NYC Congestion

we don't own a car but on the 1-2 occasions a year that we RENT one there is never a place to park in our neighborhood, yet the locals continually claim these free spaces - there should be a limit on local parking and car use in Manhattan proper, we are in affordable housing so the paying to park over night is a huge expense which could be eliminated by some sort of system that allowed everyone the opportunity to park on the street and drive in town here but not every single day like one is entitled to this, some kind of voucher system, also just too many cars, we live by West Street and the excessive number of vehicles with one driver frequently on a cell phone is insane, mandatory car pooling needs to be put into place here to cut back on this traffic and more enforcement of the phone distraction, it's not about someone else's convenience at the expense of someone else's air quality

The biggest problem i find with traffic in the CBD is parking. Usually individual driving along the streets are looking for a space to park their vechile. Parking is a litmited resource yet it is managed like an unlimited right. Since the price of parking does not shift with demand it incentivizes people to park for as long as possible. If parking spaces were priced more accuratly with demand, indiviudals would park for shorter intervals, allowing more people to use the same space over a given amount of time. Since less people now while be looking for parking while driving, traffic should also decrease as well.

In the rare occurance that I drive into the city, it is usually because depending on the time of day it is the quickest way in, the most convienant. If I drive before 7:30am I can get to E Midtown in 20 minutes ($16 tolls + $25 parking) vs 30-45mins on the Ftrain ($5.25).

Factors that are most important are availablity and access. People drive when it is convienant. If MTA subway and buses were free for NYC residents this would go a long way to incentivizing residents to take mass transit.

I own a car but rarely do I ever drive into the Manhattan central business district during peak hours. I live in the Southeast Bronx and definitely prefer to take the subway or bike. Personal automobiles should especially be limited within the CBD due to congestion and public health issues. Areas outside the CBD also need to be taken into consideration and require substantially more traffic calming and alternative uses of public space. This space could be dedicated to other uses such as: physically seperated pedestrian space, bus only lanes and bicycle lanes. Additionally, NYC should increase the number of loading zones within existing parking to reduce double parking, reconfigure streets to increase safety, and increase automated enforcement via cameras. The city needs congestion pricing, toll balancing (both MoveNY), a residential parking permit system, variable tolling, zoning that bans autocentric construction, and needs to remove parking minimums.

Are carpool lanes a viable alternative to congestion pricing? I have seen these lanes in a couple of different formats. Some are strictly high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes that require all cars to have 2 or more occupants to use the lane (some cities also allow for motorcycles, buses, and/or alternative fuel vehicles to use the lanes with only a single occupant). Other carpool pool lanes allow either HOVs or toll-pass holders to use the lanes for a fee. This fee can also be tied to surge-type pricing to incentivize people to either carpool or take mass transit during high-congestion periods. It seems a more targeted strategy like this could be more palatable to the public than a blanket congestion charge that hits everyone, even carpoolers.

Yes please! NYC missed a golden opportunity to implement this under Bloomberg when it would have come with millions of dollars from the federal government! Just look to London, congestion pricing is smart.

Congestion pricing is a must for NYC. Time of day, and cordon/zone pricing should be in effect.

The congestion price funds should go into making NYC mass transit free to use.

I feel that parking permits for residents would only serve a small percentage of NYC residents. If transit was free and access was abundant, why would one need a vehicle.

Congestion pricing should be a part of the solution. However, it should be implimented throughout the day to maintain balanced pricing of the tolls. Automobiles entering the central business district should pay the most and those utilizing outer crossings should pay comparitively less due to more limit transportation options at this time. We want them to circumvent the CBD if they do not need to enter. Perhaps in the future other commercial cores could also recieve congestion pricing boundaries, such as Downtown Brooklyn.

Ensuring the public that all collected funding would be dedicated to transportation improvements would go a long way. Additionally, a residential parking permit system could alleviate concerns about excess parking near mass transportation stations outside the CBD. As congestion further decreases, the city could begin to increasingly reallocate dedicate automotive space to other uses as occured in London.

You say that congestion charges tend to be really unpopular with the public. What we learn from both Stockholm and London is that, yes, this is true *before* the charges are implemented. People don't like the idea of paying for something that was once free to them. After implementation, however, both cities saw approval skyrocket, as residents saw firsthand how wonderful it was to have a congestion-free city.

In Stockholm, for example, only 36% of the region's residents favored the program before it was implemented. This is even worse than approval rates for the Move NY program, which stood at 44% in May 2015. Politicians were convinced the congestion pricing program would amount to political suicide, and residents predicted dire consequences including license plate theft, toll evasion, and mass exoduses from the region.

But a remarkable thing happened *after* the program was implemented: there was a complete reversal in public opinion. By the end of 2007, just a few months after the scheme was permanently implemented, 65% of residents viewed the program favorably. This number has only increased since that time; by 2013, the approval rate was at nearly 75%.

All of this is to say that public opinion should not be a barrier to good policy. Yes, it may be difficult to push the legislation through, and there might be some political fallout in the short-term. But as soon as New Yorkers see firsthand the benefits of a congestion pricing program -- which would happen almost overnight -- their opinions will change dramatically. Residents would see how wonderful it is to not be woken up by a cacophany of car horns. They would experience how great it is to travel smoothly down formerly gridlocked streets. They would know how great it is to have a well-funded, world-class public transportation system. Business owners would reap the financial benefits of serving one or more additional clients every day because their employees spend more time working and less time sitting in traffic.

