Streetwise: Parking in Manhattan

SUMMER STREETS or GLORIFIED BIKE LANES?

2025-08-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

That is the question because after having experienced two so-called Summer Streets in my neighborhood where NYC commissioned tens of thousands (hundreds?) of dollars of planning, enforcing, signage creating and posting (and repairing), reconstituting traffic flow, remapping and rescheduling Bus routes, police overtime, DOT overtime, Dept of Sanitation overtime I could witness only a few pedestrians and a lot of aggressive bike riders down the middle of my neighborhood streets. In fact, many pedestrians preferred to stay on the sidewalks rather than the empty streets that bikers were emboldened to assert as their own. I know I did.

There were no musicians or street performers. Not even a vendor (See pics). Nothing special at all except for those unrepentant bike riders who only observe the rules of the road when it suits them. I don’t judge too harshly. I also ride a bike on city streets and have been known to skirt a law or two when it made practical sense, but never speeding through red lights, cruising sidewalks and cutting corners where pedestrians cross which I see almost every day. Walking in the road during Summer Streets was unsafe as the bikers, who easily outnumbered those of us on foot, often veered into pedestrian pathways like they were passing lanes.

On the Summer Streets celebration, the few times I tried to cross the street it felt like a crossing a highway. The Walk signs and Red lights were ignored as there were numerous overtime Police and Traffic Coordinators specifically holding Stop and Go Signs on every corner, only they weren’t being followed or one direction of bicyclists would respect the Stop Sign being held up but the opposite flow wouldn’t. A friendly NYPD officer bid me “Hello” and asked “How are you doing?” as I was trying to cross and I replied that I was fine but I was just trying to cross this intense bike race. She nodded and agreed it was a little difficult.

Possibly the greatest injustice from the Summer Streets is to the car owners, delivery workers and drivers in NYC. Negotiating all the detours and bikers and pedestrians who suddenly felt like all the streets were their sidewalk was only the half of it. The city thoughtfully posted well in advance clear bright red laminated signs announcing Summer Streets and the warning that all cars left on the street will be towed. Only thing is, at the last minute they changed the start time for clearing all cars off the streets from 5PM Friday to 12AM Friday, which for those of us who have to think about it, actually meant midnight Thursday. They scotch taped little white amendments that read 12AM on top of the red signs that had read 5PM all week to mark the change. To workers like construction or repair men, door men etc. who rely on street parking it was a Thank God It’s Friday nightmare. To those of us who had been spotting and preparing for the original signs rule changes all week long, it was chaos. They were towing cars all night.

But maybe that was the point. I didn’t see many people participating. Certainly, not enough to justify all the effort and expense. At some point the city has to do a cost-benefit analysis, don’t they? But maybe it wasn’t about costs and benefits or people taking to the streets. It was more about people taking the streets away from cars. After all, who benefited the most? The bicyclists who have for many years now dug into the right of New Yorkers to own and drive cars in the city. The bicyclists who have garnered thousands of miles of designated bike lanes that have gobbled up driving lanes and parking spaces in every neighborhood. The same bike lanes that seem never to be full and can only be used by the most athletic, coordinated and fearless citizens. Who suffered the most? The drivers and car owners who have been under attack for years for their traffic congestion, air pollution and their audacity of mere presence in a city whose leaders aspire more and more to be European.

Maybe it was just about striking another blow against cars and car owners. Tempting everyday New Yorkers to imagine more and more a city without cars. Severely penalizing, fining and forcefully removing cars of unfortunate owners who normally need to park along the vast Summer Streets route that runs from Brooklyn Bridge to Washington Heights. All those tickets and tows are like fishing in a barrel. When you consider those unlucky registered owners who had to suddenly find almost 15 miles of suddenly available new parking spaces or who didn’t get the last-minute memo about the time change, it’s more like clubbing seals. Blow after blow after blow. But when the city no longer has that auto economy of parking tickets, registration, inspection, insurance, servicing, auto part purchasing, garage and lot parking, congestion pricing, not to mention the grotesque windfall of Summer Streets towing and ticketing revenue, will the bicyclists take up the slack?

Happy Holidays!

2024-12-23T07:41:00.000-08:00

Genius or Outlaw (a never ending series)

2024-06-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

This artful mover always finds a parking place.

He/she makes his own luck!

Have parking space, will travel.

Congestion Ricing Suspended Indefinitely

2024-06-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

That's right folks. Thanks to the extensive editorial opinions published on this Blog😉, Gov HocHul has suspended the start of Congestion Pricing in Manhattan.

Okay, not really this Blog, but it is suspended "indefinitely" or until Gov HocHul's allies win reelection, or both.

Those of us who think Congestion Pricing is needed can relax. It will happen sooner than later.

