The MTA is adding more NYC subway stations to have cellphone access. We already have these station stairs and platforms with cellphone access:

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	F/M and L platforms on 14th St. and Sixth Ave.,
	1/2/3 platform at 14th St. and Seventh Ave.,
	L and A/C/E/ platforms at 14th St. and Eighth Ave., and
	C/E platform on 23rd St. and Eighth Ave.

New stations will be:

	B/D and F/M platforms at Rockefeller Center,
	1/2/3, 7, and N/Q/R platforms at Times Square.

You should be able to access your cellphone in these NYC subway stations by late July or early August 2012. After that, about 5-6 stations a month will begin to offer cellphone service.

Margot Tohn of Park It spends her day coming up with ways to make driving, parking and walking in NYC easier. Check out her musings at www.parkitnyc.com.

Last year, we told you that you could use a NYC Muni-Meter receipt at more than one NYC street parking spot. So if you purchased 3 hours and only used 2 hours, you could still use that receipt for the third hour if you needed to park somewhere else — that also had a NYC Muni-Meter.

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Sadly, that convenience may be changing. The NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) is considering changing the rules so that you can use what’s left on the Muni-Meter receipt ONLY at a meter that charges the same rates.

We’re not sure how much this is happening, but the NYC DOT doesn’t want people buying up really cheap parking and then parking in a more expensive area. You can still use a Muni-Meter receipt at multiple parking spaces if you have time on the receipt, but all the spaces have to be at the same parking rates and regulations.

If the change goes through, you could get a NYC parking ticket if you try to trick the system.

Margot Tohn of Park It spends her day coming up with ways to make driving, parking and walking in NYC easier. Check out her musings at www.parkitnyc.com.

The long debate is over — women are better at parking than men!

Who Finds a Parking Space Quicker?

Women are better at finding a parking space. They’re more patient and drive a little slower while looking, so they’re better equipped to glimpse that empty spot or see when someone is about to leave a parking space. Disclosure: this study focused on public parking garages, not street parking.

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Who Has a Better Pre-Parking Pose?

It’s all in the preparation. If you start out correctly, then it’s really easy to park perfectly and impress all those around you. But if you try to wing it, then you’ll be going between Drive and Reverse enough times to embarrass yourself. Once again, women ranked higher in this category with 77% scoring ‘Good’ or ‘Very Good’ vs 53% of the men getting the thumbs up.

Back Into the Spot or Just Drive Right In?

Even before the women started parking, nearly 40% of them knew they were going to use Instructor Approved ‘Rear Entry Method’ to get into the parking space. Only 28% of the men chose this method, leaving the other 72% to tackle the parking space head on.

Who Gets in the Parking Space the Fastest?

The men were definitely faster, getting their vehicles parked in 16 seconds. The women took 21 seconds. If we park our cars about 3 times a day, and drive for about 50 years, that could mean that women spend 12 days just parking. Men? They get away with just 9 days.

Drive, Reverse, Drive, Reverse

It’s called the ‘Reposition Shuffle’ when you go back and forth between Drive and Reverse to get into the parking space. Who does is more? Women weren’t happy with their first attempt and 56% of them did the shuffle to get better positioned. The men were much happier with their efforts, and only 29% of them felt the need to keep moving the vehicle.

Where Does the Car End Up?

This study gave the highest importance to the cars being parking ‘Centrally’ in the allotted space. Women did this just over half of the time, whereas the men — who got into the space quicker and wanted out, had a ‘Central Finish’ only 25% of the time.

*Study was conducted by National Car Parks (NCP) in the UK, by studying CCTV footage of 453 drivers parking in public parking garages and another 2,000 drivers. The parking spaces were 90 degree stalls, perpendicular to the driving lanes.

Margot Tohn of Park It spends her day coming up with ways to make driving, parking and walking in NYC easier. Check out her musings at www.parkitnyc.com.

If you jump the NYC subway turnstile or scoot through the emergency exit, think again. The NY State Senate just passed a bill to fine you $500 for trying to save on the $2.25 fare. The current fine is $100.

If the NY State Assembly passes the bill, then it’s the law.

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We were thinking, ‘What’s a few people beating the fare? How much can it really cost NYC?’ Get ready to pick your jaw up from the floor, because the MTA estimates that all that turnstile jumping in the NYC subway loses the MTA $31 million every year.

The bill was drafted by Senator Charles Fuschillo (R – Long Island), who also serves as Chairman of the NY State Senate’s Transportation Committee. Fuschillo initiated the increase after the NY Daily News broke the news about a NYC Transit study showing that most regular fare-beaters get caught and fined $100 once every six to 13 weeks. At that rate, it’s cheaper to just pay the $100 fine rather than buy 6 weekly MetroCards.

According to a recent Daily News story by Pete Donohue, the MTA has the authority to increase fines for violating the Rules of Conduct.

Margot Tohn of Park It spends her day coming up with ways to make driving, parking and walking in NYC easier. Check out her musings at www.parkitnyc.com.

Tired of driving around NYC for street parking? It might get easier, with NYC testing out sensors that will tell you — on your smartphone — if a NYC street parking space is vacant or available. Right now, the test is happening at 177 street parking spaces at E 187th St & Belmont in the Bronx. The test is to see if these street sensors can withstand a NYC winter of snow and street cleaners. If that goes well, then NYC plans to implement a full test.

