"Curb Enthusiasm" is the name of the city Department of Transportation's official podcast. It's also what we're feeling about the agency's plans to finally launch delivery "microhub zones" this year in five pilot locations in Greenpoint, Clinton Hill and the Upper West Side.
DOT on Tuesday officially authorized a three-year pilot of 36 of the zones throughout the city. The first five locations will launch this spring, or earlier if the weather allows it, the agency said. Select "small and large delivery companies" will manage the zones under a one-year permit.
Initial locations include three on-street sites on the Upper West Side — Amsterdam Avenue and West 73rd Street, Amsterdam Avenue and West 85th Street and Broadway and West 77th Street — and two off-street sites under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Clinton Hill (at Park Avenue between Washington Avenue and Hall Street) and Greenpoint (on Meeker Avenue between Sutton Street and Kingsland Avenue).
DOT's goal is to prevent the dangerous and illegal double-parking that has become commonplace all over the city due to the growth in online retail. Double-parking slows traffic and makes street less safe for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike. The pilot is behind schedule: A 2021 city law mandated the effort, which DOT initially scheduled to start in the summer of 2023, delayed, then said this past August would launch sometime in late 2024.
Eight-in-10 New Yorkers get at least one package a day, according to DOT — so the allocation of curb space to make those deliveries more efficient is welcome news in spite of the delays.
In other news:
- Gov. Hochul made some news at her "State of the State" speech on Tuesday, including:
- A plan to ban force the city to follow state law and ban parking at intersections (but only near New York City schools, alas). (Streetsblog, Gothamist)
- A proposal to require license plates on "Class III" e-bikes. (Streetsblog)
- A plan to put a cop on every subway car from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. for the next six months. Plus more strategies to address subway crime. (Gothamist, Daily News, amNY)
- Little-to-nothing about how she plans to fund the MTA's $68 billion 2025-29 capital plan. (Streetsblog)
- Check out City & State's full breakdown of the governor's 2025 budget proposals.
- More news out of Albany: Hochul's likely Republican challenger is an empty vessel when it comes to the MTA, our own Dave Colon reports.
- NY1 paid a visit to Astoria for a classic bikelash story about the new 31st Avenue bike boulevard and protected bike lanes, which Streetsblog covered last May.
- ABC7 is the latest outlet to make up an increased crunch for parking just outside the congestion relief zone, entirely based on anecdotes as usual.
- New York City's e-bike licensing debate is part of a "global struggle to create use and safety requirements for these increasingly popular modes of transportation." (Bloomberg)
- NYPD Commissioner Tisch is cleaning up the agency's vehicle leasing backwater. (NYDN)
- The New York Post's latest editorial doubting early congestion pricing data is typical blather. Don't bother giving them the clicks: As usual, they don't have much to say.
- Related: Chelsea News cherry-picked social media to gin up more anger about the new toll.
- Yes, that's New York City native Timothee Chalamet rolling up to the UK premier of "A Complete Unknown" on a Lime Bike. (Daily Mail)
- Our friends at the "War on Cars" podcast checked in on congestion pricing.
- New Jersey drivers appear to be the chief beneficiaries of congestion pricing's impact on traffic, but that hasn't stopped their anti-transit governor from calling New Yorkers "moochers" for charging a simple toll. (NY Post)
- Meanwhile, the mayor of Fort Lee said his city hasn't seen an increase in traffic since the new toll launched. (News12 - New Jersey)
- The latest entry in Gothamist's series on the sorry state of the subways explores the system's 90-year-old signal technology.
- And finally, the City Council's neutering of outdoor dining makes even less sense in the post-congestion pricing era:
The sudden car-lightness of Manhattan makes the City Council’s destruction of outdoor dining even more ridiculous & ill-timed than it already was
— Jon Orcutt (@jonorcutt.bsky.social) 2025-01-14T16:50:17.928Z
