Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In

brooklyn_driveway.jpg
This curb-cutting driveway leads to a parking lot for a new residential development on 16th Street in Brooklyn.

What would you do if you went to the doctor, and before speaking to you, taking your vital signs, or learning about your condition, she prescribed a powerful drug and kicked you out the door?

New York City's land-use doctor is the City Planning Commission, and the drug it doles out is the Zoning Resolution, a 1960s-era set of laws that is gradually transforming swaths of the city into more suburban, car oriented environments.

City zoning requires substantial parking at all new residential buildings. In many neighborhoods that means an astoundingly higher level of parking. For instance, the Zoning Resolution requires new residential buildings in walkable Park Slope to have eight times more off-street parking than the existing housing stock. So what does the planning commission base its powerful prescription on? Not much, according to Suburbanizing the City [PDF], a study just released by Transportation Alternatives, the Regional Plan Association and a host of other prominent transportation and planning groups. The study projects a billion miles of new driving by 2030 due to the planning commission's off-street parking requirements. Yet, in the recommendations accompanying the report, the groups write:

Itappears that City planners do not know how much off-street parking exists, howmuch parking is planned and permitted, or how existing or planned new parkingcontributes to traffic, air pollution and carbon emissions.

As a first step toward diagnosing the extent of the parking problem, the groups ask the mayor to "fully assess the amount of existing
and planned off-street parking" and take the following actions to accomplish that:

    • Inventory existing and planned off-street parking. The City should create a complete, public, inventory of existing, permitted and planned off-street parking. Using this information, the City should fully assess the relationship between residential, retail and commercial parking requirements, driving and travel choice. This information will provide a baseline to assess the impact of additional parking.
    • Measure how much driving is created by new off-street parking. City agencies do not know the impact of new parking. Neither the Department of City Planning nor the Department of Transportation have computer models, surveys, sampling or studies that reveal the local or cumulative impact of parking requirements.
    • Determine parking demand based on the assumption that off-street parking has a cost. Currently, the Department of City Planning and environmental documents project demand for parking based on the assumption that it is free. This results in very high demand assumptions. The City should estimate demand for off-street parking based on appropriate price levels.
    • Measure the effect of increases in parking growth on neighborhood and citywide traffic congestion. Through permits and as of right building, the City is increasing the city’s off-street parking supply, while the capacity of the street network remains static. New traffic as a result of new cars on the road (facilitated by the availability of parking) must be closely analyzed.

Given the mayor's sustainability push and the highly-touted PlaNYC, it seems logical that the City Planning Commission would take a careful look at Robert Moses-era, driving-inducing parking requirements. But old habits die hard. Ask the doctors. For hundreds of years they tried to cure the common cold by bleeding the patient. For some, the cold went away; many others died.

Photo: Ben Fried

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Here’s A Bus Rapid Transit Plan For New York … If the City Cares

It sure beats the current method of guessing or simply basing the route on how strongly a given neighborhood opposes or supports it.

August 1, 2025

Friday’s Headlines: Water Here, Water There Edition

Blame Father Time, not Mother Nature for Thursday's subway meltdown. Plus more news.

August 1, 2025

Komanoff: Data Show Time Loss from 15 MPH E-Bike Speed Cap is No Big Deal

A 15-mile-per-hour speed limit for motorized two-wheel devices — which e-bikes are — is eminently reasonable. And it doesn't cost much time at all, our columnist found.

August 1, 2025

Cities Matter More Than Ever After Trump Officially Denies Climate Change

We're entering a new era of federal climate denial, and it's time to use a different set of tools (like congestion pricing) to fight back.

July 31, 2025

SEE IT! Small Japanese Pickup Truck Shows Bigger is Definitely Not Better

One Brooklyn business has seen the future of safe streets and heavy lugging — and it's going to be O-KEI!

July 31, 2025

Opinion: Jessica Tisch Must Get Creative About Traffic Enforcement

NYPD speed enforcement needs a revamp — fortunately the city’s own data point the way.

July 31, 2025
See all posts