The city’s war on cars is cruising right along: about 6,100 parking spaces have vanished from city streets since last year.
The city says they’ve been ”repurposed.” Drivers have a different phrase: they were stolen.
According to a Department of Transportation analysis done for The Post:
- 2,000 to 2,800 spots are gone for good.
- 1,000 to 1,500 were removed for part of the day, for instance during rush hours.
- About 4,000 spaces have been turned into delivery zones for trucks or commercial parking.
The loss is staggering when you consider that the 6,100 spaces were taken in just two years (January 2018 through the end of this year), when it took 10 years for 2,300 spaces to vanish in Manhattan south of 125th Street between 2007 and 2017, according to DOT figures reported by NY1.
In place of parking are bike lanes and their buffer zones, Citi Bike docking stations, spots for ride-share vehicles and, during warmer months, makeshift al fresco dining areas called “Street Seats.”
Hundreds of spots are gone for bike lanes in the East and West Villages, midtown and the Upper West Side.
The count does not include another 100 spaces soon to go to charging stations for electric cars and many more miles of bike lanes.
“Part of the war on cars, is definitely a war on parking,” said Sheila Dunn, spokeswoman for the National Motorists Association. “It’s really terrible because people use their cars for their businesses. It’s not like they’re just gallivanting around town.”
It’s only going to get worse for motorists. In July, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said “thousands” of on-street parking spots will be gone in the coming years as the city accelerates its building of bike lanes from 20 miles per year to 30 miles.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said this summer he wants to “break the car culture.” The Council last month approved Johnson’s $1.7 billion plan to create 250 miles of protected bike lanes within five years starting in 2021.
To Brooklyn activist Renee Collymore, Johnson’s push sounds like “fighting words” with car owners becoming “Public Enemy No. 1.”
She said a cyclist recently spat on her car as she waited in a bike lane to pull into a parking spot on her street.
“Our city is creating this — this harmful way of thinking. Now people are responding physically to it,” she said.
The city earlier this summer eliminated daytime street parking along dozens of blocks in all five boroughs, including Collymore’s neighborhood. The blocks were turned into loading zones from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., a move that DOT said would reduce the number of double-parked cars and allow for easier pick up and drop off of passengers.
Drivers were furious, saying they were blind-sided and some had their cars towed.
Rachel Weinberger, the senior transportation fellow at the Regional Plan Association, said she understood drivers’ frustrations but that some of the DOT’s measures like daytime parking restrictions were actually helping motorists.
“Is it a little bit harder to park for the sake of making traffic flow much more fluidly — that’s actually a concession to the cars,” she said.
The city maintains the measures have been taken in the name of safety and the de Blasio Administration’s Vision Zero plan to reduce fatalities.
A total of 27 bicyclists have been killed in car crashes so far this year.
“When it comes to saving lives nothing stands in the way of our citywide Vision Zero work and the safety benefits it delivers. DOT focuses each day on investing in an improved bus system and more protected bike lanes, with a continued focus on pedestrian improvements,” the agency said.
The city says it has added between 1,800 and 2,200 parking spots in 2018 and 2019 — the net loss is still 6,100 — and that the city total inventory of parking spaces is about 3 million.
Lost Parking Locations
PLUS:
- 4,000 spaces converted to daytime loading zones (including West End Avenue from West 79th Street to West 95th Street in Manhattan, Greene Avenue from Classon Avenue to Cumberland Street in Brooklyn and 74th Street from 37th avenue to 31st Avenue in Queens).
- 24 spots lost Citi Bike docking stations in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Various locations.