Saturday, October 30, 2010

Seeing double or just Two Alternate Side Oases the next two weeks?


You're not celebrating too much. It's not a mirage! Park the Car for Thursday like I did today (10/30) and you don’t have to move it again until next Tuesday! You know the “next” that means the second Tuesday from today. That’s 11/9. We are talking nine (9) hallowed, democratic, light-filled, Alt Side-free days you don’t have to move your car. You can move it! You just choose not to.
Then, after moving it for Tuesday, 11/9, thanks to Veterans Day and the typical OFF days (the Wed/Sat and, of course, Sun OFF days for most of us), you are good for another five (5) days!
I’m not even going to mention the three (3) Suspended Days the week after!
For a complete calendar of Alternate Side Suspensions go to our web site.

Monday, October 25, 2010

What’s so special about Sundays?



Those of you already familiar with the parallelspaces.com Manhattan Street Parking Map (And why wouldn’t you be? You can get essential block-by-block parking information for free.) know that Sunday Rules have their own layer and symbol (see above illustration). Some members have asked why does no other day of the week receive this special treatment? Saturday for instance?
In case you thought I was going to launch into a religious argument, let me say right now that those of us who park on NYC’s streets treat all Alternate Side Rules Suspension Days equally. No matter what the religious observance or holiday, we always feel equal opportunity blessed.
The simple answer is Sunday rules are so much more relaxed (or nonexistant) that they warranted special notice. Many believe God rested on Sunday, but those of us driving and parking in this city are the ones getting that much needed rest now, and dedicating a layer to just Sunday rules makes it even a little more convenient.
The sad truth is back in the early 90s when I first explored this parking map, there was a Saturday symbol (see obsolete Saturday symbol illustration). Saturday rules were considerably more relaxed then, but in this present day NYC boomtown, Saturday rules are common and often just a continuation of the Monday – Friday rules. Saturday rules are just no longer different enough to justify the clutter its own unique symbol would add to the map.
If this all seems a little unfair, please click on the Contact the Mayor link to the right and ask Mayor Bloomberg to roll back the Saturday parking rules. Otherwise, just enjoy the fact that nowadays Sunday parking is easier to predict and even easier to find.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The Lincoln or the George Washington?




Ever wonder when starting out on that much needed vacation which tunnel to take? The George Washington is farther away, but it’s almost rush hour and the bridge might be faster. Wouldn’t it be nice to know before you get in the car what traffic is like to the stadium? If you have access to the web, you have access to the NYC Dept of Transportation’s Real Time Traffic Cameras (see screenshot above) and you can see current traffic flows all over the city for yourself.
In the above screenshot, I have selected the Lincoln Tunnel camera which opened the Lincoln Tunnel window (with the camera view) on the right. Note: when you rollover a camera icon with your cursor, a panel pops up to identify the camera’s location.
As mentioned before in these pages, this DOT site offers a lot of easily accessible and useful information from parking sign locations to bike rack maps and every New Yorker, and especially every inner city driver, should pay a visit at least once.

Monday, October 11, 2010

twitter of Alternate Side Rules in NYC Is Up


OK, I listen to various radio stations in the morning and several of them make hourly announcements of whether Alternate Side Rules are in effect or not. parallelspaces.com offers an Alternate Side Rules Suspension Calendar, but maybe that kind of info would also be nice to have in the palm of your hand. So parallelspaces.com has launched a twitter account to offer that same service to be available on your mobile phone. Check it out @AltSideParkNYC and, if it can be useful, become a follower.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Pay less for your parking tickets already!

A look at my blog stats recently made me realize that surprisingly few of you have clicked on the Apply for Online Reduction of Parking Fine Page (under Some Useful Links) that explains the city's reduction of parking fines program.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you've probably been overpaying your parking tickets by almost half. That means for the savings on one (1) ticket alone, you could be a high ranking member of the parallelspaces.com parking map web site and have all those Manhattan parking rules up on your computer screen or on your touch screen mobile whenever you feel like it for a year and still have plenty left over to wash that clunker of yours!
Still thinking about it?