Those who never want it to happen can enjoy a little extra free time.

Frog in a Boiling Pot

2024-03-01T07:53:00.000-08:00

It’s official. NYC will be transitioning to a new side-loading garbage truck. According to Mayor Adams, lucky Manhattan Community Board 9 (Morningside Heights, Manhattanville, and Hamilton Heights) will be the first CB with 100 percent of its trash containerized and serviced by next year.

(Image courtesy of The Official Website of the City of New York)

This is all happening four years ahead of the Mayor’s own previous schedule, which is not a case of grandstanding by a Mayor who had his phones seized by the FBI and is the subject of at least three criminal investigations including an investigation into the mayor’s former buildings commissioner that is expected to yield bribery and mob-related charges against several people who helped raise money for Mayor Adams. Nor is it a public relations ploy to distract from the lowest mayoral approval rating (28%) recorded in the over 25 years Quinnipiac University has been polling.

We won’t look askance at the whopping influx of funds needed for the re-fitted Sanitation Industry in these currently lean years of austerity budgets where almost everything but Sanitation has been earmarked for cuts. Still, a fleet of new trucks for our infamously Italian-cuisine-loving Mayor with a mechanized side loader made from superior Italian technology may be more costly than we realize. In addition, there is the maintenance of said trucks, worker training, new signage and much more that will rack up additional costs for this giant overhaul. We won’t mention these concerns because everyone knows Rats are a real problem in NYC, at least from a human point of view.

What about the rats’ needs? This program is designed to reduce the rat population by starvation. The program champions proudly inform us these containers will effectively deprive rats access to food. Is that fair? Have we completely forgotten about the rats’ right to live and breathe? Sure, they can’t embarrass us on X or GoFundMe, but what if they did have a voice? Will PETA come to their aid citing cruelty and torture? What news outlets or action groups are taking up their cause? Is this the one species that has no right to live or just another species that can’t afford to live in New York City?

Some Paleontologists believe that a small rat-like mammal is the first known creature belonging to the evolutionary line that led to human beings. Its fossil, uncovered in China, is evidence of the earliest “placental” species, an ancestor of all placental mammals (mammals that diverged from other mammals) like us. To assert our Manifest Destiny over rat territory we may be starving to death part of our own ancestral heritage.

So, let’s assume we do effectively begin to starve out the rats. What recourse will rats then have? Will they go quietly in underground rat hospices surrounded by equally emaciated rat friends and family? Will they fight and cannibalize each other to the bitter end until there is nothing left but a few rat bones to pick over? In the course of history, when the means of sustenance runs out, animals have adapted their food source, migrated or gone extinct. I, for one, have had rats chew through my car wiring on four different occasions over the years disabling lights, hindering transmissions, you name it. Apparently, the insulation is yummy, but they go right through the copper strands as well. I no longer park overnight near restaurants. With this new program, will any distance from our finer food sources be safe? Any New Yorker can tell you what rats do to our streets when heavy rains or a broken water main floods their burrows. It’s the quotable “sinking ship.”

Here I think our Mayor and City Council practice the wisdom of the Frog in a Pot. Not to be confused with the Frog in a Blender, this story is if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in lukewarm water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. It’s a parable that has been used to explain everything from the Nazi rise to power to deniers of global warming and the unraveling of democracy around the world. The plan is to eradicate the rodents before they know it.

In today’s world what would people do if they were systematically denied the very food they need to survive? Say it was a group of people on a flight and the stewardess announced there would be only enough food for first class and the plane will never land. I suspect it will land with a crash. Or imagine a crowd of people waiting for Walmart to open on Black Friday were suddenly told there would be only half as many sales items this year. They’ve made movies about that one. Safe to say humans would not go quietly. Will our great aunt/uncle ancestor, the rodent, go any quieter?

A Dept. of Sanitation (DSNY) report estimates that the new extra wide trash containers will take up between 10% to 25% of curb parking on any given block. That would mean once this becomes a citywide program, it could result in the loss of up to 150,000 parking spaces. Chalk it up to the ever expanding list of citywide initiatives (too many to mention) to systematically choke off street parking and drive it (and us) to ultimate extinction.

Once again, the middle class, who can’t afford a garage, who need to park our cars on the street, are treated like rats.

Congestion Pricing is Already Here

2024-01-30T07:35:00.000-08:00

Make no mistake. Congestion Pricing is here. The Talking Heads are still wagging. The rules and rates will probably face new obstacles and legal challenges but the sensors, quietly in place, are already watching and waiting.

What you see below is not a truck clearance barrier, car charging station, or drone parade formation. Even now, Big Brother is gathering data and we are it. They will image your car and your license plate and anything else their sensitive cameras can detect. Is it only a matter of time before the data is used for crime solving? And then crime prevention?

