They lost their opportunity.
Drivers in Prospect Heights have shown a lack of motivation, leading to their inability to take advantage of a generous offer to reduce alternate-side parking rules to just two days a week. This assessment comes from city officials and records.
The Brooklyn neighborhood struggled significantly during an eight-week pilot program, which aimed to cut the number of days requiring car movement from four to two. According to city officials, just over half of the drivers could be bothered to move their vehicles for the brief 1.5-hour window.
During the pilot, which ran from early August to late September, drivers accumulated a staggering 913 alternate-side parking tickets. This was more than the average, as they faced roughly 457 tickets each month—higher than when the alternate-side rules were enforced for twice the time.
Only 62% of drivers actually moved their cars on the reduced alternate-side parking days, a decline from 73% the month prior to the pilot program. The city’s Department of Sanitation reported that this resulted in noticeably dirtier streets.
City Councilmember Crystal Hudson, who advocated for the pilot, speculates that drivers became complacent. Many might have thought paying a $65 ticket was a smaller price to pay than finding another parking spot in a notoriously tough area.
“For some, tickets might be seen as just part of the cost of car ownership in New York City. Maybe they prefer to pay one ticket instead of two,” Hudson remarked, expressing her disappointment that the program didn’t succeed as hoped. “I was really hoping for a permanent change. We need to improve.”
As a result, the regular alternate-side parking rules have been reinstated, meaning residents once again face four days of street sweeping.
This also means that drivers in Prospect Heights are now without a valid complaint about the time-consuming parking rituals associated with their routines.
Hudson noted that her office has frequently received inquiries from residents questioning the necessity of two street sweeps per side each week, particularly since it often leads to more issues with double parking than actual litter.
The pilot program aimed to lessen ASP enforcement for a specific area — roughly a 10-by-two-block stretch running from Atlantic Avenue to Eastern Parkway, including both sides of Vanderbilt Avenue and Grand Avenue.
The intent was to create a kind of incentive structure, where less enforcement would follow higher compliance, but drivers didn’t rise to the challenge.
While some citations were mistakenly issued during the first week of the pilot, those were waived and didn’t affect the overall results.
A spokesperson from the Department of Sanitation highlighted that approximately 500,000 cars fail to move for street cleaning each week citywide. This neglect significantly impacts cleanliness, with street sweepers capable of removing up to 1,500 pounds of litter per shift. Left unattended, litter not only spoils street aesthetics but also clogs catchbasins, worsening flooding issues.
“This isn’t just an academic problem. We don’t require people to move their vehicles just for fun; it’s essential for keeping our streets clean. Not doing so has real-world implications,” the spokesperson noted.
The program’s initial rollout was shaky, with some enforcement personnel mistakenly issuing tickets due to confusion over the rules. However, Hudson’s office assured residents that those erroneous tickets would be canceled, and they did not contribute to the overall statistics indicating the program’s failure.
