It's hell on wheels.
Just days after the MTA and Governor Hochul flipped the switch on congestion pricing, Upper Manhattan hotpots are already being transformed into glorified parking lots — where commuters traveling through bridges and tunnels pay $9 tolls. Exasperated residents told the Post that more people are abandoning their cars on the streets to avoid them.
Local residents across Washington Heights are lamenting that already scarce curbside parking spaces have become even more scarce in recent days, with more time being wasted searching for precious spots.
“'Good luck everyone,' that's what I say,” nurse Thomas Hart, 36, told the Post. “now [these commuters] They're here with us trying to fight this problem. ”
On Wednesday, after returning home from work at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, Hart circled for two hours looking for a spot, and at least 20 cars with New Jersey plates occupied the space between West 174th Street and West 181st Street. I witnessed him doing it.
Over the past year, neighbors outside the 60th Street congestion zone have repeatedly warned that their area will suffer from hellish traffic congestion and increased pollution from meandering driving.
“It's gotten worse over the past week. A lot of people from Jersey cross the bridge, park here and take the subway,” said project manager Cristian Romarion, 48.
“People are fighting over parking here. . . . It's like physically fighting over parking. It's crazy,” he continued, adding that since congestion pricing went into effect, scrap has been “almost eliminated.” He added that he sees it every day.
Follow The Post's coverage of Manhattan's new congestion pricing.
On the Upper West Side, hotpots have similarly turned into “war zones” as people scramble to find parking, doorman Wadit Cruz said.
Mr. Cruz, 47, who has been driving to work from Melrose in the Bronx to West 68th Street for 15 years, said there were always three or four spaces available when he arrived at 7 a.m. But since January 5, he has been required to circle for at least 30 minutes every day.
“We haven't found any specks since Monday,” he said. “The situation will only get worse.”
Suburban areas are also under pressure.
“Congestion pricing must be working well for Manhattan's elite, because it definitely gets us in trouble,” said Staten Island City Councilman Joe Borrelli, a member of the Staten Island Railroad. reported a sharp increase in garden staters buying things at parks and rides near Huguenot Station.
Matt Hogan, a 62-year-old Upper West Sider, admitted that his friend who lives across the Hudson River was also a contributing factor to the new parking mess in his neighborhood.
Rather than drive into a congested area from his home in Ridgewood, N.J., to meet a friend for dinner, the friend secured a spot near Hogan's home at West 73rd Street and West End Avenue, and the two of them took the subway. I had planned to get on the train and get off.
“If he comes into the city and comes down there, that's going to be his new route,” Hogan said.
“It's much cheaper than $9.”
