The general rule when it comes to bike lanes is that, if you build them without some sort of grade-separation, at some point a car is going to park in them. But here are two possible solutions to this problem. The first is that you could build some sort of grade-separation that can't be driven over. And the second is as follows:

Now a New York City Council member is pushing a bill that would give civilians the power to report bike lane scofflaws, as well as vehicles that block entrances or exits of school buildings, sidewalks and crosswalks. New Yorkers who submit evidence of a parking violation can earn 25% of a proposed $175 ticket. The Department of Transportation would review the evidence to determine whether an infraction has occurred, according to the bill’s text.

What this essentially does is decentralize rule enforcement by paying people to be rats. Off hand, I can't think of any other cities that have done something like this and so I don't know how effective it might actually be. But being a rat sounds like it could be a good paying job.

Let's assume that somebody decided to treat this as their full-time job and work 8 hours a day, Monday to Friday. And then let's assume that they were able to rat out one person per hour. Here's how much money they could make in a year:

• $175 x 25% = $43.75 per illegal incident

• $43.75 x 8 incidents per day = $350 per day

• $350 per day x 5 days a week = $1,750 per week

• $1,750 per week x 52 weeks = $91,000 per year

Now, if the goal of this rat-people-out program is to ultimately change behaviors, then it might make sense to assume that your revenues would decline over time as more people start following the rules. Either way, something tells me that more than a few people would be happy to take on this job.

This is a great collection of third places or "community living rooms" in New York City. Simply speaking, a third place is any space where people hang out that isn't their home and isn't their place of work. Hence the third moniker. The most typical example is arguably the humble coffee shop. But what is clear from this thread list, is that a third place can take on many different permutations -- everything from a bathhouse to an art library with the world's largest collection of artist's sketchbooks. What is also clear is that these are the kinds of spaces that really define a city. They create a sense of place, they give us community, and they help us with our sense of self -- because they allow us to think things like, "I am the kind of person who hangs out and enjoys independent bookstores in the East Village."

We talk a lot about congestion charges and road pricing on this blog. Here's a list of some of those posts. I found 46 that were tagged with "road pricing."

I continue to believe that it's the only way that big cities can effectively solve the problem of traffic congestion. It's not being caused by the bicycle lanes that were just added to your street. It's not the new COVID street patios. And it's not the new apartment that was just built with too many parking spots.

The problem is mispricing.

If you want free roads, then you don't get free-flowing traffic. That's how this equation works, which is why I have always thought it a good idea to dynamically price roads based on demand, and then to direct those funds toward more efficient forms of mobility -- such as transit.

Despite all this, it's not a very popular approach in this part of the world. Toronto looked at road pricing back in 2016, but we got nervous and backed away from it. New York City has also been looking at a congestion charge for Manhattan south of 60th Street for at least 4-5 years. But this one appears to still be on the table.

According to this recent CityLab article, New York's congestion prices could look something like this (note that this chart includes other pre-existing tolls):

But with some exceptions (I think this is an interesting approach):

Primary residents of the Manhattan central business district, which is south of 60th Street, and New York State residents with adjusted gross income of less than $60,000 would be eligible for a state tax credit equal to the amount of the new tolls, paid during the taxable year.

In total, this current pricing scheme is expected to generate an additional $1 billion in annual revenue for the city's transportation authority. The MTA also plans to bond against this revenue and raise an additional $15 billion for new transit projects.

This sounds like a reasonable approach to me.