By DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan
Parking on your street in Brooklyn. Just the sound of those words alone is enough to drive some people to the brink. Parking in neighborhoods in Brooklyn is an age-old problem. And as the conversation about the Mayor’s congestion pricing proposal continues in the New York City Council and the state Legislature, so does the city’s effort to manage parking on our neighborhood streets. The congestion pricing plan would charge cars $8 and trucks $21 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, funding transit projects and reducing the number of vehicles on our city streets and the harm they cause to our economy, health, and quality of life. While addressing those issues, the congestion pricing plan has raised another concern among many city residents — that there isn’t enough residential parking on our streets to begin with, and that congestion pricing will cause a new wave of “park and ride” commuting. Here’s the scenario: Commuters will drive into neighborhoods just outside the congestion pricing zone, park their cars for the day on a residential street, and then hop on a subway or other transit into Manhattan to avoid paying the fee. But as many a New Yorker can attest, and as studies have shown, on-street parking is already hard to find — with as much as 98 percent of parking occupied in some neighborhoods. Still, these concerns are important and we are committed to ensuring that neighborhoods have the means to prevent this from happening. So, for the very first time, as part of the congestion pricing plan, we will make a Residential Parking Permit (RPP) program available to neighborhoods who want it to ensure that the parking scales are tipped in favor of local residents. Under one possible plan, residents across the city, through their Community Boards, could request that curbside parking in their neighborhoods be restricted to local residents-only for 90-minute periods each weekday. The city would issue annual permits only to those residents who show proof of vehicle registration within the permit area, and the permits would have to be displayed in the vehicle. This will prevent all-day parking by those who live outside of the neighborhood without shutting out people going to a doctor’s appointment, visiting a friend or shopping in the area, while encouraging parking-space turnover, benefiting local businesses. Parking permit systems like this one are already in place in cities such as Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle and have been shown to be an effective way to manage parking. This proposal was drafted following community input during workshops held in seven neighborhoods citywide to discuss parking strategies, drawing some 350 participants. Community participation will continue to be the first and most important step in this process. And with the participation of the five borough presidents and local City Council members, we can ensure that the program is instituted where it is truly wanted and needed. Overall, an RPP plan can help prevent parking side effects from congestion pricing and give priority to local residents. It could even reduce the number of people who register their cars in other states to avoid higher insurance premiums by giving them an incentive to register locally to obtain a permit. But most importantly, this process can provide communities with an important tool which can help the city prepare for congestion pricing. Janette Sadik-Khan is Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation.
