![\"Port](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Port-Authority-Bus-Terminal-Parking-1145.jpeg\")
The LAZ Parking at Port Authority Bus Terminal will close permanently on Sunday. Photo: Phil O\u2019Brien<\/p>\nFor seventy-five years, drivers heading into Midtown knew exactly where they were going: up the ramps at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, onto the roof, and into one of the largest public parking garages in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
The LAZ Parking at Port Authority Bus Terminal will close permanently on Sunday. Photo: Phil O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n
That era ends this Sunday, when the final public access ramps to the LAZ Parking garage at the Port Authority Bus Terminal close permanently, cutting off vehicle entry from 10th Avenue and W40th Street\u00a0<\/p>\n
The closure follows the shutdown of the W39th Street ramp earlier this year and marks the complete end of public parking access at the terminal as part of the Port Authority Midtown Bus Terminal Redevelopment Project<\/a> \u2014\u00a0which is slated to take 10 years and cost $10 billion. According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the change is permanent, and drivers are being urged to plan for alternatives or use public transportation.<\/p>\n When the Port Authority Bus Terminal opened in 1950, its rooftop parking deck was a selling point \u2014 not an afterthought. The terminal was designed as a modern transportation hub for a car-forward age, offering suburban commuters a place to park above the buses before continuing into the city. At its peak, the garage held hundreds of cars, neatly arranged on the roof of what was then one of Midtown\u2019s most ambitious public works projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n For years, parking at Port Authority symbolized a certain optimism: that cars, buses and dense city life could comfortably coexist. Over time, that role quietly changed. As Midtown congestion worsened and transit priorities shifted.\u00a0<\/p>\n The disappearance of Port Authority parking comes as off-street parking becomes increasingly scarce<\/a> across Hell\u2019s Kitchen and Midtown West. In recent years, multiple surface lots and garages in the neighborhood have closed or been slated for redevelopment<\/a>, many making way for new housing \u2014 including affordable housing projects encouraged by city policy. While those developments are widely supported, the cumulative effect has left drivers with fewer and fewer options.<\/p>\n For residents, small business owners and caregivers who rely on cars \u2014 whether for work, family responsibilities or accessibility \u2014 each closure adds pressure to an already tight system.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Port](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Port-Authority-Bus-Terminal-c1960.jpg\")
Port Authority Bus Terminal circa1960 with the rooftop parking heavily in use. Photo Public Domain.<\/p>\n