dissisme's Comments

Overall, I support the idea of making tolls higher near the center of the City to urge people to take other routes when they are available. As a resident of Gramercy/Kips Bay, which lies within what is defined as the Central Business District (CBD) even though the area consists of mostly residences, schools and medical facilities, I feel that I will be unfairly taxed and think this plan should not include the residential areas. Unlike those that could choose to take alternate routes, residents of this area have no alternatives. When I use a car to leave the City it is because I have no choice. Mass transit does not serve the suburbs or areas further away very well.

I think there will be many travel benefits from Move but few of those would benefit me since I bike to work along the waterfront Greenway on most days, walk to do most of my shopping and only occasionally use mass transit or a car for other purposes. On top of paying a higher toll everytime I leave the city, taxes for parking my car in my co-op would be increased as part of Move. Unfortunately, I think the reason my neighborhood, unlike the Upper East Side or Upper West Side, would have to pay higher tolls is that it is not as easy to define the boundary and collect fares over a larger border. What could be done is to maintain the borders as is but to refund CBD residents.

In order to clear parks off of bike lanes and sidewalks, I have had to nag the police department and and appeal to the Commissioner and Mayor's office when they police department gave excuses for not enforcing the law. I think that rather then depend on laws to be enforced, it would be best to have physical seperations that prevent illegal parking. The barriers on the Hudson River Greenway work well and having parked cars act as a divider between the bike path and the street improves the situation, though it is good as a physical barrier.

I live near midtown Manhattan so there are normally few empty parking spots. The main problem with cars parking on pathways that sit alongside car parking spots occurs near corners where the turning lane for cars merges with the bike lane. If they were able to create a narrow physical barrier at this point, it could improve the situation.

The bike lanes that reside right alongside the driving lane are much worse than these. There are times I will have to go around as many as eight cars parked in those bike lanes during a one block stretch.

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.