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Do we like this idea?

PROS

– You can find a vacant spot and beat other people to it.
– Based on how the technology works, we all could find parking quicker, decrease congestion from all that driving around, and reduce pollution from car exhaust.

CONS

– You could get a NYC parking ticket for using your phone to check the street parking. That could cost you up to $100 and even points on your license for a ‘Distracted Driving’ ticket.
– Depending on how many other people are looking for NYC street parking, that vacant space could become occupied right after you see it’s vacant, so you’ll be driving around even more looking for parking.

Read the full article in the NY Daily News

Margot Tohn of Park It spends her day coming up with ways to make driving, parking and walking in NYC easier. Check out her musings at www.parkitnyc.com.

Brought to you by Park It! NYC

Park Ave & E 33rd Street is the most dangerous intersection in all of NYC for pedestrians and bicyclists, according to Transportation Alternatives new site, crashstat.org.

Manhattan claims 8 of the top 10 intersections for NYC accidents between motor vehicles and either pedestrians or cyclists.

Of the 382 bicycle accidents with motor vehicles coming from the top 12 intersections, nearly 65% are all in Manhattan below 23rd Street.

Top 10 NYC Intersections for Pedestrian and Car Accidents

When it comes to NYC car crashes with pedestrians, from 1995 to 2009 there were just over 1000 accidents, mostly in Manhattan.

Margot Tohn of Park It spends her day coming up with ways to make driving, parking and walking in NYC easier. Check out her musings at www.parkitnyc.com.

Brought to you by Park It! NYC

NYC’s Taxi of Tomorrow is here! Well, the prototype is, at least. We went down to 23rd St & Broadway last week to check it out. There are some nifty new features and a few things that still have to be figured out for the new NYC taxi made by Nissan.

New Features Include:

• No Hump on the floor so the person in middle will actually get to sit with his/her legs together, if that’s what is wanted.
• Glass Will Separate the passengers from the driver, and the driver will be able to hear you.
• Climate Control that works.
• Legroom of up to 2 feet from the front of the passenger seat to the back of the driver’s seat.
• Charging Stations will be available all passengers. Right now the outlets are in the back of the driver’s seat.

• Intercom so you can talk with the driver.
• Skylight in the roof to let in some light, let you see all the tall buildings, and figure out how hard it’s raining.
• Baggage Area can handle 4 normal sized suitcases comfortably.
• Passenger Seat goes to the floor so there isn’t any open space beneath the seat. No more losing things in the dark and crawling around the bottom of the NYC taxi in search!
  

Margot Tohn inside the NYC Taxi prototype. Lots of leg room!

How will passengers pay? Right now the glass divider is one solid piece, so we’re sure the taxis will have a way for people to pay with cash and get receipts from the driver.

Where will notices be posted? Things like the Taxi Medallion info, driver’s license number, Passenger Bill of Rights.

Wheelchair Accessibility. They’re still working on a version to accommodate wheelchairs. Features including sliding doors, low step-in height, grab bars, and an entry step are being designed to improve access for people with mobility limitations.

More info here.

Margot Tohn of Park It spends her day coming up with ways to make driving, parking and walking in NYC easier. Check out her musings at www.parkitnyc.com.

Our fantastic friends over at New York Parking Ticket blew us away with this news. Mayor Bloomberg has rejected five proposals that would ensure NYC parking tickets are issued correctly. New York Parking Ticket put together this fabulous chart of the proposed changes put forth by the NY City Council Transportation Committee. Only the last one was approved by Mayor Bloomberg.

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Ticket Agent has to photograph the vehicle — OK, we agree that this seems a bit onerous. NYPD officers would have to carry a camera and document each photo.

Suspending Alternate Side Parking regulations when film crews are on the Street – this will let people actually park when a film crew is taking up street parking spots. Given that NYC charges film production companies to use the street, that could offset the potential revenue from parking fines. On the other hand, it could really mess up the street cleaning schedule.

Adding Bar Codes to parking Placards — this seems to make a lot of sense to us. If a NYC Parking Placard is valid, then what’s the harm in confirming it on-site? The major drawback is the NYC Traffic Agents would have to carry handheld scanners or readers to read the barcode. That’s expensive. And who is to say that someone with a Parking Placard shouldn’t be parking somewhere? There are 118,000 NYC Parking Placards issued to police, government officials, and clergy. These placards let the user park almost anywhere. Last year the city issued 30,000 summonses for invalid placards, according to CBS News.

Judges have to dismiss a NYC parking ticket if the parker can show a valid muni-meter receipt — we have to say, this seems fair. Sometimes you place the NYC muni meter receipt on your dashboard correctly and it just blows away, or turns over, when you shut your car door.

Give a 1 Day Parking Permit for People who are Moving — what do you think about this? We’d need to see data on how many NYC parking violations are issued for people who are moving.

Get rid of Late Fees until 30 Days after a Final Judgment –we agree, and so did Mayor Bloomberg. After all, why should you be penalized if the NYC Traffic System is making a decision?

Margot Tohn of Park It spends her day coming up with ways to make driving, parking and walking in NYC easier. Check out her musings at www.parkitnyc.com.