Department of City Planning

The New York City Department of City Planning is encouraging people to drive to work.

We continue with our look at recommendations proposed in "Suburbanizing the City," a report issued by a cross-section of public interest groups on the detrimental effects of off-street parking policies on city traffic.

This curb-cutting driveway leads to a parking lot for a new residential development on 16th Street in Brooklyn.

The proliferation of off-street parking is pushing New York toward higher rates of car ownership and substantially more traffic. To avert a scenario where the city becomes less transit-oriented and more beholden to car owners, a coalition of planning and environmental groups is calling for the reform of off-street parking policies.

Yesterday, several planning and environmental organizations joined Transportation Alternatives on the steps of City Hall to tout the release of "Suburbanizing the City" [PDF], the new report that critiques New York City's off-street parking policies. The coalition is similar -- but not identical -- to the array of groups that pushed for congestion pricing earlier this year. Their testimony highlighted the range of benefits that off-street parking reform would deliver, from mitigating tailpipe emissions to reducing housing costs.

Adjacent blocks in Park Slope, one built before parking requirements took effect, and one built after.

Today Transportation Alternatives released "Streets to Live By" [PDF], the report previewed last week in the Observer. It seeks to define what makes a street livable and to synthesize a broad range of data, culled from numerous cities, on the effects of policies that put pedestrians first.

After calling attention last month to the traffic-reducing power of parking reform, Transportation Alternatives has released a follow-up report with a parking prescription for New York. "Pricing the Curb" [PDF] looks to innovative programs underway in Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Chicago for inspiration. With DOT taking steps toward setting variable-rate prices for curbside parking -- which it calls "peak rate parking" -- the report urges the Bloomberg administration to go further. A full-featured parking policy is one way the city can take on traffic without Albany's approval.

If there's one thing a neighborhood overrun by traffic doesn't need, it's more public parking garages. But that's exactly what New Yorkers who live by the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel will get if the City Planning Commission allows current development patterns to continue.