Traffic Relief

"Almost no city residents drive to work in midtown. About 95% take the subway or bus. Now, in an effort to avert a 23% fair hike the Ravitch Commission is asking that those who drive into Manhattan over the free East River and Harlem River bridges pay a toll. That seems sensible. It will reduce congestion in midtown allowing busses to move faster. It will reduce air pollution. It will avoid a catastrophic fare hike and help to fund needed improvements. Of course the handful of people who actually choose to drive into midtown Manhattan every day would pay more, but that seems reasonable given the benefits and the alternatives."

-Citizens Committee for New York City president Peter H. Kostmayer

Citizens Committee believes that these eight simple steps should be the new Bloomberg traffic agenda to revive our economy, as congestion costs the city $13 billion a year in lost time and wasted fuel, and the city is being forced to raise fares and cut services. It will also clean our air, fund mass transit improvements, and open our parks, streets and neighborhoods to city residents who love this city enough to actually live here, not just commute here.

1.    Cut free parking by 95%. There are well over 140,000 free parking placards in the city.  With the exception of the disabled, for whom taking a subway or bus can be an overwhelming struggle, there are few reasons that free parking should be allowed. There are many city employees who have had free parking placards for many years, and they will fight to keep them. To them we should say, “Tough. If you want to park in Manhattan, you should pay like everyone else”.

2.    Issue residential parking permits only to neighborhood residents. If you don’t live in a neighborhood but want to park there, your options are garages, meters, or very limited open parking for visitors.

3.    Make meter parking more expensive. If you’re going to take up a parking space in this city, you should pay for it. Parking shouldn’t be free or subsidized; it should fund more busses and subways cars.

4.    Limit parking for new developments. Developers who are building new high rises should know that their new luxury condo building won’t come with any allotted parking spaces. If their millionaire tenants want to own cars in Manhattan, they can pay to garage them or get a residential parking permit.

5.    Expand bus rapid transit. Add bus rapid transit lanes from the outer boroughs to Manhattan, and in Manhattan to speed the commute into midtown and to raise the average speed of cross-town busses that creep along 14th Street at an average speed of 3.9 miles per hour.  

6.    Step up enforcement. Busses can only move faster if cars don’t get in their way. Install cameras to photograph cars blocking those bus lanes and ticket them vigorously.

7.    Add more bike lanes. More bike lanes throughout the city, especially on north-south avenues in Manhattan, and protect them from traffic by installing barriers. Fewer traffic lanes will make driving in Manhattan’s central business district even less attractive than it already is, and open up these car-dominated streets to bikes and pedestrians.

8.    Take back the streets. Close more streets to traffic so the kids who live on those streets can play and pedestrians can walk. While we’re at it, close all city parks to non-parks department vehicular traffic.