Transportation Alternatives congratulates Mayor Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers for carrying out an ambitious overhaul of parking permits issued to the Department of Education. The cuts, from 63,000 to 11,000 permits, base the number of parking placards issued on the number of available spaces around City schools and end the policy of issuing permits to any and all applicants.

"Mayor Bloomberg really deserves enormous credit for reining in a problem that had spiraled out of control," says Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. "For the million kids who attend NYC public schools, this reform means safer streets. We hope it puts an end to the lines of double-parked cars and blocked crosswalks that plague every city school."

In order to ensure that illegal parking does not continue in the face of the placard reduction, T.A. is calling on the Mayor to vigorously enforce parking regulations around schools, and watchdog playgrounds and schoolyards near schools which are often used as ad hoc parking lots when street parking is unavailable.

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