How Much Should New York Charge for a Parking Space? A Lot

Contrary to the practice in other big cities in the U.S. and around the world, parking on most New York City streets is free to all.1 But it’s an expensive sort of free. For one thing, finding a space often involves a long, emissions-spewing search, which isn’t unique to New York but is an especially chronic problem here. For another, there are the alternate-side parking rules.

The rules vary by neighborhood, but on east-west streets in residential neighborhoods of the city’s most densely populated borough, Manhattan, each side of the street generally must be vacated for 90 minutes twice a week to make way for street sweepers. The result is that many Manhattan car owners spend three hours a week sitting in their vehicles, initially double-parked across the street from the side that is about to be swept, then parked in their new spaces after the sweeper comes through waiting for the no-parking period to expire.