Lastly, there's always that cutting edge, state-of-the-art, AI-masterminded Crime Prediction. That new digitally enhanced facial recognition, data-crunching, probability-munching algorithm that knows before you do what crime you may commit. Only kidding. Right? Still they can't help but invade what was once taken for granted as our personal space. The autonomy of being in your automobile will be a little less. Again.


Above 61 Street, West Side

They hover above us, so shiny and new. They loom ahead like traffic lights that charge you to pass through an intersection. They don't blink red. They only blink green. Yours and mine. So let's just say it: drivers in the city must be able to afford it, right? After all, they own a car. The MTA would like us to assume such logic. Then we could reason that it is simply to tax the middle class driving public in order to improve service on our transit system. A large portion of the cleared funds will, no doubt, go to train and bus service, but Car Shares and bicycle rental stations, traffic enforcement cameras, employee salaries, anything and everything under the Transportation umbrella will likely be fair use of the new revenue stream. Beware the moment our city or state goes into an economic downturn, then this tax will go wherever the Mayor and Council deem worthy.

Of course, this new surcharge will also cut into the profits of taxi companies and NYC's billion dollar off-street parking industry, not to mention the multiple billions of dollars spent on automobile sales, parts, repairs, maintenance, insurance, registration fees, tolls, ticket revenue (and all it's enforcement and collection goods and services), etc. Many local brick-and-mortar businesses count on parking availability to increase sales. That's why the implementation of curb front parking meters can be so fervently contested in Community Board hearings. No worries, small businesses. Amazon or Door Dash can make up that difference (increased delivery fee added). The point is most of us will clearly be able to afford these losses to the local economy and tax base. Right?

What will happen to those businesses on the border of a congestion parking zone? Cross into a zone and be on the wrong side of the tracks. Will the garages and other businesses on the right side of the tracks have a new unearned advantage? Why did your favorite food delivery, just blocks away, become more expensive? Maybe right-sided businesses and residences will experience a real estate boom. Only, how crowded will those all important dividing streets and their subway stations be? Those sidewalks? Someone will tell us that all these factors have been carefully weighed and considered, but does that council member or MTA board member live or buy groceries in midtown, own a car, a small business? As government employees they may have to request a cost-of-living raise.

The most unfairly taxed is our commercial traffic. They have to pay even higher congestion rates (currently set at $24 - $36 compared to $15 for regular motorists). Only they don't have any other public transportation options. What does this mean for the prices of delivered goods in our beloved, but expensive Manhattan? They will be going up to absorb the new costs, of course. But will they only go up in congestion parking zones? So, isn't this really a tax on everyone?

Wasn't that the plan all along:

years of redirected and increasingly restricted traffic flow,
more and more bicycle lanes to promote our recommended mode of transit for the coordinated and uncoordinated, young and old, firm and infirm
the Covid pandemic (has to be)
massive midtown and downtown building construction
(and their approved environmental impact studies that project as acceptable the increased load on utilities, subways and traffic systems, human and automotive)
NYC's vital tourism trade (It's what we do most)?

We have over crowded our midtown streets.

Now we get to charge admission.

Parking Restrictions Held Against Will (Oh no!)

2024-01-06T07:42:00.000-08:00

It's true. In residential neighborhoods near and far our beloved parking signs have been overrun. They have been grabbed, bagged and gagged. Humiliated even. But please, let's not lose ourselves in the heat of the moment.

Sure, parking in NYC is getting harder and rarer by the minute. We pay our high prices, tolls, fees, taxes, insurance, maintenance, congestion rates and generally hold up our part of the economic bargain, only to learn that deal has been taken off the table. The Great Parking Squeeze is upon us. Parking spaces are gobbled up by the big brains of the DOT like snack pellets in a Pac-Man game.

Former parking spaces usurped by bicycles fit only for the death-defying and athletic among us
Higher meter rates
Car share spaces encroaching more and more on your block and mine... but the cars are never available on holidays or weekends, are they?
Increased regulations and restrictions openly calculated to suppress car ownership

It is alarming and may even seem, to some, to be un-American, but that is no excuse for violence or insurrection. We are, after all, all in this together.

The pictures you are about to see may be disturbing to some viewers, but I think we need to see where our frustrations have led us if only to learn just how far is too far.

Bound and taped (just doing its job)

Blacked and bruised (family can't identify)

Innocent bystander, mistaken for DOT maintenance, booted.


Doesn't even work. Good luck beating this ticket!

