Activists Break from Huddle After Congestion Pricing Defeat
Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan has flat-lined, but transportation advocacy groups said that dealing with congestion and traffic remains imperative at the city level.
The Straphangers Campaign said they are “sorely disappointed” the plan to charge drivers below 60th Street an $8 fee during peak traffic hours will not be adopted, but said they are “looking forward to working with state and local officials to secure the dollars needed to have a decent and affordable transit system.”
“Serious problems remain and need to be addressed,” the group said in a release. “New York's subways, buses and commuter rail are in desperate need of many billions of dollars in operating and repair funds. And we are drowning in traffic congestion, which undermines our economy, our health and the quality of our lives.”
The nonprofit group Transportation Alternatives faulted the State Legislature for allowing “$354 million in federal transit aid to turn to dust,” by refusing an open vote, and urged the city to go ahead with measures “within their power” to curb traffic congestion.
"If you have a child with asthma or if you are late to work because your bus is stuck in traffic, today's inaction was a cruel endorsement of the status quo," Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said in a statement. "But we cannot let this setback jeopardize New York City's move towards greener streets. Our leaders have a responsibility to take on these challenges head-on."
Reforming parking regulations, expanding sidewalks, designating pedestrian priority zones, and encouraging bicycle riding are some of the moves the mayor’s office and the City Council could implement without state approval, according to Transportation Alternatives.
The city could boost transit, biking, and walking by more than 20 percent by carving wider sidewalks, protected bus lanes and bike lanes from existing streets, the group said. To boost bicycle riding the city could model a program on Paris’ Velib bicycle share, which generates 200,000 new bicycle trips per day and is funded through advertising contracts.
Most importantly, the city should increase parking charges. Over 60 percent of Manhattan-bound drivers do not pay to park, according to Transportation Alternatives. Increasing parking charges would not only reduce congestion, but it would provide revenue “to reapportion streets to favor those who use it most efficiently: bus riders, car-poolers, pedestrians and bicyclists.”
Walter Hook, the director of the Institute for Transportation Development and Policy, also called the State Legislature’s move “short-sighted,” but said many of the reduction targets that would have been achieved through congestion pricing can be met by other means.
“If I were asked by the mayor’s people what they should do," Mr. Hook told The Observer, "I would tell them to change the parking system and implement a bus rapid transit system to give buses priority access to the streets.
“Some of the innovative parking proposals could also be [blocked] by the State Legislature, but I think the city could do a lot of things like increase charges for parking spaces, remove some of the existing spaces, [and] change zoning to prevent construction of new spaces.”
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Pricing Parking could generate $575 million/year and cut traffic without depending on Albany's approval.
Everyone knows the real reason most people don't drive into the CBD is the exorbitant cost of parking, that is if you don't have a placard. The 142,000 placards issued by the City helps explain why 60$ of drivers into the CBD park for free.
Since last April, I have been sounding the drumbeat for parking pricing as an essential companion to road pricing. (See London experience below.) The Congestion Mitigation Commission listened but, in the end, did not get it--they recommended increasing the rates on existing meters, which makes off-street parking more competitive.
The problem is that only 25% of parking spaces in the CBD and in the spillover area between 60th and 96h Streets are metered. Were they increased to 75% of spaces (leaving some space for bike lanes)with graduated rates by hour starting at $6 an hour in the CBD and $3 an hour north of 60th Street, the net revenue over existing rates and enforcement costs would exceed $575 million/year. That doesn't count the windfall in parking fines that could greatly increase the $800 million/year collected by the Parking Violations Bureau.
Moreover, if surrounding communities followed the course of London "boroughs" (similar to our community boards), even with residential parking permits, each 30 block area could generate over $3 million/year by doubling their metered spaces and charging $2/hour as the base rate. Ten such districts would generate $30 million/year, protect against long term outside parking but insure parking availability for people staying under 4 hours.
Lesson from London:
London started parking pricing first. At an NYU forum on pricing this spring, London’s First Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, congestion pricing ambassador extraordinaire, whispered away from the mike: “I hate to be critical, but you’ve got parking all wrong -- you need to control it first. In London, you can’t park for more than 20 minutes without a permit or you’ll be clamped. If you can park, it costs 40 quid [~$80].”
Check the web. Garage rates in central London run $65/day, $1,200 a month. London auto commuters have no local street parking option outside the central pricing zone because all 32 boroughs in the city limit non-resident curbside parking to two hours and deliveries and drop-offs to 20 minutes. In boroughs close to the center, a stay of two hours costs about $8. Spaces are designated in all boroughs for residents who pay a range of $180 to $250 a year for permits for one car and one visitor. Businesses can also get parking permits. Violators’ tires are enthusiastically clamped by local wardens who collect fines of $300 or more for their boroughs, which use the revenues for improving roads and traffic calming. The borough in the center of London nets about $70 million a year.
Political feasibility
This strategy comes right out of the alternative plan playbook promoted by the garage industry-financed Make New York Congestion Tax Free. They can't turn their backs on their own brainchild and, maybe, could use their seemingly limitless funds and poltiical connections to push this through.
