Oct. 17, 2014 By Christian Murray
Representatives from the Department of Transportation attended a Community Board 2 meeting last week and introduced a preliminary plan to introduce “Park Smart”– a program that aims to free up parking spaces–in Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City.
The program attempts to reduce the time it takes for motorists to find parking in business districts– by changing meter rates, extending park hours and modifying commercial parking zones.
The program was first introduced in Queens in 2013, with the implementation of a pilot program in Jackson Heights.
The program typically focuses on changing the meter rates to encourage short-term parking through “progressive” rates.
For instance on certain streets in Jackson Heights, it now costs 50 cents to park for 30 minutes, $1:50 for an hour, $2:50 for 90 minutes and $4 for 2 hours.
However, in some cases, the parking period has been extended on certain streets. For instance, one hour limits have been increased to two.
Park Smart typically aims to change the commercial parking and delivery zones. “Early Morning Delivery Zones” are often established to provide loading space before the meters turn on at 10 a.m., and “Paid Commercial Parking Zones” reserve daytime metered spaces for commercial uses.
The Department of Transportation will not introduce the system unless business owners opt into the program. The DOT representatives told the Community Board 2 that it will reach out to Sunnyside Shines Business Improvement District, the Long Island City Partnership and Woodside on the Move to get their feedback. Those groups are likely to conduct a survey of local businesses to get their feedback.
Park Smart is not a program that typically goes into effect overnight as the DOT typically evaluates each street to determine whether the parking times and rates need to be modified.
Furthermore it is typically implemented as a pilot program before becoming permanent.
The programs were made permanent in Park Slope and Greenwich Village, after they were deemed effective, according to the DOT.
However, the pilot program on Madison Avenue and East 86th Street was brought to a halt after it was viewed as being ineffective, according to published reports.
For more information on Park Smart click here
Featured Events
44 Comments
Ride bikes or take subway, you have a massive MTA system here and still you people need to walk out your door and put your azzes in a car 30 feet from your door. Walk a couple blocks and get on the train, read a book.
Probably the same people would visit the Grand Canyon and look at it from the car window instead of take a hike on the trails. Fools.
Hipsta Thugg, where you been? We need more of your special blend of commentary here to keep these fools in check.
how about making SATURDAY FREE PARKING at the end skillman near hunters point 7 no one parks there the whole freakin street is empty could be used for a park and ride…
this is disgusting……the reason for hard parking is there are so many big cars
suvs vans limos…….. HOW ABOUT A DISCOUNT FOR A FORD ESCORT STATION WAGON….
man, i gotta get out of this horrid city. the worst quality of life possible, and it just gets worse when the greedy and corrupt city wants more and more of your money while providing less and less. gonna rent out my apt for a few thousand dollars and find myself a nice house in another state. NY is a horrible place to live, if you can even call it living! i need my quality of life back! its been too many years!
Bye! Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!
what about a sliding scale? I’ll exaggerate to to make a point. Ten cents for a five minute parking stop. Five dollars for a two hour parking stop. I think something along this line would be more effective than a flat rate. The longer you stay in a spot the more expensive per minute.
Oh look a other progressive program designed to milk middle class New Yorkers. As if the 25 mph speed limit and speed cameras that go off like strobe lights all day and night werent enough.
To all the idiots who say you don’t need a car when there’s buses or trains. You are idiots, thumb me down all you want you goobers, You obviously don’t take the trains enough to endure the ridiculous traffic, or maybe you just like squeezing against strangers. The Buses? Try taking one into the city when the 7 train is down 5 weekends in a ROW to fix the same stupid “signal problems ”
idiots.
Cars are not needed in this city. Period.
you are an idiot
Awww ruebn doesn’t like taking mass transit, poor entitled rueben…. almost like hipster
Let just calculate – Astoria Park the closest grass park to Sunnyside is 10 minutes by car or 60 minutes by public transportation including waiting time. You need a car in Sunnyside unless all you go to Manhattan and nowhere else. I agree I never take car to go to Manhattan but I also go other places.
What you’re saying is that if Astoria park is 60 minutes by public transport and 10 minutes by car, the logical solution is to drive? If everyone followed this logic, the streets would be an unmanageable mess of car traffic. How about improve public transportation so that Astoria Park is less than 60 minutes by car, and therefor more accessible to the majority of residents?
Ruben, I thought you were moving away. Have our celebrations been premature?
All talk no action, much like most of his rent slave brethren
I took the bus into the city this weekend and again this morning. It’s not that bad, but could certainly be improved. If there weren’t so many lanes of traffic on Queens Blvd, there could be a dedicated bus lane. Also, I DO own a car in Sunnyside, but even still I recognize that the city should not cater to me as a driver when the majority of NYC residents do not drive.
