Volunteer Opportunity: Million-Mile Parking Study

10:06 PM EDT on May 8, 2007

How many miles do New Yorkers drive each year just circling the block for parking? It's in the hundreds of millions. Transportation Alternatives needs volunteers on bikes to help "cruise" for parking at four locations along Columbus Avenue, where they'll collect the amount of time it takes to find an open parking space. The data will help them calculate the total number of cruising miles in NYC, and help the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District in its push for parking reform in NYC. It's simple stuff, and a great way to help Transportation Alternatives on two wheels. Join them for an evening survey session, and watch this study make headlines.

Aaron Donovan

Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.

Stay in touch

More from Streetsblog New York City

Streetsblog USA Elections

DECISION 2025: Transit Wins Big — Again — Across America

Several candidates who ran on ambitious transportation reform platforms won at the ballot box on Tuesday — but even more communities said yes to supporting transit directly.

November 6, 2025

Books

Book Excerpt Special: The Incomplete Freeway Revolt

A new book looks at the destructive 20th-century urban development style — freeways, downtown office towers, suburban housing developments — that keeps Americans so dependent on their cars. Here's an excerpt.