Parking

A Streetsblog tipster snapped this photo yesterday afternoon. Note the Starsky & Hutch-style siren on the dashboard of the SUV hanging off the back of that tow truck. The photographer reports that NYPD tow trucks have been racking up the hours in December clearing the streets of Chinatown, and as you can see in the photo above, they are finally "towing their own".

During his recent visit to New York, Donald Shoup, professor of Urban Planning at UCLA, sat down with Open Planning Project's Mark Gorton to discuss parking policy and play with Matchbox cars on a miniature New York City street grid.

Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky's claim that congestion pricing "smacks the middle class" was not challenged by reporters after Monday's meeting despite a recent IBO report that says otherwise. Brodsky said a carbon tax would be fairer and praised Mayor Bloomberg for suggesting it.

Congestion Mitigation Commission chairman Marc Shaw has a big job ahead of him.

We already know that the New York Rangers' center Sean Avery loves riding his bike. Now we learn that forward Brendan Shanahan and several other teammate take the subway to the office. From yesterday's New York Times:

Spencer Wilking reports:

Deputy Commissioner Bruce Schaller's team at the Department of Transportation has been taking ideas offered up by Traffic Mitigation Commission members and running them through NYMTC's regional traffic model. Schaller's job is to help the Commission determine how effective each of these ideas will be in cutting traffic and reducing total vehicle miles traveled in New York City. To keep its $354.5 million federal transportation grant, the City must reduce VMT 6.3 percent using road pricing.

Parking policy maven Donald Shoup will be on the Brian Lehrer show this morning, WNYC, 93.9 FM. He'll be delving into the question: Is on-street parking too cheap in Manhattan?

 Donald Shoup, author of The High Cost of Free Parking, will be in New York next week, with a number of events on Monday culminating in an evening appearance at Fordham University. Here's a rundown.