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Six hundred more curbside spaces are about to become electric vehicle charging points under a contract that will be announced on Tuesday \u2014 a massive expansion of a pilot program but a small down payment on the city\u2019s larger plan to permanently allocate more public space for the automobile.<\/p>\n
Pedestrian and street-safety groups have long warned that creating curbside chargers represents a giveaway to the minority of New Yorkers who own cars, but that\u2019s exactly what the Brooklyn-based it\u2019s electric is being hired to do: install the electric posts that opponents say will reduce public space left for wider public benefit such as bike or bus lanes, street seats, curbside dining or even trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur curb space can be used for so much more than parking,\u201d said Michael Sutherland, senior policy and legislative analyst at Open Plans, which shares a parent organization with Streetsblog. \u201cEV chargers are permanent, expensive infrastructure that permanently lock in public space for cars and make future improvements more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city has been operating 88 charging points from FLO, but is expanding to 600 with it\u2019s electric, a company with the lower-case name \u2026 and big ambitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust as fire hydrants are on every street, our vision is for EV chargers to become that normal,\u201d it\u2019s electric founder Nathan King said in a statement. The company did not address the livable streets issue: cars occupying the curbside lane forever.<\/p>\n
The charging points do not only lock in parking, said another advocate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also locks in a contract for a utility company to keep a fueling facility there in that parking space,\u201d said Jon Orcutt, a former DOT policy director. \u201cAnd we\u2019re essentially turning public streets into the 21st-century gas stations.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Coming soon. Photo: it’s electric<\/p>\n
Mayor Mamdani created the Office of Curb Management<\/a> at DOT in April, on the premise that the curb has been stuck with one use \u2014 car storage \u2014 ever since overnight parking was made legal in the 1950s. Its job is to repurpose that space for loading zones, containerized trash, and outdoor dining. And also more spots for EVs to fuel up. (The city announced the expansion last month, but will be announced today that it\u2019s electric won the bid.)<\/p>\n DOT\u2019s 2021 Electrifying New York report<\/a> called for 10,000 curbside points by 2030, though it\u2019s electric co-founder Tiya Gordon thinks that landmark will be reached \u201cbetween 2030 and 2040.\u201d<\/p>\n Transportation officials say they will coordinate charger locations with bike, bus, and pedestrian projects to preserve flexibility.<\/p>\n Neighborhoods with high concentrations of taxi drivers, including Soundview, Rego Park, Red Hook, Washington Heights, and Stapleton, are being targeted first because the chargers will help meet the city\u2019s Green Rides rule<\/a>, which requires all rideshare rides to be zero-emission (or wheelchair-accessible) by 2030.<\/p>\n Passenger vehicles, including those Uber and Lyfts account for 17 percent of the city\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the city\u2019s chief climate officer Louise Yeung. The city wants drivers to switch to electric to reduce that pollution (though obviously the driver of an electric SUV takes up the same curb space, causes the same traffic, blocks the same buses and has the same potential to kill and maim as the driver of a gas-powered car).<\/p>\n