City Carshare Pilot Will Take Up 300 On-Street Parking Spaces

NEW YORK, NY — The city will launch a carshare pilot program that will take up 300 parking spaces in parking garages and another 300 on-street spaces in 15 neighborhoods starting in the late fall.

The two-year test of the program will let people essentially rent cars for a short amount of time, sort of like with Citi Bike. Trips can be one-way or round trip.

The Department of Transportation says that people who use carshares drive less than people who own their own cars. That will help keep the air cleaner, lower transportation costs and, actually, make it easier to find parking because of reduced car ownership.

"While there are carsharing organizations already in NYC, there are many neighborhoods where curbside parking is hard to find and there aren't private garages, which effectively keeps carshare out of convenient reach for many New Yorkers," the DOT says.

"This pilot aims to put carshare within convenient reach of more New Yorkers to increase the mobility and financial benefits of the service for residents and the city as a whole."

These neighborhoods will be part of that pilot test:

Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill - Carroll Gardens, East Harlem, East Williamsburg, Eastern Rockaways, Hamilton Heights, Jackson Heights, Jamaica, Morningside Heights, Park Slope, Red Hook, Ridgewood, Soundview and Williamsburg.

The companies that will participate in the program have not been decided yet; popular carshare providers include Car2Go and ZipCar.

Anyone who wants to give feedback or suggest a location for the carshare program can click here.

Image via DOT