» Parking & Driving Advice

NYC Parking Disabled Permit Info
May 6, 2013

We often get asked about Disabled Parking Permits, or Handicapped Parking Permits, for NYC parking. Here’s a quick overview of both the NYC and NYS permits with information about where you can use these permits, how to apply for the permit, and other valuable information.

NYC Parking Permit for People with Disabilities (PPPD)

  • Display: A rectangular placard which can be placed on the dashboard. You can have several license plates associated with the Permit.
  • Allows parking at most NYC curbside street parking, including:
  1. All NYC “No Parking*” zones on the street except No Parking zones for taxi stands,
  2. All No Standing spaces authorized for doctors, press, diplomats and government agencies,
  3. All metered NYC street parking spaces without paying, and
  4. All ‘No Standing, Trucks Loading & Unloading’ zones except for specified restricted hours.
  • DOES NOT ALLOW parking at:
  1. Any “No Stopping” zones,
  2. Any ‘No Standing’ zones other than listed above, Read more…
Filed under: NYC Parking,Parking & Driving Advice — Tags: , , , — mtohn @ 9:32 am
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NYC Gets Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
April 29, 2013
Image,_Electric_Vehicle_Charging,_NYT

Hiroko Matsuike/The New York Times

As part of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s legacy, he wants to add 10,000 public parking spots for electric vehicles (EVs) over the next seven years, with 2,000 of these NYC parking spaces having electric vehicle charging stations.

Right now, NYC has 100 public electric vehicle charging stations (mostly in off-street NYC parking garages) plus another 120 charging stations for NYC’s fleet of 458 electric vehicles. Bloomberg’s proposal would add another 30 charging stations for NYC vehicles, bringing the total to 150 to be used by NYC-owned electric vehicles.

In his February 2013 address, Bloomberg said, “This year we’ll pilot curbside vehicle chargers that will allow drivers to fill up their battery in as little as 30 minutes. We’ll work with Read more…

Filed under: NYC Parking,Parking & Driving Advice,Parking News — Tags: , , , , — mtohn @ 5:06 pm
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NYC Food Truck Wars
April 18, 2013

Image,_NYC_food_trucksEither you’re hungry and love that you can get a cheap and great lunch from one of the food trucks on the street, or you need parking and that darn food truck is taking up 2 spaces — for four hours! Right now, any food truck can park on a NYC street if they are following the parking laws. They are not allowed to park where there is a NYC parking meter, though.

New York City Councilman Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan) proposed on April 9, 2013:

  1. Create up to 450 NYC street parking spots specially designated for food trucks (based on supplying 5% more than the current estimate of 300 – 400 food trucks),
  2. Allow only one spot per block for a NYC food truck,
  3. Ban any other NYC food truck from parking anywhere else on the same street, ie. ‘one block, one truck’, Read more…
Filed under: Driving & Traffic News,Parking & Driving Advice,Parking & Traffic Tickets — Tags: , — mtohn @ 11:46 am
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Another Future of Parking?
January 24, 2013

Inrix NYC parking garageFor nearly 10 years, we’ve been hearing about this fantastic new way you’ll be able to find parking — either street parking or garage parking. Here at Park It! Guides, we published an annual guidebook to the 1,100 NYC parking garages for three years. We stopped to focus on finding you NYC monthly parking because we knew there would be a way to share this information electronically, and have been working with parking garage owners and operators on that project.

In the last few years, we’ve heard from probably 20 companies that tell us about their great technology but can’t figure out how to make it work in NYC. And I hear that there are likely another 40 – 50 start-ups trying to do the same thing.

A few companies are seeing some success providing parking information via mobile apps, usually covering a small region. We found that whilst you can build great technology, you first need the actual location and rates for the parking garages to have a successful product. Read more…

Filed under: NYC Parking,Parking & Driving Advice,Parking Apps,Parking News — Tags: , , — mtohn @ 2:54 pm
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Beat a NYC Parking Ticket
January 17, 2013

NYC Parking TicketThink you didn’t deserve that NYC parking ticket? Our friends at New York Parking Ticket gave us this advice to help you defend your NYC parking violation.

1. Check your ticket for mistakes. If a required element is omitted, described incorrectly, or illegible, you are entitled to a dismissal of your NYC parking violation. A required element is a bit size bit of information that a (Traffic Enforcement Agent) TEA is required to enter on a NYC parking ticket. For example:

  • Make,
  • Registration expiration date
  • Plate type
  •  Body type
  • Date, time and place of occurrence
  • Proper reference to the section of the Compilation of the NYC Rules
  • Meter number, operational, and limits in some of the meter violations

2. Know the difference between No Standing, No Parking, and No Stopping

Here’s a chart we developed to help you understand these terms. Read more…

Filed under: NYC Street Parking,Parking & Driving Advice,Parking & Traffic Tickets,Parking Tickets — Tags: , , , , , — mtohn @ 12:17 pm
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Proposed NYC Parking Rules
December 25, 2012

The  New York City Council Transportation Committee met in early December 2012 to review a series of bills proposed to make NYC parking either easier or more clear. The three bills described below, however, were not supported by the NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT).

