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With congestion pricing in effect, push for parking permits in NYC gains momentum
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Feb 8, 2025
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CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Feb 8, 2025
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Two Manhattan politicians are mounting a renewed push for residential parking permits with congestion pricing in effect and free street parking uptown at an even greater premium.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa are calling on the City Council to approve a pilot program that would restrict parking in certain areas to drivers who pay for a permit.
The legislation also requires approval from Albany, where a separate bill has also been introduced in the state Senate during this legislative session.
“Many neighborhoods with highway and public transit access are already de facto park-and-ride destinations, limiting access to street parking for local residents with cars,” the Senate bill states. “A well-designed residential parking permit system could help regulate street space to improve parking access for local residents, integrate efforts to reduce air pollution and emissions from circling cars, reduce congestion on residential streets, and address economic and racial equity concerns.”
Lawmakers and Upper Manhattan residents have complained for years about New Jerseyans and other out-of-state drivers parking in the area. On Thursday, Gothamist reported on New Jersey drivers who say parking uptown has become even more difficult since congestion pricing began last month. Many transit insiders have predicted that more people will park north of the toll zone at 60th Street and then hop on public transit to avoid the $9 base fare.
State Sen. Robert Jackson, who is the state sponsor of the new parking permit bill, said his constituents had been complaining about drivers crossing the George Washington Bridge and parking in his Upper Manhattan district even before congestion pricing. There are even fewer free parking spots available now that the tolls have gone into effect.
“ I would say it is worse,” Jackson said. “ And in essence, [they’re] taking parking spaces where residents do not even have an opportunity to park their cars. And they live in the area,” he said.
The Senate bill would allow New York City to begin charging for street parking, but not on blocks zoned for commercial or retail use, or where there are already metered parking spaces. The bill also would allow the city to create a parking program anywhere, with “particular attention paid to a parking permit system in the neighborhoods within Manhattan above the Central Business District.”
The Central Business District is the congestion pricing zone in the heart of Manhattan.
Jackson said he didn’t have a price tag or a number of parking permits he’d like to see issued. But he would like the cost to be “reasonable.”
“ You want to be able to park your car and not be broke and spending all your money [on] a residential parking permit,” he said.
He did say he’d like to leave it up to individual community boards to decide whether their neighborhoods would participate in a permit program.
In 2019, then-Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer studied the issue and found 53% of New Yorkers said they would pay to park. The report also examined San Francisco’s parking permit program and found that that city had issued 95,000 parking permits in 2018. But there were only 80,000 on-street parking spaces. Brewer concluded that New York was not ready for parking permits.
“If a high enough price is not chosen, supporters run the risk of shooting themselves in the foot by incentivizing further vehicle ownership and inducing an even greater parking crunch. In the majority of examples evaluated under this report, cities made that exact mistake — especially in high-density neighborhoods — and induced a greater demand for parking that was notably generated by the neighborhood’s own residents, not those from outside of the neighborhood,” wrote Brewer, who is now a city councilmember.
There are roughly 3 million free parking spots in New York City.
Kate Slevin, the Executive Vice President of the Regional Plan Association, said the city should be repurposing residential street parking for curbside deliveries and other uses, as outlined by the mayor in 2023.
“It's not clear to us how a residential parking permit program would work in NYC. The city already has the parking placard program, which is widely abused and leads to unenforced parking regulations. How would a residential parking permit program be any different?” Slevin wrote in an email. “That being said, we are urging the MTA to monitor the effects of congestion pricing and address any unintended consequences of the program.”
In 2023, state lawmakers tried to create a residential parking permit program that would’ve charged individuals $30 a month. Lawmakers estimated it could’ve generated $400 million a year, all of which would have been used to fund the MTA.
The MTA is currently looking for a new revenue source from Albany for its current $65 billion capital plan.
Jackson said he didn’t have an idea about where the money from a new permit program should go. But he said the MTA already gets money from congestion pricing, suggesting that any parking permit revenue should go somewhere else.
Tagged
manhattan
transportation
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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