Real-time smart parking application demonstration at ITS World Congress

Friday 3 October 2008

Integrated Parking Solutions (IPS), in cooperation with the New York City Department of Transportation, Parking Carma, and Econolite, will provide a Smart Parking Application demonstration at the ITS World Congress being held in New York 16-20 November.

The demonstration will show how real-time parking availability information can be delivered to the consumer, thus enabling metropolitan congestion management incentives and advanced consumer benefits, such as, integration with mapping systems, available parking assistance, reserved parking and pay by phone or Internet features. IPS will be providing single space vehicle detection sensors, wireless connectivity and parking management software for the demonstration.

Frank Provenzano, Econolite director of public relations said, “It is exciting to be collaborating with the City of New York, Integrated Parking Solutions, and Parking Carma to showcase this advanced parking application. Our demonstration will provide everyone with an opportunity to see what is now possible for quickly and easily finding an available parking space in the city.”

Source : ITS International

A Bikes-Only Parking Lot in Midtown?

By Patrick McGeehan

A rendering of the proposed bicycle parking area at the Olivia building on 33rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.

A few business executives have dreamed up a private-sector solution to the problem of secure bicycle parking in New York: the city’s first bikes-only parking lot. They have a space on West 33rd Street. All they need is a corporation willing to pay as much as $200,000 a year to sponsor it.

“We’re really looking for a big number to build something quite spectacular,” said Daniel A. Biederman, president of the 34th Street Partnership. “We want this to be the premier bike parking facility in the country.”

Already, the group has cleared one high hurdle: Stonehenge Management, a developer, has offered a 2,600-square-foot lot next to an apartment building it owns on the north side of 33rd Street between Eighth Avenue and Ninth Avenue, Mr. Biederman said.

The partnership, which is financed by businesses and property owners in a 31-block section of Midtown, has developed a preliminary design for the lot and has ordered up a prototype of the racks it would contain, Mr. Biederman said. At first, it would hold 100 bikes, with room to expand if there is more demand, he said.

Regular users would pay a fee, but some spaces would be available for free, short-term use by cyclists visiting the neighborhood. Those fees will depend on how much the partnership can raise from a sponsor, Mr. Biederman said.

“There’s a huge demand out there for this kind of parking option,” said Caroline Samponaro, bicycle campaign coordinator at Transportation Alternatives, a group that advocates for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Ms. Samponaro said that a similar concept had worked in Chicago, where the McDonald’s Corporation became the long-term sponsor of a bike parking lot that charges $149 a year.

(Source : The New York TImes)

Red Hook Parking Rules Will Be Suspended Next Monday

September 2, 2008,  4:58 pm

By Sewell Chan

The fourth and final phase of the sign-replacement project will start on Sept. 8 and last for three or four weeks.

Starting next Monday, alternate-side parking rules will be suspended in parts of Red Hook for three to four weeks as the Department of Transportation installs 1,400 signs with new, eased street-cleaning regulations — the fourth and final phase of a project to change approximately 8,000 signs throughout Community Board 6 in Brooklyn.

The area is bounded to the north by Summit Street (included), from Imlay to Van Brunt Streets, and Hamilton Avenue (included), from Van Brunt to Smith Streets; to the east by Smith Street (included), from Hamilton Avenue to the Gowanus Bay; and to the south and west by the Gowanus Bay, from Smith to Summit Streets.

The new regulations will take effect once the sign changes are complete.

The third phase of the Brooklyn parking overhaul began on Aug. 18 and will end Sept. 15.

Meanwhile, in Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and other areas west of Court Street, where the third phase of the sign-replacement project started on Aug. 18, the 1,600 newly posted alternate-side parking rules take effect on Monday, Sept. 15.

The area is bounded to the north by Atlantic Avenue (included) from Columbia to Court Streets, to the east by Court Street (not included) from Atlantic to Hamilton Avenues, to the south by Hamilton Avenue (not included) from Court to Van Brunt Streets, and to the west by Columbia Street (included) from Atlantic Avenue to Degraw Street, Degraw Street (included) from Columbia to Van Brunt Streets, and Van Brunt Street from Degraw to Hamilton Streets.

The Transportation Department explained the purpose of the new rules this way:

In many cases, residential street-cleaning parking restrictions are being reduced from three-hour intervals to just 90 minutes, and from twice a week to just once a week, to ease parking for local residents. On commercial corridors, some streets will now be cleaned more often and regulations will be better coordinated to help ensure some curbside parking for local shoppers. The new rules were established by the Department of Sanitation.

The changes do not affect 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. parking rules or meter regulations, or any other parking rules other than the street-cleaning regulations.

(Source : The New York Times)