Today’s Times provides a look at DOT’s plans to test out variable-rate on-street parking in Greenwich Village and along Kings Highway in Brooklyn. Following the lead of San Francisco and Washington DC, the pilot programs aim to free up on-street spaces and reduce cruising by raising meter prices during peak hours.

The Times spoke to Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan about how DOT will put these ideas into practice:

In the Village, the higher parking rates would be charged in an area
that stretches from Houston Street to Charles Street and includes
portions of Seventh Avenue South and Avenue of the Americas. Currently,
the area has parking meters that charge 25 cents for 15 minutes, or $1
an hour. Ms. Sadik-Khan said the meter rates would likely increase so
that 25 cents would buy 6 to 7 1/2 minutes, which would be the
equivalent of $2 to $2.50 an hour.

In Brooklyn, it was unclear
how many blocks of Kings Highway would be included in the program, but
business and community leaders said that parking and traffic problems
are concentrated in the section between Coney Island and Ocean Avenues.
Along that stretch of road, meters currently charge 25 cents for 20
minutes, or 75 cents an hour. In some locations, the rate is 25 cents
for 30 minutes, or 50 cents an hour.

Ms. Sadik-Khan said those
rates may be raised as high as 25 cents for 10 minutes, or $1.50 an
hour, during the peak parking period. But one community leader said
transportation officials said in a meeting that the rate could be set
as high as 25 cents for 6 minutes, or $2.50 an hour.

Graphic: New York Times