  • Int. 762 would make it easier for vehicles to stand near a school or day care center for longer than it takes to drop off or pick up a passenger.
  • Int. 527 would require the DOT to post notice of permanent street sign changes that affect parking.
  • Int. 824 would make it expressly legal for homeowners to park in front of their own driveways.   Read more…
Filed under: Driving & Traffic News,NYC Driving,NYC Parking,NYC Street Parking,Parking & Driving Advice — Tags: , , — mtohn @ 5:06 pm
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Garage Holiday Tipping 2012
December 13, 2012

Pile of cash, NYC ParkingWe’ve been getting lots of calls and emails recently asking our advice on How to Tip Your NYC Parking Garage.

$25? $100? How much is right? Your car is probably your second most valuable asset after your house, so under-tipping could be a bad choice. To find out the trends for monthly parkers, we conducted our 3rd Annual Holiday Tipping Survey with 20 NYC garages in Manhattan on December 5 & 6, 2012. We also asked our fellow parkers how they approach holiday tipping for NYC parking garages.

Once again, we heard a range of amounts from $10 – $100 per attendant across the city. But we are able to report on a few trends and we’ve come up with what we believe is the very first ‘rule of thumb’ for tipping your NYC parking garage (see chart below).

SOME ADVICE FOR 2012

  • West Side: $25 – $100 per employee
  • Business areas in the East 30s, 40s, & 50s: $10 – $75. Give at the lower range if you tip regularly during the year, and more if you don’t.
  • More affluent areas like E70s near 5th Ave and Park Aves: $100 per employee is considered ‘average’.
  • Upper East Side: $20 – $100 per employee

You will usually give more to the garage Manager.

NYC PARKING GARAGE HOLIDAY TIPPING GUIDE 2012

Our chart below outlines the range and average tips for different NYC neighborhoods, plus our brand new  ‘rule of thumb’ for tipping your NYC parking garage: Read more…

Filed under: NYC Parking,Parking & Driving Advice — Tags: — mtohn @ 12:05 pm
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NJ Toll Increases
December 1, 2012

EZ_Pass for Home PageEffective December 2, 2012 at 3am, you’ll be paying more for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) tolls. These PANYNJ tolls apply to the Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, George Washington Bridge, Bayonne Bridge, Goethals Bridge, and the Outerbridge Crossing.

Peak Hours: $10.25 with E-ZPassNY or E-ZPass NJ

  • $4.25 for vehicles with 3 or more people
  • $4.75 for Green Pass/Low Emission vehicle
  • Mon – Fri, 6-10am, 4-8pm
  • Sat – Sun, 11am – 9pm

Off-Peak Hours: $8.25 with E-ZPassNY or E-ZPass NJ

  • $4.25 for vehicles with 3 or more people
  • $10.25 for Green Pass/Low Emission vehicle
  • Mon – Fri, midnight – 6am, 10am – 3pm, 8pm – midnight

Cash, $13.00 at all times

  • Cash customers traveling overnight (11 p.m. – 6 a.m. Sundays – Thursdays, 11 p.m. – 7 a.m. Fridays & Saturdays) must use the upper level of the George Washington Bridge. The lower level and the Palisades Interstate Parkway approaches are restricted to E-ZPass customers only.
Filed under: E-Z Pass,NYC Bridges & Tunnels,Parking & Driving Advice — Tags: , , , , , — mtohn @ 12:03 pm
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Insurance Coverage for Hurricane Damage
November 14, 2012

Did you car get damaged in NYC’s Hurricane Sandy? We’ve researched what the largest auto insurance companies will cover.

TYPES OF INSURANCE POLICIES

Comprehensive Coverage – Covers damage caused by a natural incident, such as fire, falling trees, flooding, natural disasters, theft, damage. Essentially, anything other than a collision.

Collision Coverage – Covers damage caused from a collision with another vehicle.

GEICO

Filed under: Parking & Driving Advice — Tags: , , , , , — mtohn @ 4:29 pm
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New Traffic Signals & Signs
September 25, 2012
Image,_Sign,_Bicycle_Yield_Jonathan_Maus_Bike_Portland

Source: Jonathan Maus, Bike Portland

Red lights, green lights, stop signs, yield signs, Walk and Don’t Walk signals, turn arrows — these traffic signals & signs have been designed to make traffic flow better and help everyone on the road be safe. Sometimes you just want more, you know? The Wall Street Journal did a nice round-up of both existing and in-development signs and signals, including bicycle traffic signals, a combo yield/stop sign, and even a way for you to know that a car is braking 200 yards in front of you.

Filed under: Parking & Driving Advice — Tags: , , , , , , — mtohn @ 10:09 am
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