The Invasion of the Bridge and Tunnel Crowd Won’t Just be on Weekends Anymore
Commuters to the Big Apple are expected to turn neighborhoods across the city into their own personal parking lots, ditching their rides to save their wallets due to the $9 congestion pricing plan, concerned residents told The Post.
Neighborhoods closest to the 60th Street tolling zone are expected to be upended with nightmarish gridlock as a surge of drivers begin scouring for free parking spots. The Upper East Side, Upper West Side, and Harlem are expected to be particularly affected, as hospital workers and visitors already take up a significant amount of street parking.
The outer boroughs are also panicking, with communities such as Long Island City in Queens, the South Bronx, and ritzy Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and Park Slope in Brooklyn fearing their quality of life will be uprooted by the toll.
Critics of the plan claim it will bring more air and noise pollution to the outer boroughs, including parts of The Bronx and Staten Island, as drivers opt to avoid the toll.
As the toll scheme takes effect, expect motorists to spend the next few months “experimenting” with new routes, deciding whether to pay the tolls, use mass transit, or chase free parking, according to Genevieve Giuliano, a professor specializing in urban transportation.
Many commuters want to spend as little time as possible on NYC’s crime-ridden subway system, so expect them to relentlessly drive around the outer boroughs looking for prized parking spots, according to Jim Walden, a white-collar running for mayor.
Residents and officials are warning of a potential parking crisis, with a toll camera on 1st Avenue between East 60 and 61st streets expected to bring traffic chaos, and online entrepreneurs hawking license-plate covers to help motorists dodge toll machines and traffic cameras.