I had visitors from Germany last weekend- 7 to QBP to N to 6 train; met them at Grand Central. We took Q32 to QBP & we hopped on the free shuttle to Vernon Blvd. We walked along the boardwalk, then caught the shuttle back to QBP & took the N to the beer garden in Astoria. Afterwards, we came back to QBP on the N. They took it back into Manhattan; I caught the Q39 back to my building in Sunnyside. All the transportation was smooth & comfortable, and hardly any waiting.
As a business owner I’m happy to hear this. My restaurant on 37th is in such need of meters. We lose so much business because people can’t park. And a DOT rep had the nerve to come in our establishment in person to say he doesn’t see a need for it.
These city employees are completely shameless and have no idea how hard it is to run a business in this city. The dot has become as bad as the buildings department and are absolutely destroying all small business.
Someone explain how blatantly overcharging for parking makes people move faster. It’s not like 2 hours is long term parking. This is a disgusting outrage and I pray the community board puts a swift stop to it!!!
Suck it, car dude.
Wait till they start to have bikes registered and charged for street use…. then YOU can SUCK IT … Also the truth.
So long as the charge to use a bike is proportional to the cost of the needed infrastructure I wouldn’t mind one bit. Seeing as a bike does a fraction of the damage to the roadbed that cars do, and has commensurately low externalities, it would be pennies.
Parking space should be priced at whatever the market will bear. Clearly parking is very in demand in Sunnyside – people should be willing to pay more than they’d like for a resource in such high demand.
You are truly a Koolaid drinker. Do you have any idea how stupid you sound?
Dude… charges for bicycles? Listen to what you’re saying…
Well, a parking garage would help. Parking recently became a pain in the neck.
And more regular change of cleaning
Regulate the street and stop people from parking whole week. They are using cleaning regulation to enforce this but that’s once a week, that’s too long, if 10 cars park liberally and occupy 15 car spaces, those 10 cars won’t move for 7 days. Bring back twice a week cleaning rules and open some spaces, have you ever noticed how easy it is to find parking the night before cleaning rule on that side?
Cleaning rules are already in affect twice a week. Thursday and Friday by me.
“effect” not “affect.”
Why not take a page from free market ideology and let spots go for whatever the market will bear?
Because the street belongs to everyone, not matter how much money they make. Capitalism would take away the ground beneath the feet and the air filling the lungs of poor people. Hell, if you can’t afford the rent they sure as hell take away the roof over your head. How low can humanity stoop to make a buck?
Uh…yes, the street belongs to everyone, but parking spots are a commodity. If free parking wasn’t free there would be more of it available. Consider that you’re talking about parking spaces like they’re an enshrined right – they’re not. Please debate from facts, not emotion.
If they want to free up parking, stop letting churches have all those spots out front 24/7.
Also, get rid of the fire hydrants that don’t work, or at least fix them.
Churches should also be paying property tax.
Owning a car in Sunnyside is dumb for 55% of the people who currently do. Anything that gets them off the streets is beneficial for the city streets, environment, and pedestrians.
You seem particularly dense. Do you go out by yourself or do you have an attendant?
This is great. Take the bus, subway, walk or bike like the majority of New Yorkers. This is the most densely populated city in the country (among the most densely populated in the world). Cars cost hundreds of lives per year, pollute our neighborhoods with noise and exhaust, and Queens Boulevard divides our neighborhood in half. Less than half of New Yorkers own cars, yet so much of our city caters to them, while the pedestrian majority has to deal with the consensuses. If you want to drive around to run your errands in a big SUV, move to Texas. We should be making it harder to use a car in this city. It’s totally inappropriate.
That’s an absolutely ridiculous thing to say. While your situation may allow you think that way, keep in my mind that there are millions of New Yorkers living in the outerboros who rely on their cars. Sunnyside is not Manhattan.
No, it’s not ridiculous. Most of the people in Sunnyside do not need or have a car, yet their lives are negatively impacted by a minority of people who want to have one and expect free parking, to boot. The number of residents who really “need” a car in minimal. Ten years from now, the situation will be out of control if measures are not taken now. I look forward to the day when I no longer have to hear the shining of drivers bemoaning the fact that it’s hard to find a place to park. Wah wah wah.
If you want to limit your life to this neighborhood and the limits of public transportation, you are free to do so. You are also free to spout any absurdly narrow politically based garbage you want. And people who live wider, more varied lives than you do, and who know a line of baloney when they hear it are free to laugh like crazy at your and wish you well in future endeavors. You need all the luck you can get because you are a fool.
Kiss my ass!
WTF???? “The Department of Transportation will not introduce the system unless business owners opt into the program.”
What about the opinions of the RESIDENTS who will have to PAY MORE for LESS TIME?
How about erecting a couple of multi level parking structures under the subway el on Queens Boulevard.
So it’s a supply side issue, not demand side?