Tracking the New York City Police Who Park on the Sidewalk
A new study finds that more than 90% of NYC precinct houses had vehicles blocking sidewalks and crosswalks nearby, despite laws aimed at cracking down on the practice.
A familiar sight on NYC streets: parked vehicles carpeting the sidewalks next to police stations.
Photos: Marcel Moran
New York City residents have long complained about police officers who park their vehicles on the sidewalks around police stations, blocking pedestrian access, obstructing bike lanes and clogging up crosswalks. Now a new study has put hard numbers around the irksome urban issue.
Marcel Moran, a Ph.D. candidate of the University of California at Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning, visited all 77 of the city’s precinct houses and found that 70 of them, or more than 90%, had vehicles parked either on the sidewalk or crosswalk of nearby streets. Five of the seven exceptions were in Manhattan. “They’re on narrower streets — there’s just physically not room for it,” said Moran. “There are many more demands on the curb space.”