Tuesday’s Headlines: Parking is Never Easy Edition

For years, New Yorkers including Mayor Mamdani himself have theorized that a residential parking permit system could put a price on free curb space and relieve the crushing demand for parking in the Big Apple.

Now Mamdani’s Department of Transportation under Commissioner Mike Flynn is weighing in — with a resounding “no.”

DOT made its negative assessment of residential parking permits known in a new report on its analysis of parking space availability in the city before and after congestion pricing launched.

In the run-up to congestion pricing’s launch, politicians and advocates pitched residential parking permits as a way to address what someone worried might be a surge in drivers looking for spots outside the $9 congestion relief zone. Yet no such parking demand apocalypse materialized, according to the DOT study.

And the agency took its criticism of “RPP” in the report even further — knocking it down not only as a solution to the aforementioned imaginary parking problem, but to any problem at all. As DOT sees it, giving drivers a hunting license to park could hurt the city’s efforts to reclaim curb space for safety improvements, delivery zones and trash containerization.

“RPP reinforces the notion that vehicle owners have a primary claim to the curb space in their neighborhood. However, the curb is a shared public resource for multiple users beyond drivers, including local businesses, bus riders, pedestrians, community groups, and cyclists,” the report said. “Curb space will also be needed to advance other critical city goals (for example, citywide waste containerization). Implementing RPP could make repurposing curb parking for other uses more difficult and would raise questions about fairness and equity for those without cars.”

Anti-car advocates have been divided over the merits of a residential parking permit system. Some advocates see the policy as an opportunity to normalize the idea that drivers should have to pay to leave their private vehicles on publicly owned streets. The city evidently disagrees.

The mayor may have flirted with the concept in the past, but don’t expect it to have much legs at his DOT. Of course, DOT’s opposition to a permitted parking system doesn’t preclude eliminating free parking altogether.

In other news:

• Streetsblog’s Sophia Lebowitz appeared on WHYY out of Philadelphia to discuss e-micromobility.
• A Staten Island judge ordered DOT to pause work on its Victory Boulevard bus lanes in yet another inevitably overturned ruling against a street redesign. (S.I. Advance)
• City Council Transportation Chair Shaun Abreu signed on to the bill to ban horse carriages. (Chris Sommerfeldt via X)
• Severe weather delayed NJ Transit commutes on Monday. (PIX11)
• FDNY recovered a lithium-ion battery from the scene of a fire in Bushwick. (amNY)
• The MTA released a Request for Proposals to build elevators at five more subway stations. (PIX11)
• Here’s some more congestion pricing good news — from across the pond. (The Guardian)