Upper West Side residents complain about parking spots taken off streets
UPPER WEST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- Some residents on Manhattan's Upper West Side say they had no advance warning about parking spots being removed from streets.
Those parking spots will now be used by for hire cars and delivery trucks. The program is being tried in other parts of the city as well.
In New York City, there are never enough street side parking spaces, no matter the neighborhood.
So when signs saying 'No Parking Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.' went up along West End Avenue from 79th to 96th Streets on the Upper West Side, some residents were not happy.
"Overnight, they're just taking spaces. What are people supposed to do?", asked Colette Shine, who has lived in the neighborhood for 14 years.
Others told us they didn't understand the reason for the signs.
It turns out the signs are part of what the New York City Department of Transportation calls its "citywide residential loading zone program".
Now being implemented in neighborhoods across all five boroughs, the plan is intended to make room for pickups and dropoffs of people and goods.
And hopefully it helps keep traffic moving by cutting down on double parking.
Despite some complaints about these new loading zones, the chairman of Community Board 7, which covers West End Avenue, told us they wanted them and said they were told the signs would be going up in advance.
The city says it will evaluate the program's effectiveness over the next year.
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