Authorized Vehicles Only: Police, parking, and pedestrian access in New York City

Sidewalks and crosswalks serve little purpose for pedestrians if they are routinely obstructed by automobiles. In New York City, local journalists and transportation advocates have drawn attention to this occurring, particularly in certain settings. Specifically, there is consistent photographic evidence that streets surrounding New York Police Department (hereafter, NYPD) offices are replete with cars parked on the sidewalk and within crosswalks. Though clearly problematic for pedestrians and abutting residents and local businesses, this type of parking behavior has not been studied systematically–both in terms of its geographic extent, and how long it has occurred. This paper considers the intersection of two issues –parking and public-employee behavior –both of which have been considered at length by scholars separately. As to the former, there have been a number of studies documenting drivers parking in ways that violate established regulations. Indeed, drivers often avoid paying at parking meters (Petiot 2001), park on residential sidewalks (Shoup 2014), and in bike lanes (Moran 2020). It is perhaps not surprising that drivers behave in such ways, given so often there are few penalties for doing so. However, evidence that speeding and red-light cameras can reduce dangerous driving (Wilson et al. 2010; Graham et al. 2019; Bhat and Martinez 2022), indicate that increased enforcement could also decrease parking that obstructs pedestrian infrastructure.