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Carolyn Konheim (not verified) says:
Pricing Parking could generate $575 million/year and cut traffic without depending on Albany's approval.
Everyone knows the real reason most people don't drive into the CBD is the exorbitant cost of parking, that is if you don't have a placard. The 142,000 placards issued by the City helps explain why 60$ of drivers into the CBD park for free.
Since last April, I have been sounding the drumbeat for parking pricing as an essential companion to road pricing. (See London experience below.) The Congestion Mitigation Commission listened but, in the end, did not get it--they recommended increasing the rates on existing meters, which makes off-street parking more competitive.
The problem is that only 25% of parking spaces in the CBD and in the spillover area between 60th and 96h Streets are metered. Were they increased to 75% of spaces (leaving some space for bike lanes)with graduated rates by hour starting at $6 an hour in the CBD and $3 an hour north of 60th Street, the net revenue over existing rates and enforcement costs would exceed $575 million/year. That doesn't count the windfall in parking fines that could greatly increase the $800 million/year collected by the Parking Violations Bureau.
Moreover, if surrounding communities followed the course of London "boroughs" (similar to our community boards), even with residential parking permits, each 30 block area could generate over $3 million/year by doubling their metered spaces and charging $2/hour as the base rate. Ten such districts would generate $30 million/year, protect against long term outside parking but insure parking availability for people staying under 4 hours.
Lesson from London:
London started parking pricing first. At an NYU forum on pricing this spring, London’s First Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, congestion pricing ambassador extraordinaire, whispered away from the mike: “I hate to be critical, but you’ve got parking all wrong -- you need to control it first. In London, you can’t park for more than 20 minutes without a permit or you’ll be clamped. If you can park, it costs 40 quid [~$80].”
Check the web. Garage rates in central London run $65/day, $1,200 a month. London auto commuters have no local street parking option outside the central pricing zone because all 32 boroughs in the city limit non-resident curbside parking to two hours and deliveries and drop-offs to 20 minutes. In boroughs close to the center, a stay of two hours costs about $8. Spaces are designated in all boroughs for residents who pay a range of $180 to $250 a year for permits for one car and one visitor. Businesses can also get parking permits. Violators’ tires are enthusiastically clamped by local wardens who collect fines of $300 or more for their boroughs, which use the revenues for improving roads and traffic calming. The borough in the center of London nets about $70 million a year.
Political feasibility
This strategy comes right out of the alternative plan playbook promoted by the garage industry-financed Make New York Congestion Tax Free. They can't turn their backs on their own brainchild and, maybe, could use their seemingly limitless funds and poltiical connections to push this through.
Pricing Parking could generate $575 million/year and cut traffic without depending on Albany's approval.
Everyone knows the real reason most people don't drive into the CBD is the exorbitant cost of parking, that is if you don't have a placard. The 142,000 placards issued by the City helps explain why 60$ of drivers into the CBD park for free.
Since last April, I have been sounding the drumbeat for parking pricing as an essential companion to road pricing. (See London experience below.) The Congestion Mitigation Commission listened but, in the end, did not get it--they recommended increasing the rates on existing meters, which makes off-street parking more competitive.
The problem is that only 25% of parking spaces in the CBD and in the spillover area between 60th and 96h Streets are metered. Were they increased to 75% of spaces (leaving some space for bike lanes)with graduated rates by hour starting at $6 an hour in the CBD and $3 an hour north of 60th Street, the net revenue over existing rates and enforcement costs would exceed $575 million/year. That doesn't count the windfall in parking fines that could greatly increase the $800 million/year collected by the Parking Violations Bureau.
Moreover, if surrounding communities followed the course of London "boroughs" (similar to our community boards), even with residential parking permits, each 30 block area could generate over $3 million/year by doubling their metered spaces and charging $2/hour as the base rate. Ten such districts would generate $30 million/year, protect against long term outside parking but insure parking availability for people staying under 4 hours.
Lesson from London:
London started parking pricing first. At an NYU forum on pricing this spring, London’s First Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, congestion pricing ambassador extraordinaire, whispered away from the mike: “I hate to be critical, but you’ve got parking all wrong -- you need to control it first. In London, you can’t park for more than 20 minutes without a permit or you’ll be clamped. If you can park, it costs 40 quid [~$80].”
Check the web. Garage rates in central London run $65/day, $1,200 a month. London auto commuters have no local street parking option outside the central pricing zone because all 32 boroughs in the city limit non-resident curbside parking to two hours and deliveries and drop-offs to 20 minutes. In boroughs close to the center, a stay of two hours costs about $8. Spaces are designated in all boroughs for residents who pay a range of $180 to $250 a year for permits for one car and one visitor. Businesses can also get parking permits. Violators’ tires are enthusiastically clamped by local wardens who collect fines of $300 or more for their boroughs, which use the revenues for improving roads and traffic calming. The borough in the center of London nets about $70 million a year.
Political feasibility
This strategy comes right out of the alternative plan playbook promoted by the garage industry-financed Make New York Congestion Tax Free. They can't turn their backs on their own brainchild and, maybe, could use their seemingly limitless funds and poltiical connections to push this through.