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NJ drivers say it's harder to park in Upper Manhattan since congestion pricing launched
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Feb 6, 2025
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Ramsey Khalifeh
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Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Feb 6, 2025
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Some New Jersey drivers say they’re having a harder time finding free parking on Upper Manhattan’s cramped streets since congestion pricing launched last month.
Weehawken resident Evelyn Gonzalez, who regularly drives to visit her mother in Washington Heights, said the new fees on drivers below 60th Street have led her to take the George Washington Bridge instead of the Lincoln Tunnel. It’s a longer drive made worse by a lengthy search for parking.
“Usually when I come up here, it’s easy for me to find parking. … Now there’s no parking,” Gonzalez griped. “I’m not going to spend money on a garage. It’s not a win-win situation, it’s horrible.”
Before the program launched, an MTA environmental assessment predicted it could lead to “increased delays and queues” around the George Washington Bridge during midday hours as drivers circumvent the tolls. And for more than a year, many uptown car owners have feared drivers outside their neighborhoods would take up parking on their streets to avoid the tolls.
The Port Authority hasn’t yet published data showing whether more cars are using the crossing since congestion pricing launched, but figures from the traffic analysis firm INRIX show traffic is actually moving faster on local streets around the bridge in New Jersey and Manhattan over the last month.
Richard Caraballo, a driver from the Bronx who regularly visits Washington Heights, also noticed it’s become harder to find parking in the area — but theorized it was because the tolls have caused spaces to turn over less frequently.
“People are just leaving their cars where they are now because they’re taking mass transportation, so parking is not going to get any better,” Caraballo, 55, said. “I think it creates another problem in that regard.”
Hector Estrella — a driver from Paterson, New Jersey, who was visiting Inwood to pick up medicine for his in-laws — said the congestion tolls make life harder for anyone living outside the central business district.
“A lot of double parking, it’s getting very hard. … [Drivers] are coming up here more and it’s getting more congested,” he said.
Still, some longtime locals say the parking struggles in the area are nothing new, and that congestion and parking problems have always been bad.
“For years since I’ve been here that’s been the issue: finding parking,” Inwood resident Miguel Jurado, 70, said. “People sometimes wait up to an hour to find it.”
Tagged
new york city
new jersey
manhattan
transportation
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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