Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill Residents Express Frustrations Over DOT’s Carshare Pilot

CARROLL GARDENS – Though it was chilly outside Thursday evening, the mood inside the auditorium at P.S. 32 was heated as neighbors expressed their feelings about the citywide Carshare Pilot Program during a Community Board 6 Transportation/Public Safety Committee Meeting.

Approximately half a dozen community members (many from Park Slope) said they were excited for the program and looking forward to having another transportation option while about twice that number of locals (many from Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill) made no bones about expressing their objections—including the short notice they were given regarding the program and the loss of parking spaces it will cause.

Laura MacNeil of the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) was barely able to begin her presentation at yesterday’s meeting before she was interrupted by a barrage of shouts from angry community members demanding to know why they were not informed about the carshare program earlier.

MacNeil explained that after the New York City Council signed the carshare legislation into law on March 21, 2017 various methods of outreach were used to inform elected officials, stakeholders, and community members about the pilot program including a June 2017 presentation at a CB6 Transportation/Public Safety meeting as well as on-street programs where DOT spoke to people and passed out information at various events (such as the Bastille Day celebration on Smith Street in July).

Along with Council Member Brad Lander (District 39) sending out emails regarding the project and setting up an online portal for comments and feedback, CB6 Assistant District Manager, Ty Beatty, added that his office sent out multiple notices regarding the program to its full email list of approximately 13,000 recipients across the district including neighborhood associations, block associations, and elected officials. One neighbor asked Beatty why the community board did not reach out directly to homeowners to inform them about the program.

MacNeil noted that DOT also set up an online portal where New Yorkers could add their comments about the pilot and/or suggestions for locations. Several in attendance shot back that the portal was not useful since they were not aware of it and one woman claimed the one Council Member Lander created did not work.

Assembly Member Bobby Carroll (District 44) attended last night’s meeting to express his skepticism of the pilot as well. Much of what the Assembly Member said echoed the concerns of those opposing the carshare project.

“My office only got one piece of communication about this the week before Christmas,” Carroll said. “I do think a program like this should take more measures into making sure, especially in those areas where blocks are going to be affected, that everyone on those blocks and surrounding blocks know what’s going on.”

While not against carshare—the Assembly Member does not own a car and uses Car2Go— Carroll added, “My big thing is that we’re taking public property and we’re giving it to private corporations. I think if we’re going to do that, that sets a terrible precedent, that suddenly something that’s for the entire public suddenly becomes the auspices of a multi-national car company, which is what Car2Go is, it’s Daimler Chrysler. This is one of the largest corporations in the world.”

MacNeil explained at the start of the meeting that DOT will not run the carshare service, and is only providing the carshare parking spaces to the participating carshare companies.

“These parking spaces will not be under alternate side parking regulations. The regulation will be ‘No Standing Anytime. Carshare Parking Only.’ It’s going to be the responsibility of the carshare company to maintain, clean, remove ice, remove snow” from their designated parking spaces, she explained.

“Why are they not paying for these spots so that we can at least get better infracture and roads and buses and subways?” Carroll questioned. “That’s what we desperately need in this city, and that’s what most people need to get to work. Why are we giving huge corporations an absolutely valuable space on a block?” he asked over a round of applause. “There are people paying thousands of dollars to buy a space in a [garage]. This is unbelievable.”

“This is not against carshare,” the Assembly Member continued. “This is when the City of New York is under massive budget constraints, the State of New York is under massive budgets constraints, we’re going to take some of the richest real estate in our city and give it away for free to multi-national corporations. I really would like an answer to that and would really like it spelled out as to why we’re doing that. I can’t support this if we don’t have that answer,” he concluded.

Shortly after, a community member told MacNeil, “I don’t disagree with carshare but there are a couple of issues. Just on 2nd Place (between Henry and Smith) you’ve taken out six spots in a matter of three blocks. The parking in our neighborhood has become a crazy challenge. I see people everyday trying to find spots. There needs to a better view of what’s going on.”

He suggested a “very simple compromise” by putting the designated carshare spots in metered spaces on Court and Smith Streets. “They would not really affect anyone, except revenue to the city,” he noted. “We agree with carshare but [the locations] need to be in reasonable spaces, and right now, they’re not.”

“For this pilot we’re looking at alternate side parking existing regulations only,” MacNeil replied. “We’re not touching metered parking for this pilot because the needs of commercial corridors are different. Metered parking is an attempt to have high turnover so space is available for people who come to those businesses. We want to maintain the needs of that commercial corridor so we’re not going to be taking away metered parking and changing how that corridor uses its curb. We’re trying to place carshare in close proximity to the residential neighborhoods where there’s existing alternate side parking.” she explained.

Other areas attendees noted that are already plagued with parking problems but are marked for designated carshare spaces include Red Hook, Cheever Place and Degraw Street, Nelson and Clinton Streets, and 4th Place and Court Street, all of which MacNeil jotted down and promised to reconsider.

“We believe this pilot provides two different benefits and goals,” she said. “One of which is to alleviate demand for curbside parking by providing people an alternative option to car ownership. The second is to provide mobility options to people who don’t own cars, who might not be able to afford cars, [or] who are in transit deserts.”

She noted that DOT will be evaluating the two-year pilot program in a variety of ways including a collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Transportation Research Unit to conduct independent surveys of carshare members to learn about their travel patterns before and after they’ve join the pilot program. The agency will also conduct an independent parking analysis to try to better understand parking demand and the city’s parking problems.

DOT is also mandating data sharing from all of the participating carshare companies so that they can learn how the spaces are being used, how many individual members are using each of the spaces, and the length of their trips. The carshare legislation also mandates that DOT share annual data reports detailing what the agency has done and observed during the pilot and how it is working.

“I understand that parking is a tremendous issue,” MacNeil said. “We really believe that bringing this carshare pilot to a neighborhood can bring a valuable service and can be a benefit. That’s why it’s a two-year pilot, and that’s what we’ll be learning and that’s what we’ll be publishing.”

The New York City Carshare Pilot Program will be implemented in Spring 2018. DOT will continue its on-street and online outreach to let communities know where carshare spaces will be located and how the program works.

Learn more about the carshare program here and check out nycdotcarshare.info for more information on the pilot.

Click here to see NYC DOT’s full presentation which includes maps of locations for carshare parking spots in Park Slope, Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill, Red Hook, and Boerum Hill.

Anyone with concerns about locations of carshare parking spaces can contact Community Board 6 at adm@brooklyncb6.org.