NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn is taking aim at one of the biggest pet peeves for New Yorkers: the tight parking situation on city streets.

The parking situation has only gotten more complicated over recent years since Mayor Michael Bloomberg has introduced numerous pedestrian plazas and controversial bike lanes throughout many key areas.

Quinn will reportedly take on two of the biggest parking issues in her annual State of the City address.

First is a plan to limit the number of alternate side parking days on the city’s cleanest streets.

Under Quinn’s proposal, areas that get the highest cleanliness rating for two years running will have the option to scale down street cleaning from two days a week to just one.

Quinn was also expected to offer a plan to prohibit parking agents from issuing tickets to drivers who momentarily step away from their vehicles to pay the meters.

Meter maids can ticket any car that doesn’t have a receipt on the dashboard, and once they start writing it, they can’t stop. Quinn reportedly will lash out at the current policy as bureacratic red tape at its worst. CBS2′s Kathryn Brown reports that, according to an excerpt of the speech, Quinn will say “we’re going to change that policy, so if you show your receipt to the agent, they have to tear up your ticket on the spot.”

Quinn also wants an online tool to help drivers find parking spots.

A spokesman for the mayor says his office is already developing similar ideas.
The relatively new push to spread the bike lanes further across the boroughs is only fueling the deep divide between drivers and bikers.

Yolanda Lopez of the Bronx is no fan of the the new pro-bike regulations.
“I hate it with a passion,” Lopez said.

“They put up a new sign, I make a wrong turn, I get a $90 ticket and points on my license. Nothing’s happening to these guys,” said Kate Helpern of the Lower East Side.

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(Source: WCBSTV)