All of the above happened in London and in Stockholm, and there's no reason to believe it wouldn't happen in New York as well.

Telecommuting is available on a limited bases. If it was rolled out in a major way, most people I work with drive in and live in NJ so the office would be empty.

My employer does offer flex time, but only as a work-life balance benefit. Allowing people to arrive late/work late would only encourage people to drive in.

Not exactly telecommuting but the city could work with employers to create staggard commute times. This way transportation is not overwhelmed during certain hours of the day. The traditional 9-5 is becoming obsolete, especially when taking into consideration the analytical service industries.

*This was such an interesting comment, that we created a new post to talk about telecommuting. Reducing congestion by increasing telecommuting and flextime?*
The problem with NY is the working culture. White-collar workers think they need show up at the office to prove their value for the company, but in fact much of their work can be done from distance.
If NY city convince some of the larger companies to home-shore their labour a couple of days per week, this would solve not only problems with congestion. Probably it would be healthier for the workers not having to commute every day.

It's necessary to reduce the amount of on-street parking in Manhattan. More blocks should be designated as no parking, at least on one side. Meters are necessary to have people pay for using the public space.

private cars are fine in CBD, just stop subsidizing their use.

1) MoveNY

2) Gov't employees have no placards, zero, even the Mayor

3)) eliminate all free curbside parking in all of Manhattan would be a start.

ON A CBD PERSONAL CAR BAN: I don't own a car, but I also don't think it's realistic to ban personal cars throughout the entire CBD. The CBD is very large and encompasses many residential neighborhoods. I can conceive of endless special situations where a private car may be nessesary, especially given their necessity outside of city limits. However a personal car ban in the densest business districts, like the financial district or midtown, does make sense. Few actually live there, they are small enough that they can be walked into if one parks outside of the zone, and they are the most likely destination of current personal car commuters. Basically I see a below-60th St car ban as becoming very problematic and contested due to the diverse districts within that large area, while focusing a ban on the commuter districts would be easier to accomplish while achieving the same ends.

ON RECLAIMING PUBLIC RESOURCES: I feel that one of the most obvious and straightforward steps we could take to reduce congestion in the CBD is simply eliminate free on-street parking, as this does nothing but incentivize personal car use while simultaniously wasting public resources and contributing to congestion as drivers circle the block crossing their fingers for a free spot. In fact, I'm of the opinion that ALL business districts in NYC should meter all public parking. I read a study several years back estimating that NYC meters less than 8% of it's on-street parking, and that the city has no official count of on-street parking spots. Let's get an up-to-date census of our 'parking lane' assets and work to meter at least all those spaces outside of residential zones, perhaps keeping them somewhat pricier than commerical parking garages in order to incentivize the use of off-street parking first. Almost every street in the CBD currently loses two lanes of traffic to publicly-subsidized parking, not only is that a counter-productive incentive, it is also an unfair use of public resources. I should add: Google tells me that the average price per square foot of real estate in midtown east is currently $1,367. If the footprint of a 12 ft x 6 ft vehicle is 72 square feet, parking it on the street in midtown makes free, sedentary use $98,424 worth of property.

"Carless" sounds ecotopian but still inspires as an ideal. How about building some super-efficient compact National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)-type parking garages around Manhattan's periphery and totally ban curbside parking with all the suffocating blight it brings? The City would collect revenues from such garages (and going after motorists to pony up on unpaid parking tickets would become moot) and perhaps provide low-cost, frequent shuttle buses to the nearest transit locations. This would also relieve motorists' stress re finding vehicle storage for the day. And: Let's dedicate freed-up curbside space everywhere to more tree plantings, safer and more enjoyable pedestrian passage, and more bicycle lanes.

Yes, get the private cars out! Aside from police presence, my best couple days commuting via bicycle was when the Pope was in town because all the private cars stayed home!

Rather than ban personal cars, time restrictions on commercial vehicles should be enacted.

In no way should the city be subsidizing car ownership in NYC.

The city should ban automobiles from certain sections. The Financial District comes to mind as a great canidate. Additionally, many more streets should be pedestrianized and sidewalks expanded elseware.

And yes, begin to reduce subsidies for automobile ownership. This is one of the biggest problems if not number one.

Trying to ban cars would be a political nonstarter and could easily be a rally cry against any and all action with MoveNY. I would start smaller with the suggestions here about raising the taxes, but I would also suggest another small way to raise revenue and get car owners voting for your plan. I would institute a NYC resident permit, that would allow parking in onstreet free spaces in Manhattan and maybe elsewhere. This would not cost much to NYC residents maybe a small $1 a year registration fee, but then you can charge a non-resident like $1000 a year for the permit. You can also charge non-residents a daily rate in which they would have to find a digital parking meter to purchase a special daily permit to park in a free spot, maybe $10 dollars a day. This would make resident drivers happy as it could free up parking spots, but it should increase some revenues as the number cars I see parking in my neighborhood with NJ state plates is ridicoulus, close 20% of the cars have out a state plates.

It may sound fair for everybody to have to pay the same tax rate for parking but you have to also factor in the fact that parking in Manhattan is much more expensive so the dollar amount paid is actually higher there even if the rate is lower.