Is this who we are now? Sure, we're in the under appreciated minority and should never tolerate a DOT fiat, but unrestrained violence hurts us all. For the common good, shouldn't we learn to control our worst impulses (and protect the innocent) no matter how justified?

parkken NYC Street Parking App announces HUGE price cut

2023-12-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

The parkken iPhone app, normally on sale for $4.99 is now available for 99¢. Wait, WHAT?  
How many percent drop is that? (80%)
Volume of ads (0%)

The app that answers your parking queries for any Manhattan street for any 12-hour period (and longer) you choose is now practically free. Unless you don’t think 99¢, in our current economic inflation, is basically FREE.

WHICH app, you ask. The parkken NYC Street Parking app that:

answers immediate queries on a Manhattan Block’s street parking rules
has a base map with an self explanatory display of our trademark Parking Clocks that show the parking rules in stunning detail (if you have the time to read it; if you don’t, just query)
includes garage and lot locations
remembers favorite locations
convenient Alt Side Parking Suspensions calendar

Parking Query options

WHY are we doing this:

Because we like people
Because with the rising costs of everything, we wanted to buck that trend and help NY Drivers
Because of the goodness of our hearts
Because like you we know too well that closing in of No Parking zones that like our oceans will continue to rise until we can no longer tread water
Because we want more of you to buy the thing, duh!

But seriously, this is an experiment that may not succeed and, fair warning, the price of the app may have to return to its previous level.

NOTE: the 99¢ Android version is now also out.

Happy Holidays!

2023-12-04T16:27:00.000-08:00

How NOT to Double Park, Please!

2023-01-03T15:38:00.000-08:00

Is it true that some New Yorkers still don't know how to double park?
It's simple: If any of the vehicles legally parked at the curb cannot get out because of your vehicle, you deserve that ticket.

You, who doesn't care, won't share or is ignorantly unaware, this simple graphic is for you:

If you ABSOLUTELY have to park someone in, AT LEAST leave your PHONE NUMBER on the dashboard.

More people than just you use NYC streets!

Duh!

Genius or Outlaw or Genius Outlaw?

2022-12-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

Parking Hand Signals (golden oldies)

2022-08-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

OK, what is the deal with hand signals? I’m not talking about left turn, right turn types of signals that have become obsolete unless you are limping home with a broken blinker system or just like attention from the NYPD. I’m talking about when you’ve returned from a long weekend and a long drive and have been cruising your neighborhood for a half hour for a parking space, you are driving down a block and, “Eureka!” you spot someone getting into their car. You pull up and, unless you just like to hover and idle your engine for long periods of time, and assuming it is not your teenage daughter and her boyfriend in the car, you query the person on whether they are actually leaving. Those hand signals.
I know we are a multiethnic, multi religious, rainbow colored, many peopled melting pot in the making and in New York so much of it works most of the time. But this brave new experiment has not enabled us to come to an agreement on something as simple as some kind of universal hand signals for leaving/not leaving a parking space. I’ve seen hands going up, hands going down, palms upturned, middle finger extended, hands shooing, fingers fluttering, fingers (or finger) wagging, or nothing at all behind tinted windows so dark that you start to wonder if it wasn’t them who pulled up alongside you. The very same gestures can mean opposite things depending on who is giving them or who is receiving them.
Hand signals are important because we often drive with windows closed, very few drivers are legally blind and can understand visual cues, they are quick and do not require us to have a whole conversation or come to a full stop even. No one wants to hover fruitlessly only to let the row of Sharks (see 5-8-10 post) behind you all pass you by relegating you to the back of the line. So, a quick answer to the obvious question is a useful thing.
Thus, I have conducted a very scientifically extensive, double blind, triple axel (with a twist), 4 wheeled survey of my peers and am proposing a universal set of hand/head signals to indicate your current claim to that parking space where you are squatting.

Courtesy of http://funnyanimatedgifs.net

The nod (smile optional) would be the YES I AM LEAVING and this can include any other message or range of emotions you like, because this news is so good, we are prepared to endure it all knowing we will soon be home and at rest to enjoy a favorite movie or talk to our family or friends. For you more athletic types a thumbs up can sometimes be substituted.

Courtesy of http://www.feebleminds-gifs.com

Holding up 5 fingers to indicate 5 minutes or 10 fingers to indicate 10 minutes. All longer units of time up to and over one hour are not understood to be included in either of these signals. When someone once pointed out a New York minute is about half of everybody else’s, they were obviously talking about a driver waiting for a parking space so please do not abuse this signal. If you are just waiting in your vehicle, and are possessed of divine compassion, you might consider vacating the space and waiting double parked.

Courtesy of http://img150.echo.cx/

In addition to its all important, NO, I AM NOT MOVING primary meaning, the wagging of the index finger to the left and right can also be understood to include an entire rainbow of emotions from “So sorry!” to “Just got here.” to “Can’t I just get a little shut eye without people disturbing me?” I think we owe a debt of gratitude to our Latino parkers here as the wagging finger is a favorite among Hispanic drivers I have seen, and, even though it may make some of us feel like we are misbehaving in class, it seems to be the simplest and easiest understood of hand signals.

