Defining the Right-of-Way

Over time, the ROW has been parceled out in ways that benefit the public—we reserve sidewalks for pedestrians (bicycles are generally not allowed), the curb for certain uses, and the carriageway for moving vehicles. Crosswalks are designated for people to cross the streets, but, until recently, it was understood that people would stay out of the street!

As our needs evolve it has come to be recognized that streets are for people! Sometimes the people are in cars, sometimes in buses, other times on bikes, or walking or even sitting, as in Open Restaurants and Open Streets. Though the ROW has to work in the context of the entire street system, today, communities have more input than ever into decisions of how to best use the ROW.

Among the most common misconceptions is that automobile parking should be prioritized over bus and bike lanes. Bus lanes add a number of safety and connectivity benefits, especially for commercial districts. New York’s newest and perhaps best known busway is along 14th street from Third to Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. Other examples around the US include the 16th Street Mall in Denver and the Portland Bus Mall.

It is also often feared that bike lanes are bad for business. The truth is that in most cases installing bicycle infrastructure —even when it means converting parking spaces to bicycle use—has a positive or neutral impact on business operations.

The lack of available parking is seen as an impediment to success. Studies show that merchants often think parking is more critical to their business success than it is. Many merchants believe that private automobiles are the primary way that people reach their stores. With that perspective, it makes sense they would work to prioritize private vehicle parking. The evidence shows otherwise. In urban commercial districts most customers actually come on foot or by transit —perhaps they are local residents running errands from home or on their way to or from work, or enjoying a restaurant meal.

In 34 business district needs studies completed by SBS, it was found that the average rate of private automobile arrivals is 18% with pedestrian plus transit access exceeding auto access in every study. Pedestrian access alone exceeded automobile access in 82% of the areas.

Certainly, depending on the extent to which your BID draws visitors from the region or from the neighborhood, parking will be part of the access — just not as critical as is generally believed. Regardless of what percent of people come by car, if parking is not managed, and there are never any available places to park, you will suffer the consequences of double parking, excess noise (often expressed as honking due to interrupted traffic flow), and excess travel due to the search for more availability.

While it may be true in particular instances, by-and-large, driving to a BID is not the dominant access in the New York City context. In fact, the majority of NYC households do not have access to an automobile, and most of those who do have cars use their vehicles selectively. Hence prioritizing car users will in fact disadvantage, on average 80%, of your visitors.

Intercept Surveys

Like the needs studies described in the previous section, an intercept survey can be done by stopping people and asking questions. Typically, a surveyor, with a clipboard and a paper survey, or using their smartphone or tablet and an electronic questionnaire will ask people in the BID area or entering stores a series of questions.

A simple form can be created using Google or other form creation tools, with answers directly recorded in an electronic format. Alternatively, a sheet of paper with questions can be created and the surveyor would record the answers. The paper form has the disadvantage of then having to be transcribed, which is an extra, time-consuming step that is subject to errors. A short survey is preferred as most people won’t mind stopping for a few minutes but participants will tire after too many questions.

In addition, the survey taker would note the time of day, day of week, and specific location of the interview.

Typically you would collect surveys from a few hundred people in order to get a valid estimate that would allow inference to the wider BID user community.

A curb use or occupancy survey is different and provides a different kind of information. The occupancy survey does not require you to interact with BID users; it only provides information on how vehicles use the curb and cannot help with decisions about curb allocation to a diversity of users. This type of data collection would involve walking a path through the BID at regular intervals and noting down license plates and vehicle type of legally and illegally parked vehicles. As the data collector circulates through the area—typically hitting each block at least once/hour—they would note which vehicles have remained since the prior data collection time and which ones have newly arrived. The data collection would also note when/if there are available parking spaces. This would give an idea of how many vehicles of what type are served at the curb and the average duration of stay. Vehicles that are parked illegally, at hydrants, in load zones and bus stops and double-parked should be carefully noted as these may be problems the BID wishes to address.

Using this approach, you might learn that a few vehicles park for very long durations, taking up most of the curb hours available. You might learn that people stay for short periods of time presumably completing quick errands. Or, you might learn that double-parking is a bigger issue than you had realized or that your BID members are having to receive their deliveries in unsafe ways that impede other traffic movements.

A combined occupancy survey with a questionnaire would put a survey form or postcard on a vehicle’s windshield with a few questions and pre-paid postage. This approach can be quite useful but is also likely to have a low return rate.

Finally, if you do not have the time or resources you can identify another area similar to your own and ​“borrow” their information.

