Tuesday, January 16, 2018

NYC DOT To Present Proposed Locations For Carshare Pilot Program In Community District 6 At A Meeting This Thursday

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 The New York Department of Transportation will give a presentation on its new NYC Carshare Pilot Program and its implementation in our neighborhood at Community Board 6's Transportation/Public Safety Committee Meeting this Thursday, January 18, 2018 at 6:30 pm. The presentation will focus on the proposed parking locations selected to implement the city-wide program.
DoT is designating 15 sites for a total of 30 parking spaces that the agency plans to set aside in Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill.  The same amount of spaces will be set aside in Park Slope. The program will also be implemented in Boerum Hill, Red Hook, Brooklyn Heights, as well as other New York City neighborhoods.

From NYC D.O.T.:
In line with recent City Council legislation, the NYC Department of Transportation is launching a two-year citywide pilot to designate about 300 parking spaces in municipal parking facilities and 300 parking spaces on-street in select neighborhoods exclusively for the use of carshare companies.

Carsharing is a service that gives members access to an automobile for short-term use ― usually by the hour or minute. Carshare companies typically provide either round-trip service, where members borrow and return vehicles at the same location (e.g. Zipcar and Enterprise Carshare), or one-way service, where members pick up a car at one location and drop it off at another within the company’s service zone (e.g. Car2Go and ReachNow). Carshare has the potential to:
-Improve local air quality and reduce congestion - New Yorkers who use carshare drive less than those who own their own car. Less driving means cleaner air and fewer cars on city streets.
-Shorten your search for parking by ensuring that carsharers always have a reserved space. Better yet, adding carshare spaces reduces personal car ownership, which benefits all drivers in the neighborhood by lowering the number of cars competing for the curb.
-Lower household transportation costs by providing reliable access to a car without annual car insurance and maintenance bills, tickets, and unexpected costs. You only pay for as much or as little as you drive.
-Improve access to services, friends/family, and recreation by making a car available when you need one.


In an email to constituents, Councilman Brad Lander writes:
"I know it may seem counterintuitive that giving up a small number of parking spots to a car-share program could actually make parking easier for others, too.  But data from other places suggests that will happen. Testing a pilot program here will let us evaluate whether that works in Brooklyn as well."

Local residents can view the proposed locations online for Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill here and for Park Slope here.
Comments on the proposed stations can be submitted here.

The Community Board 6's Transportation/Public Safety Committee meeting will be held at  P.S. 32, 317 Hoyt Street, between Union and President Streets.
All information on the NYC Carshare Pilot Program can be found here.

What are your thoughts on this pilot program? Do you think it will help alleviate congestion and facilitate parking here in Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Take metered spaces away, not regular Alt. Side spaces. How about the city for once loses some revenue instead of residents losing their ability to park? Charge the car sharing companies a lot for for the right to do this and give up the metered spaces to them. The fact no bike or car sharing initiative consumes metered spaces is offensive to those who own cars in the neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

this plan is really not well thought out. It is mind boggling to think that by removing parking spots and offering carshare you will increase the availability of parking. There is also an assumption that families will abandon their cars. This plan will just make it harder to park! I also became aware that the sites will not be subject to alternate side rules, that the sponsor companies will clean those areas! Have you looked at the bike share stations? They are filthy. We are essentially privatizing the streets. If we are doing that why not go one step further and issue resident parking permits in our community. With congestion pricing up for discussion again, our community will be used by those living further out in Brooklyn to park in our neighborhood and hop on the subway closer to Manhattan.
Also, why are all the Sites west of court street? Take away metered parking on court and smith for carshare.

LeeBee said...

I agree with Anonymous above. It may be that car-share will help eventually. But, there seems to be a general belief in the area that many cars are parked here from other parts of the city because of the less frequent alternate side rules. I would like to see some form of resident only parking. Perhaps no parking between 3 am and 6am for non-residents so as not to interfere with businesses but keep away the people using our streets as a long term parking lot.

Anonymous said...

How about residential parking permits!! Do not only do I have to ride around for an hour to find parking because of all the Citi bikes, nursing home workers and construction, but now you want to take more spots away!! I have lived here all my life and politicians have made it harder and harder for a family to live In the neighborhood! So many other issues affecting the community and it’s pretty pathetic that you just care about about making residents’ quality of life Worse. I pay too much in taxes to have more and more taken away!

Rob said...

I don't see a problem with the plan. Most of the people with cars in this neighborhood have them as a luxury. You can just tell by when it snows how many cars sit there because alternate side is suspended. Resident only parking may help a little but that's to be seen. I suspect the people that park here do live here but may have their cars registered at other addresses to save on car insurance, which is really expensive in Brooklyn.

neil said...

I think this is a worthwhile experiment. Bike sharing and car sharing make public roads more equitable and usable by more people. The city has an absolute right to get the most use out of public spaces. Seems like a small step towards a big reduction on the number of vehicles on roads. People shouldn't expect to leave their private property on public streets for free, and whatever the costs of permits are certainly don't cover the costs of subsidizing street maintenance.

Marlene said...

This is a COMMERCIAL venture and as such should be limited to using the metered spaces on the commercial strips.

The city is essentially selling parking spaces to this new COMMERCIAL business, yes it is a "share" business, like many businesses (restaurants after-all allow us to share those dinning tables too).

Which brings me to the main question here: WHO INITIATED THIS?

I don't recall the community banning together and asking for this, does anyone remember any such community push for this?

Or is this a business with political connections presenting some new scheme under the guise of "shared-economy" (thought one where the company gets to makes profits). And the politicians jump on board because of financial support and the cover of supporting a new "progressive" industry?

And if CAR-SHARING was what the government is promoting here, why would they be limiting certain parking spaces to one operation, one cooperation? In the sharing-economy that has long existed, people have shared their cars with others, why don't they all get to use preferential parking spaces? Why would government be favoring one set of car-sharing parameters over other car-sharing schemes?


Anonymous said...

In this new sharing economy, everyone would get to share every parking space.
Oh wait, that is what we have been doing all along--sharing those parking spaces!


But seriously, this is not about reducing car use on our streets, its just creating a different type of use that benefits a single corporation.