Last, but not least. If a driver gets into his or her parked car, but will not answer or even acknowledge your query, maybe won’t even look at you, move on. They have much greater troubles than you.

Please feel free to offer your own suggestions.

Our One-of-a Kind Parking Gauge Diagram

2022-05-01T15:24:00.019-07:00

Go to parkken.com for more info on parkken Street and Garage Parking App.

Alt Side Reform Still a Mystery?

2021-08-05T10:07:00.001-07:00

Last year, Mayor DiBlasio instituted an "Alternate Side Parking Reform." What this reform meant was explained in a press conference where the Reform was defined as applying to "side streets."

The Dept. of Sanitation (DSNY), which is the real maker of the Street Sweeping rules, made its own announcement. The DSNY posting stated the Reform applies to "residential streets."

It should be no surprise that the elaborate and complex parking rules of New York City can not be easily modifed by a few carefully worded paragraphs. I had questions. I submitted multiple queries to the DSNY, but their replies have only sent me to the same links or reiterated those same links that raised my first questions.

Now, they don't even respond to my queries and any record of queries EC-00250672 or EC-00296950 has been expunged on the DSNY web site.

This is query EC-00296950 that the DSNY web site now says never existed in a time that never was:

I am looking for clarification of the Alt Side Reform announced by the Mayor and on your DSNY site.

For example:

In the NYCDOT announcement (and in the Mayor’s press release), we are told “On days when ASP is in effect, residential "side streets" without meters will not be cleaned more than once a week on each side.”

QUESTION 1: There are many Avenues (not “side streets”) where only Alt Side Parking (ASP) is in effect, but they are not “side streets.” (1) Does the Alt Side Reform apply here?

QUESTION 2A, 2B and 2C:

Please see the attached image from the NYC Zoning and Land Use Map for a definition of Commercial and Residential areas.

There are many Avenue blocks that are “residential” and “side streets” that appear to be “commercial” that have ASP rules.

(2A) Does the Alt Side Reform apply here? (2B) How are we to tell what is a “commercial” and what is a “residential” block (or street)?

(2C) How does the Dept of Sanitation (and Ticket Agents) tell what is a “commercial” and what is a “residential” block (or street)?

We know Parking and Alternate Side Rules extend for the block unless contradicted by other signs and/or regulations:

QUESTION 3: Your FAQ says “Non-metered streets that have multiple ASP days will be cleaned” (3) Does the “Reform” apply to the entire block if there are a just a few meters on one end or does it ONLY apply to the area of the block with meters? Another way of asking this is when you refer to “streets” do you consider each block as a unit or do you look at any smaller “metered areas” as separate?

QUESTION 4: How will it be announced if the city decides to revert to the physical signs posted and not to this “Reform?”

Thank you for taking the time to address these specific questions. Your answers will benefit our users and readers.

This EC-00296950 query has not been responded to and according to the DSNY site does not exist in their records.

The problem is when you or I try to interpret these relaxed rules, we cannot always be sure a Ticket Agent will see it the same way. Then it's pay the fine (and tow) or face the implacable NYCDOT judges.

I believe we need a better explanation.

The Great Parking Sign Redesign [click for demo of new Parking Signs]

2021-02-11T19:45:00.000-08:00

Most of us who park in this city have had a chance to see the parking signs redesign that started last year. Slowly the familiar signs are being replaced by something a little newer, a little cleaner, its look a little more modern.

The Old and the New

True the old signs are wearing, and something more closely resembling New York Fun World, the ultimate tourist destination is worth the enormous price of orders generated, raw materials expended, signs manufactured, work crews dispersed, not to mention the inevitable repairs and fixes, etc, right? But I personally am not loving this new design enough to justify the huge expense and if New York really dreams of being a tourist mecca where pedestrians are safe, traffic is systematically choked off our streets and people of all nationalities will actually understand our traffic rules, then why not use a parking signage that is immediately understood across all languages. Something international and intuitive. Like for a simple Alternate Side parking Sign:

Read it as a sweep of the hour hand.

Ok, I admit this is my design, my solution for simplifying parking rules in a city where understanding where to park is worse than a word problem. And it works very well for our parallelspaces.com parking map app, but by itself is probably not enough. So how about this:

Offered at a low low price

It is immediately understandable, universal in its appeal and also speaks in plain English in case you didn’t get it the first time.

You made it this far. Why not check out a short demo of new Parking Signs?

Parking Scofflaws We Hate (a never ending series)

2021-01-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

Why can't we just all learn to share?