Pricing Parking could generate $575 million/year and cut traffic without depending on Albany's approval.
Everyone knows the real reason most people don't drive into the CBD is the exorbitant cost of parking, that is if you don't have a placard. The 142,000 placards issued by the City helps explain why 60$ of drivers into the CBD park for free.
Since last April, I have been sounding the drumbeat for parking pricing as an essential companion to road pricing. (See London experience below.) The Congestion Mitigation Commission listened but, in the end, did not get it--they recommended increasing the rates on existing meters, which makes off-street parking more competitive.
The problem is that only 25% of parking spaces in the CBD and in the spillover area between 60th and 96h Streets are metered. Were they increased to 75% of spaces (leaving some space for bike lanes)with graduated rates by hour starting at $6 an hour in the CBD and $3 an hour north of 60th Street, the net revenue over existing rates and enforcement costs would exceed $575 million/year. That doesn't count the windfall in parking fines that could greatly increase the $800 million/year collected by the Parking Violations Bureau.
Moreover, if surrounding communities followed the course of London "boroughs" (similar to our community boards), even with residential parking permits, each 30 block area could generate over $3 million/year by doubling their metered spaces and charging $2/hour as the base rate. Ten such districts would generate $30 million/year, protect against long term outside parking but insure parking availability for people staying under 4 hours.
Lesson from London:
London started parking pricing first. At an NYU forum on pricing this spring, London’s First Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, congestion pricing ambassador extraordinaire, whispered away from the mike: “I hate to be critical, but you’ve got parking all wrong -- you need to control it first. In London, you can’t park for more than 20 minutes without a permit or you’ll be clamped. If you can park, it costs 40 quid [~$80].”
Check the web. Garage rates in central London run $65/day, $1,200 a month. London auto commuters have no local street parking option outside the central pricing zone because all 32 boroughs in the city limit non-resident curbside parking to two hours and deliveries and drop-offs to 20 minutes. In boroughs close to the center, a stay of two hours costs about $8. Spaces are designated in all boroughs for residents who pay a range of $180 to $250 a year for permits for one car and one visitor. Businesses can also get parking permits. Violators’ tires are enthusiastically clamped by local wardens who collect fines of $300 or more for their boroughs, which use the revenues for improving roads and traffic calming. The borough in the center of London nets about $70 million a year.
Political feasibility
This strategy comes right out of the alternative plan playbook promoted by the garage industry-financed Make New York Congestion Tax Free. They can't turn their backs on their own brainchild and, maybe, could use their seemingly limitless funds and poltiical connections to push this through.
Pricing Parking could generate $575 million/year and cut traffic without depending on Albany's approval.
Everyone knows the real reason most people don't drive into the CBD is the exorbitant cost of parking, that is if you don't have a placard. The 142,000 placards issued by the City helps explain why 60$ of drivers into the CBD park for free.
Since last April, I have been sounding the drumbeat for parking pricing as an essential companion to road pricing. (See London experience below.) The Congestion Mitigation Commission listened but, in the end, did not get it--they recommended increasing the rates on existing meters, which makes off-street parking more competitive.
The problem is that only 25% of parking spaces in the CBD and in the spillover area between 60th and 96h Streets are metered. Were they increased to 75% of spaces (leaving some space for bike lanes)with graduated rates by hour starting at $6 an hour in the CBD and $3 an hour north of 60th Street, the net revenue over existing rates and enforcement costs would exceed $575 million/year. That doesn't count the windfall in parking fines that could greatly increase the $800 million/year collected by the Parking Violations Bureau.
Moreover, if surrounding communities followed the course of London "boroughs" (similar to our community boards), even with residential parking permits, each 30 block area could generate over $3 million/year by doubling their metered spaces and charging $2/hour as the base rate. Ten such districts would generate $30 million/year, protect against long term outside parking but insure parking availability for people staying under 4 hours.
Lesson from London:
London started parking pricing first. At an NYU forum on pricing this spring, London’s First Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, congestion pricing ambassador extraordinaire, whispered away from the mike: “I hate to be critical, but you’ve got parking all wrong -- you need to control it first. In London, you can’t park for more than 20 minutes without a permit or you’ll be clamped. If you can park, it costs 40 quid [~$80].”
Check the web. Garage rates in central London run $65/day, $1,200 a month. London auto commuters have no local street parking option outside the central pricing zone because all 32 boroughs in the city limit non-resident curbside parking to two hours and deliveries and drop-offs to 20 minutes. In boroughs close to the center, a stay of two hours costs about $8. Spaces are designated in all boroughs for residents who pay a range of $180 to $250 a year for permits for one car and one visitor. Businesses can also get parking permits. Violators’ tires are enthusiastically clamped by local wardens who collect fines of $300 or more for their boroughs, which use the revenues for improving roads and traffic calming. The borough in the center of London nets about $70 million a year.
Political feasibility
This strategy comes right out of the alternative plan playbook promoted by the garage industry-financed Make New York Congestion Tax Free. They can't turn their backs on their own brainchild and, maybe, could use their seemingly limitless funds and poltiical connections to push this through.