Parking permits coming soon?

For those of us who missed the Park Slope meeting about residential parking permits (RPPs), Streetsblog has a handy summary. Since residential parking permits have been attached to the city's congestion pricing plan, the chances of permits coming our way is pretty high. Under an RPP plan, only residents who've registered locally and paid for a permit (estimated at $75-125 annually) will be able to use free street parking in a given neighborhood.

There are a number of advantages to such a plan:

• Reduced traffic (one study found that nearly 50% of traffic in Park Slope comes from drivers hunting for free parking spaces)
• Reduced competition for parking spaces for those in the designated area
• No more parking for drivers who register outside of Brooklyn in order to cheat insurance rates. This may help reduce insurance rates for Brooklynites who play by the rules. (According to one DOT study, 41% of parked cars in Park Slope and Prospect Heights were registered out of Brooklyn, and 29% were registered outside NYC.)

The key, of course, is HOW permits are implemented.  At the meeting, participants divided into small groups and evaluated 4 different options, each involving the 4 different categories of parkers:

1. Local residents
2. Non-residents who work in the neighborhood — "local employees"
3. All-day parkers — park-and-ride commuters, relatives in town for the holidays
4. Short-term visitors — shoppers, people going to the dentist

Here are the options, courtesy of Streetsblog:

Option A:

• Permit required to park in non-metered spots during the hours RPP restrictions are in effect (could be anywhere from 8-24 hours)
• Residents and local employees issued annual permits that cost $75-$125
• All-day parkers and short-term visitors not eligible for a permit

Option B:

• Similar to Option A but with one big difference: RPP would only be in effect for 1-2 hours each day, staggered on each side of the street. This still locks out park-and-riders but would, on the face of it, give short-term parkers a reason to cruise for free spots.

Option C:

• Similar to Option A but with one really huge difference: Only residents could obtain an annual permit. Everyone else would have to buy a daily permit for $8, which could also be purchased in monthly or annual equivalents.

Option D:

• Same as Option C, but like Option B, RPP would be in effect 1-2 hours each day, staggered on each side of the street.

Streetsblog doesn't really say which option seemed to have the most support. The main sticking point, it seems, was not the choice of these options but, rather, how the boundaries between neighborhoods would be drawn.

[B]oundaries may be a more critical issue to resolve than fees or eligibility. At the table where I completed the exercise, some people drew a boundary around the entire map, while others outlined no more than six blocks. Some DOT staffers who had worked the Forest Hills workshop the night before said that residents there wanted huge zones because they liked to drive to see their friends.

As I've said, this will be a big issue for car owners in Prospect Lefferts who regularly drive to Park Slope.

Comments

[jessica]

When I lived in Cambridge, we had parking permits for the entire city (didn't matter which neighborhood you lived in). Seemed to work pretty well. There were a number of streets which didn't require a permit, allowing parking for those people visiting friends, going to the dentist, etc.

Note: insurance rates were still REALLY HIGH despite the requirement to be registered locally.

[carrie]

From what I understand, permits for the entire city aren't on the table here, because the legislation is intended to combat "park and riders" once congestion pricing is implemented. Park Slopers worry that people from, say, Bay Ridge or Staten Island will drive to the neighborhood to park their car, then taking the subway to work to avoid a congestion fee. A permit that allowed drivers from anywhere in the city to park anywhere else in the city wouldn't alleviate this problem.

[Matthew Arnold]

Would this begin in the Slope then be implemented elsewhere such as in our fair 'hood?

[jessica]

To clarify, the city-wide permit in Cambridge was only for Cambridge itself. It didn't include other parts of Boston or other outlying neighborhoods. So if something similar were implemented here, no, it wouldn't stop people from Bay Ridge parking in Park Slope, but it would stop people from Queens, Staten Island & Long Island (and we would, in turn, not be permitted to park in their permitted areas). I do however get the feeling that something like that would not work in an area at the scale of Brooklyn.

One other thing they have in Boston is a visitor pass which one could give to visitors, which could help to answer the question of "what do I do when my relatives are visiting?"

I think one key factor in getting the permit system to work is to have the correct ratio of permit and non-permit parking spots.

[LM]

Amazing isn't it, how many people from Pennsylvania and North Carolina spend time in Brooklyn? Maybe this will convince them to stay here permanently.

[carrie]

Residential permits will be implemented throughout the city. PLG will have them too. [*SEE CORRECTION BELOW] There have been meetings about this in Brooklyn Heights, Queens, upper Manhattan, etc.

I should probably note that Options B and D above would accommodate PLGers who travel to Park Slope to run errands or go to dinner over there. What they WON'T accommodate are people who park there daily, for the entire day.

Visitor passes were discussed informally at the meeting but I kinda suspect that they're unlikely to be part of the plan. They would raise the costs involved in execution, create possibilities for abuse, and limit the effectiveness of the program (since street parking is already very hard to come by). Park Slope has a number of paid lots; out-of-town visitors can always use those.

* According to this summary of the meeting in Brooklyn Heights, residential permits probably won't be available everywhere in the city. They probably will be available around subway stops, though, so PLG should get them. Still, this is something we need to watch...

[Bob Lothrope]

If out-of-town visitors can use the existing paid lots, then so can residents.

The whole point of transportation is to go places where you don't live. It therefore makes no sense to restrict it based on residence.

[carrie]

Bob, residential permits are on the table because some people fear that Brooklyn's neighborhoods will become parking lots after congestion pricing is implemented; they're concerned that people from, say, Staten Island or other parts of Brooklyn, will drive to their nabe to park, then take the subway to work.

I don't know that these fears are justified, but in general I support measures such as parking permits that charge drivers for the resources they use. If you want to keep a car in New York, you should pay for it, rather than expecting non-drivers (the less wealthy majority) to subsidize you via taxes and lost public space.