Alternate Side Parking During Covid and the parkken app

2020-09-21T08:55:00.071-07:00

On September 18, 2020, Mayor DiBlasio announced Covid-related, once-a-week street cleaning rules will remain in effect until further notice:

Residential (side streets) without meters will be cleaned no more than once per week, per side.
Residential streets that have multiple Alternate Side Parking “ASP” days on each side will be cleaned – with vehicles required to be moved – only on the latest day in the week on each side, as indicated on each street’s currently posted signage.

The posted street sign rules continue to be interpreted in the parkken app. For the relaxed restrictions, please doublecheck signs when you park.

Daily sweeping regulations in metered areas will not change, and the DSNY will continue cleaning streets with posted No Standing, No Stopping and No Parking regulations as needed.
These reforms to Alternate Side Parking (ASP) will be in place until further notice.

When do I have to move my car?

For any residential street with Alternate Side Parking regulations, the regulations will be in effect only on the latest day posted on the sign on each side of the street. Alternate side parking regulations are indicated by a “Sanitation Broom Symbol” on the street sign.

For example, as seen in Fig (1) above, if one side of the street has ASP regulations on Monday from 11:00am – 12:30pm, that side of the street will continue to be swept on Monday (the latest day posted) from 11:00am – 12:30pm.

As seen in Fig (2) above, if another side of the street has ASP regulations on Thursday from 11:00am – 12:30pm, that side of the street will continue to be swept on Thursday (the latest day posted) at those times.

If, as seen in Fig (3) above, one side of the street has ASP regulations on Monday and Thursday from 11:00am – 12:30pm, that side of the street will be swept on Thursday only (the latest day posted) and you only have to move your car on Thursday.

In another example, if the ASP sign says one side of the street is cleaned on Tuesdays and Fridays from 11:00am – 12:30pm, you only have to move your car from that side of the street on Friday.

Does this apply to metered areas?

No. Daily sweeping in metered areas, including 30-minute parking restrictions Monday through Saturday in metered areas, will not change. Parking meters remain in effect.

Does this affect other parking regulations?

This change only affects street sweeping regulations, indicated by the Sanitation Broom Symbol. This change does not affect No Stopping or No Standing restrictions, or No Parking areas that do not have the Sanitation Broom Symbol. These changes do not includes areas with posted restrictions other than ASP rules.

Since the Alternate Side Parking Regulation signs have not been altered to reflect these announced changes, we expect the ASP rules will return to the posted signage rules once the effects of the pandemic have worn off.

For further explanation or updates to these reforms, please go to NYCDOT.

Please also look and listen to your local news for announcements from the Dept of Transportation for any updates of these Covid reforms.

Parking Hieroglyphics Prove Alien Civilization! (golden oldies)

2020-04-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

We who park on NYC streets know how to problem solve. To survive we have evolved a keen eyesight and a Water Dowser’s intuition. We can read multiple parking signs at a glance, often correctly. We can measure the distance from a hydrant with RoboCop type accuracy. We have even developed a Parking Map! Which is why this latest discovery, while sure to put me in the history books, was really just all in a day’s parking.
I was parking my car on Columbus Avenue, routinely switching on my infra-red parking locator (You don't have one of those?), when suddenly I saw something that defied human explanation. A whole lot of parking spaces! Immediately I looked around for the net, the snare, the trap that had been so obviously set, but there was nothing there but... but I don't know how to describe it. That's when I realized I had uncovered the most mind boggling, never-before-seen, alien hieroglyphics ever discovered. (sample above)
So complex that they can only be from another solar system, a so superior race. At first, the celestial symbols were incomprehensible, but then I saw them for what they are. Erich Von Daniken was right! The Gods can park their Chariots in the Heavens (or maybe they just rent), but these Aliens have descended and challenged us with encrypted messages for the greatest minds of our civilization to unravel, or be fined and towed. I mean these babies make crop circles look like nursery school doodles.
Applying all my parking skill and finding this DOT page on the internet have helped me to understand and to slowly readjust to our new human/alien society, but if you, like all of the other people on Columbus who didn’t realize they could park in the “Floating Parking Lanes” (parking spaces galore!), are haunted by these secret messages, or feel adrift and without moorings so far from the curb, here is a brief, and hopefully accurate, illustration.

Keep a sharp eye. More coded parking spaces to come.

More Traffic Cams (the merrier)

2019-07-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

For those of us who love a sure thing, wunderground.com has consolidated the NY DOT Traffic Cams with those of other citizens or businesses to give a better picture of how traffic is running around the city. It also predicts current weather with incredible accuracy:
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=10081

Another interface of the same grouping is through weather.com:
http://www.weather.com/weather/today/New+York+NY+10025:4:US

More is better!

