92 New Parking Spaces Across Brooklyn For Zipcar, Getaround

BROOKLYN, NY — Brooklyn is slated to get 92 new curbside parking spaces for carshare companies like Zipcar, the Department of Transportation announced Wednesday.

The 92 new spaces, spread throughout Brooklyn, are only a portion of the city's 270 new spots in Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx. Installations started this week and are scheduled to be finished next week as part of a citywide effort to reduce car ownership.

In Brooklyn, the new spots are parked across Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Ocean Hill, Brownsville, Bay Ridge, Bushwick and more areas.

The city in 2018 embarked on a five year pilot before adding so many spots, which it found successfully reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent, according to DOT. The pilot already had brought 230 spaces to the city. Wednesday's addition more than doubled the program, which was initially shooting for 300 spaces citywide.

“Convenient access to carshare is a proven way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and remove more vehicles from our streets,” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement. “Doubling the size of this program will make curbside carshare accessible in more neighborhoods, save people money, and build upon the success of our successful pilot program.”

During the program's pilot, carshare users averaged 24 trips per month per space, and each space saw an average of 17 unique drivers per month, according to DOT. Carshare users drove less than their pre-carshare behavior, and the pilot increased the diversity of carshare membership, according to DOT.

Some Brooklyn residents were skeptical about the program, especially given how difficult parking already is for car owners.

"There's no parking as it is," Bay Ridge resident and car owner Michael Curtis told Gothamist on Tuesday. "I just looked for a parking spot for an hour-and-a-half."

Others, like Bay Ridge resident Mariah Tarvainen, see the carshare option as a good alternative to buying a car, Gothamist reported.

"There just aren’t a lot of very good public transportation options out here, so I understand the need that people have to have their own cars, but I feel like, for us, that might be a service that we would utilize since we’re not car owners and it is sort of hard to get around here,” Tarvainen told Gothamist.

In the pilot, areas including Downtown Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens and Greenpoint had spaces installed, with spaces planned in nearly every area of Brooklyn.

Brooklyn's spots will hold cars owned by Zipcar and Getaround, and Truqit cars will be parked elsewhere in NYC.