmet. If you blow a stop sign or ride in the middle of four lanes $1,000 fine.
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Lived in London prior to congestion driving rules. Resident parking enabled me to park on the street close to my home. However with 4 storey houses increasingly converted to 4 or more flats parking was often a headache. Have lived in NY since '85 and have never owned a vehicle. Yes let's stop car owners thinking they own the streets. It will be a battle royale given the history and current sense of entitlement. Public transportation must be improved at the same time to provide decent alternatives.
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@Norah
In London -- and most other cities with congestion problems -- there;s an efficient public transit system, and a viable alternative to driving. The sorry state of NJT and LIRR trains into/out of NYC and the equally sorry state of the NYC subways do NOT provide such an alternative. That's a BIG reason why more people drive!
And the limousine-owning "car owners thinking they own the streets" will STILL own the streets! Along with cars from Uber, Lyft, etc, who're one of the main causes of congestion now. The proposed anti-free public parking measures will do NOTHING about limos, limos and car-services cars that stand traffic lanes, and the "ownership" of the streets by the uber-rich! They'll still own the public streets, just like they own everything else!
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@Norah The "entitlement" you state seems to belong to the bicyclists! I live midtown in Hell's Kitchen, my husband works in NJ, a car is not a luxury, it's a necessity. We pay to garage the car. Why should we be charged a fee for congestion? We already pay city taxes for infrastructure care and improvement! I/we are certainly happy to share the roadways with cyclists and pedestrians. We use public transport or walk for most things but his job. Perhaps you are saying the bicycle culture should dictate where people work? The entitled bicycles go thru red lights, go both ways on one way streets, ride on the sidewalks, and in general are a hazard to both pedestrians and themselves... but alas that seems to be just fine and good. It is easier to blame than to take responsibility for one's actions. Sounds like a president I know!
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@I'm With Apple ! Yeah, no-one's ever see motorists do any of those things (go thru red lights, go both ways on one way streets, drive and park on the sidewalks, and in general be a hazard to people). Oh, and speeding and aggressive driving too. This doesn't excuse the small proportion of lousy cyclists -- but "pot kettle black" much?
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Using variable pricing to optimize curb management is the only logical solution.
And while the city is at it, meter parking should be increased to whatever cost is necessary to ensure 15% of spaces in commercial corridors are always vacant. A stretch like Broadway in Inwood is permanently double-parked because the parked cars (likely belonging to store employees) never move, so customers who are using a car park in the travel lane for long periods. Enforcement is hopeless, and traffic gridlocks as a result.
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@North You pricing scheme will ensure that only people who can afford it get to use OUR PUBLIC STREETS.
2
Such a proposal completely ignores the needs of disabled citizens who are unable to access the subway because of a lack of elevators to most stations. Transport by car is critical and the myopic basing of cars ignores such factors, even mundane ones like transporting one's own groceries to their home.
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@Iconoclast Texan
It isn't "bashing" cars to expect them to pay for accommodation. As the article states EVERY major city across the country expects drivers to pay a reasonable fee for residential parking permits. Millions more walk, bike, or use buses. Their needs should be the priority; not the well-to-do few.
Any rules or restrictions can consider the needs of handicapped drivers. Suburban towns provide them with stickers that allow exemption. So too can we.
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Residential permits would not get rid of cars completely. Sure, give discounted or free ones to people who cannot use transit due to disability. That is another conversation.
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@Iconoclast Texan While the handicapped and elderly are often used as an argument of why we can't limit car driving in any way, it is worth noting that they, along with children, are the demographics most likely to be hurt or killed by a vehicle. It is best for the disabled if we greatly limit the use of private automobiles, and come up with solutions to address their needs.
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