If you don’t want to deal with the full-time hassle of owning a car in New York City but still want some of the perks of having a vehicle, car-share programs like Zipcar provide a happy medium.
Renting a car means doesn’t absolve you of the headache of trying to park in the city, though, but now, it might be easier to find a spot: Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city will reserve parking spots for car-share vehicles.
New York City will dedicate 309 parking spots in total, the mayor announced on Thursday.
The city’s Department of Transportation will reserve 285 of these spaces in select neighborhoods and DOT municipal lots through the DOT NYC Carshare pilot for Zipcar and Enterprise CarShare.
The remaining 24 spots will be reserved in parking lots at certain public housing developments through a partnership between the New York City Housing Authority and Zipcar.
“Our car-share pilot will give New Yorkers a chance to try a new affordable, convenient transportation option, which we hope will also ease parking pressure at our curbs and reduce congestion,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg in a statement.
These programs help ease congestion in the city, data shows, because one vehicle can be shared by up to 70 people.
“For the first time ever, the city is setting aside dedicated parking spots to expand access to car-share programs,” de Blasio said in a statement. “For every vehicle in a car-share program, up to twenty households can forgo the need to own a car, fighting congestion and making our air cleaner. We’re also bringing more car-share options to NYCHA residents to help them get around, so we can continue building the fairest big city in America.”
Reserved on-street car-share parking spots will be in these NYC neighborhoods:
Bronx
Parkchester
Brooklyn
Boerum Hill
Brooklyn Heights
Cobble Hill – Carroll Gardens
East Williamsburg
Park Slope
Red Hook
Williamsburg
Queens
Eastern Rockaways
Jackson Heights
Jamaica
Manhattan
East Harlem
Hamilton Heights
Morningside Heights
NYCHA parking lots with reserved Zipcar spots:
NYCHA Bronx sites (2 spaces each):
East 152nd St-Courtland Ave
Davidson Houses
Marble Hill Houses
Randall Balcom Houses
Throggs Neck Addition
NYCHA Brooklyn sites:
Belmont Sutter Houses (2 spaces)
Cypress Hills Houses (2 spaces)
Fiorentino Plaza (3 spaces)
Glenmore Plaza (3 spaces)
Marlboro Houses (2 spaces)
Pink Houses (2 spaces)