Spring Break from Alternate Side Parking? Parking App Shows No Need to Move Cars for Alternate Side of the Street Parking for up to 12 Day

2017-04-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

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Spring break is happening right here in New York City and for city car owners that park on the street it rivals anything happening in Daytona Beach. As can be seen in the parkken street parking app’s Alternate Side Parking Suspended Days calendar, starting April 8 an array of dates of Jewish and Christian holidays together form a virtual blockade of street sweeping suspensions that can give New Yorkers some much needed relief from the daily ritual of moving their cars from one side of the street to another.

The suspended street sweeping days are:

· Passover (1^st/2^nd Days) – April 11-12

· Holy Thursday – April 13

· Good Friday – April 14

· Passover (7^th/8^th Days) – April 17-18.

These suspended or no-sweeping days combine with weekends and the typically no-sweeping Wednesdays and Saturdays to allow drivers in residential neighborhoods to leave their car in place for up to 12 days (see calendar below). A savvy car owner need only park their car on the 8th in a spot that is legal for Mondays and Thursdays and it will be legally parked for almost two weeks. That’s almost two weeks you can fly away to Spring Break in Miami or stroll through Central park and leave your car right where it is. This works for drivers of all denominations.

The parkken app translates street parking in Manhattan, but for weary drivers who deserve more, it likewise includes garage locations and an Alternate Side Suspensions calendar that every New York car owner’s phone should have. The calendar displays in green those days Alternate Side Parking rules are suspended for religious or legal holidays which can be very handy especially in the Spring when major holidays and religious holidays tend to cluster together.

Spring is the thaw many of us long for and nothing thaws a New York car owner like not having to move their car for Alternate Side Parking. This Spring the line-up of street sweeping suspended days makes having to move your car for the second and third week of April almost nonexistent and if you are in a residential neighborhood and park on the Mon/Thur side (the side of the street that is ordinarily not swept on Monday or Thursday) you can leave your car for 12 days!

In Spring men and women’s fancies turn away from traffic and gas prices. The New York obsessive compulsion to move parked cars from one side of the street to the other is soothed. The promise of Spring can melt even the hearts of ticket agents. Simply park on the Mon/Thur side of the street by April 8 and you don’t have to step on that gas, burn that exhaust, or leave that parking space on the Mon side of the street for up to 12 days… unless you just feel like it!

Tom Hibbard (parallelspaces.com) who developed the parkken app says, "The app is to enable everyone to understand and use Manhattan’s bizarre street parking rules right from their phone, but you always need an Alternate Side Suspensions calendar handy, so it comes with. There are over 40 Alt Side suspended days every year.”

There will be a similar cluster of Street Parking Suspensions in the Fall so be on the lookout, but before you leave your car just remember to check your parkken app to make sure no other parking rules come into effect while you’re away.

Happy Holidays

2016-12-19T18:10:00.000-08:00

New Snow Record! Car Not Moved on Manhattan Street for 44 days and Survived!

2015-03-10T19:03:00.001-07:00

Who doesn’t admire a record, a winning streak, a hero? This Winter, in perhaps one of mankind's greatest achievements, two fellow New Yorkers have left his and her car on the south side of the street in the Upper West Side for over 6 weeks and never received a ticket! Thanks to the repeated snow days, frigid days, and one singular, extraordinary, eureka moment of sheer will (or luck), this happy couple, who only use their car for weekend excursions, have been living the dream. Mother Nature and the benevolence of the DOT (uh yeah!) have dealt this carefree couple an Alternate Side Parking leave of absence.
This daring feat got its real momentum with the big Nor'easter on 2/6. Nobody was moving their cars in those days and Sanitation crews were plowing day and night. Alternate Side suspensions ran for days and as much as a week at a time. Then as things started to clear and there was a day or two when Alt Side was in effect, Christine (as the car is now known in Hollywood circles), happened to be on the correct side for that day’s sweeping which, of course, never happened because February’s record cold temperatures froze the snow solid. Then came more storms and more frigid days making the accumulations rock hard and the suspensions inevitable.
Then one amazing day in mid-February, the DOT looked up into the blue sky and, in their infinite wisdom, decided Alt Side rules should be in effect. No matter, those snowplowed snow dunes were frozen fast to the street and too solid to plow. Our heros' doorman confirms that a plow didn’t even show up to try. A sweeper didn’t show to try to slalom up and down them either. It had been decided it was time to get those cars (tickets?) moving again and people started dutifully digging, hacking and dynamiting their cars out. Our two heros’ car was so covered in snow and so encased in ice,

they decided they wouldn’t be able to get it out and left it. "Let the DOT have their pound of flesh!" or other similar curses were uttered.
Later that morning, the parking troopers relentlessly marched down the street, waved their magic revenue wands over windshields and printed their tickets as if it was a lovely spring day. Miracle of miracles though, our two heros did not get a ticket.
How were the ticketed and unticketed cars chosen? Who knows? Is it fair? Who can say? Is our new mayor afraid of heart attacks? Probably. Does the DOT even have a heart? Just maybe, But thanks to that one fateful day in mid February the all time record string of over 6 weeks without having to move your car on a Manhattan street continued and only just ended today.