Armed with information about how the curb is used and your new understanding that bike lanes and bus lanes could work to your advantage, it’s time to think about policies that would move the uses from those existing to those desired.

The tools are not typically within the power of the individual BIDs to implement but must be done by New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) and NY Police Department (NYPD). The next section describes the NYC programs that are important to parking and curb management.

NYC has a number of programs that affect curb management and parking. Here we discuss loading zones, performance parking, and the Open Restaurants bill. Open Streets also has a role, but because Open Streets programming considers the entire right-of-way, it is a bigger issue than parking and curb management. To learn more about Open Streets please see the NYC DOT website.

Loading Zones

Local Law 168 of 2021 requires the Department of Transportation to create a methodology to assess the need for loading zones and to implement loading zones throughout the city to reduce inefficiencies due to both passenger and commercial loading. DOT has created an interactive website that allows New Yorkers to alert the DOT where the problems exist. Their website allows users to identify the location of a problem and the nature of the problem. There is also a way to add specific comments.

Between December 2021 and March of 2023 NYC DOT installed over 2,000 new loading zones and has committed to installing 500 per year until the demand is met or the right balance is achieved.

Does your BID need more loading zones? If you find that delivery vehicles, or passengers loading and unloading, are blocking bus and bike lanes or double parking, your district would benefit from designated loading zones. Let NYC DOT know your needs so you can work together to create a more efficient and safer street environment.

Performance parking

Performance parking was popularized in the book ​“The High Cost of Free Parking.” The idea is to set a vacancy goal on each commercial, metered block (a popular goal is one free space) so that drivers are able to find a short-term space easily. The meter price is then set at a level that achieves the vacancy goal. If the parking spaces are always occupied, the meter rate is set higher, if the spaces are underutilized the meter rate should be set lower.

New York City has also experimented with peak hour pricing for parking meters. Years ago a pilot was implemented in a limited number of neighborhoods. DOT found that the pilot worked in most neighborhoods where it was tried. Since then DOT has developed a nuanced price schedule with the goal of promoting turnover—i.e. making sure parkers stayed at a meter only as long as needed and then moved on, making space for the next person to park. Information about the different rates is available on the DOT website. The purpose is to promote performance parking.

Performance parking has not been implemented on residential streets as it would require setting an hourly charge for residential parking.

Performance parking can help alleviate double parking and excess traffic due to vehicles trying to find a parking space. It is ideal for places where parking can be for very short durations –even as little as 15 minutes to pick up a child from daycare, a prescription from the pharmacy, or the dry cleaning or up to two hours for a doctor visit, a luncheon or other medium duration activities.

If the commercial blocks in your BID are over-parked, the DOT may be able to help with setting appropriate meter rates or adding parking meters where they would be helpful in accommodating the needs of all visitors to your district.

Open Restaurants - What to know about the current bill:

Will the Outdoor Dining program be year-round?

Is the Landmarks Preservation Commission review burdensome?

For those BIDS in Landmarked neighborhoods, the process requires the LPC to make a determination within 10 days of receiving an application. This is actually simpler and faster than it was during the original sidewalk cafe program prior to the pandemic.

Moreover, the requirement is meant to ensure outdoor dining structures that affix onto building facades go through proper review as they may have an effect on the exterior of architectural features. This should mean that roadway cafes, and open-air sidewalk cafes move smoothly through the review as they do not impact building exteriors.

How often will businesses have to request a new license?

The bill proposes licenses of four (4) years.

Will the design guidelines be onerous for businesses?

We do not know what the final guidelines will be, but the bill does call for protective barriers for roadway cafes. While much will be decided during the rule-making process, the bill does stipulate that drawings submitted by businesses will not be required to have been ​“developed, reviewed or approved by an architect, engineer or other professional third party.” We expect requirements around flexibility and modularity of the design.

Will there be fees?

A fee structure is proposed to be in place with the permanent program. The license fee is proposed to be the same for each program - $1,050 for each license period.

There will also be a tiered revocable consent fee structure with different costs based on sectors (geography) and type (sidewalk or roadway cafe). The bill requires that sectors 3 and 4 must be limited to areas south of and including 125th Street in Manhattan, and that Sector 1 fees apply to at least 80% of the City.

How quickly will the new program get implemented?

Any restaurant operating outdoor dining under the emergency executive order will be permitted to operate pending the granting of a license and revocable consent up to November 1, 2024. However, they must abide by application rules that will be set through the rule-making process and ensure they get their applications in on-time.

If a business is granted or denied a petition for revocable consent under the permanent program process, they will have 30 days after determination to comply with new requirements or remove their structure.