Alt Side Is Suspended Tomorrow Mon. (3/2) and I Don’t Have to Move My Car until Next Weekend.

2015-03-01T16:26:00.000-08:00

Don’t know about you but I love the snow and cold of this Winter. Because the city is so pretty in the fresh snow? Uh, kind of, but mostly because thanks to all the Alternate Side Parking suspensions I only have had to move my car a couple of times for over a month and probably could have gone longer if I hadn’t needed to use it. Now, my car is on the north side of the street (good for Tuesdays and Fridays on the UWS) and Alt Side Parking is suspended Mon (Snow Day) and Thur (Purim) so I do not have to move it or even think about moving it until the weekend. It goes like this.

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri
Suspended	Correct Side	Not In Effect	Suspended	Correct Side

Meanwhile, with more snow on the way, none of us may have to move the car this week, but if you are on the Tue/Fri side you can stop thinking about it right now (at least for this week).

Give THANKS for Thursdays or 5-3-5-4

2014-11-15T17:01:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving Alternate Side Parking is suspended for one-day-only. Now everyone knows Thursdays are lucky days, but do you know why? Is it because the weekend is almost here? Is it because it was named after the planet Jupiter, the King of the Gods? Even more impressive than these, it’s because Thursdays that are one-day-only Alternate Side Parking Suspended Days have the longest stretch of days possible without the required moving of your car. I know those of you who have to take your car out every day wince when you hear from us who only take the car out for recreation or for transporting in-laws out of town, but we also pay New York City’s higher registration fees, taxes, inspection and insurance, not to mention suffer the whims of the DOT, the PVB, up the WXYZ. So we have to give thanks when Monday we can move the car to the Tue/Fri side and not think about moving it again until next Mon.
Now some may say “OK, sounds lucky,” but what is the 5-3-5-4 in the title? The combination to your gym locker that you keep forgetting, the latest college football genius defense on show this Thanksgiving weekend, or the rest of that girl’s telephone number that rubbed off? None of these.
It is the results of the parallelspaces.com very sophisticated, very state of the art Best Alternate Side Suspended Days Test Formula Numbers Array! Hey, we take parking pretty seriously. Of course, it’s a little too complicated for those of you without an engineering degree, but I can explain it to you laymen (and laywomen) something like this.
Start with the Mon, Tue, Thur., or Fri (Typical Alternate Side Days) just previous to the single suspended day you want to test. Then count the days until your car will no longer be legally parked. For example, this Thursday Street Sweeping is suspended for Thanksgiving. So once you move the car to the Tue side, you don’t have to move it for Wed (1), Thur (2), Fri (3), Sat (4) and Sun (5). That rates a Thur Only Suspended Day as a 5. Tue Only Suspended Days are a 3 and Fridays a 4. While it’s true Mondays are also a 5, the tiebreaker is long weekends almost always involve taking the car somewhere. True, just about all of us will take the car somewhere for Thanksgiving, but think last Veterans Day (11/11) and you get my point.
So Thursdays are officially crowned King of the Alternate Side Suspended Days and we thank the King of the Gods for it!
But that’s for single days. What about Alternate Side Suspended combinations? Well if you've been watching you just saw a 16 day stretch in October. Not too shabby.

Alternate Side Parking Suspended in NYC October 3d to October 19th

2014-09-24T06:27:00.003-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, turn off your engines. That’s right. Starting October 3rd through the 19th you can turn off that motor and leave it off for weeks, if you want to. Thanks to a blessed lineup of religious and holiday street sweeping suspensions (even including the major Muslim holiday of Idul-Adha), from October 3rd to the 19th Alternate Side Parking is going into remission. Just park on the Tue side of the street and, in most residential neighborhoods, you won’t have to move that car for street sweeping for up to 16 days.

This calendar helps make it a little clearer:

Sick and tired of moving your car from side to side for daily street sweeping? Caught by surprise by the end of Summer? Now for the good news: Park on the Tue side of the street by October 3 and you don’t have to step on that gas, burn that exhaust, or leave that parking space on the Tue side of the street for over two weeks… unless you just feel like it!

Oh, and just to show you we're not kidding. Alternate Side Parking is also suspended tomorrow (Thur) and Friday 9/25-9/26 for the Jewish new year Rosh Hashanah.

ENJOY!