Why exactly is "TRULY viable" mass transit in these areas so inadequate? There were plans to build subways and elevated trains to serve them, but they were blocked - by the residents of those neighborhoods. That's right, by the very people who lived in Hollis, Little Neck and Fresh Meadows. Many of these motorists are the same people who are responsible for the fact that it's so difficult to get around by train. The rest are their descendents, or the immigrants who sought out a suburban lifestyle with no train. They're also the same people who are opposed to congestion pricing in Manhattan.

Bloomberg and Quinn are dependent on the Queens Democratic machine for their power, and I'm sure Spitzer and Schumer owe them a lot too. If Joe Crowley went to them today and said, "Hey guys, how about extending the #7 train underground to Queens Village," what do you think they'd say? Probably, "Okay, let's see what we can do."

These people want to further their suburban lifestyle within the city limits, and they want it subsidized by the average tax-paying, transit-riding New Yorker. They may be able to stop transit from being extended to their neighborhoods, but if we can stop the city from making it easier for them to drive, I think we should. Let 'em sit in traffic and circle for parking! Just keep their cars out of the places where people want to live, work and shop in actual neighborhoods and, you know, walk around.

The biggest pipe dream of all is that massive automobile use has a future in densely populated cities.

I'd like to see a mass-transit true believer go from Flushing to Hollis, even Little Neck, or anywhere in western Nassau by subway, bus, or commuter train. On a weekend, no less -- you'd practically have to book a hotel room mid-route.

Billions in municipal or state investment to make mass transit TRULY viable for outer-borough point to point travel is a pipe-dream, so accommodating parking is the lesser evil -- better to get all parking off-street, build enough spots so that people get in, out of their cars and walking around as quickly as possible.

Instead, I think the city should seriously consider building light surface rail, especially in areas without or insufficient subway service in the outerboroughs.

People are just lazy nowadays, they should get off their duffs and start walking around maybe we wouldn't be so fat if we did!

Also, why are taxpayers paying for parking?
Why is the city giving out placards?
Why is it that we condone what's wrong for us, and ignore the good?

Take the South Bronx, diabetic kids with asthma, so what do we do? we take away parkland in exchange for parking spots and a new Yankee Stadium.

BRILLIANT!!!

I am so sick and tired of the HAVES getting over on the HAVE NOTS it makes me sick.

Admittedly, this is not a perfect solution. I greatly prefer the idea of car-free neighborhoods. But this is a solution that might become political feasible (like congestion pricing).

There is not much I can say about free-standing houses, except that some zoning laws, inspired by the New Urbanists, ban "snout houses" with parking that dominates the facades, and require parking to be in back.

I'm more concerned what about the large numbers of outer-borough single-family houses that have been built with garages (that often take up half the facade of the house) and/or concrete parking spaces in front of or behind the house. Is zoning the only way these things can be controlled? And once those parking facilities are out there in the hands of private individuals and families, there doesn't seem to be any incentive for anyone but radicals to get rid of them.

Given NY's good transit, there is also a place for car-free housing and for car-free neighborhoods (like the one recently built in Frieburg, Germany, where parents line up in front of schools with bicycle trailers to pick up their children). It NY neighborhoods, it would be easy to chauffeur your children around and get your groceries by bicycle, if you did not have to worry about being run down by all the cars. Needless to say, this is more radical than just ending subsidies to parking, but there should be room for one car-free neighborhood in NY - maybe one of the new neighborhoods they want to build along the waterfront in Greenpoint and Williamsburg.

Incidentally, a friend of mine was the organizer of Auto-Free Bay Area (now defunct), and he got a free parking space in his apartment building. He used it to store anti-car banners and posters.

What scares me most is that it's not just the big projects. Just about every bit of Queens crap and most Fedders specials contain more parking than the buildings they displaced.

Freddy Ferrer is proud of the 66,000 units of housing he helped finance in the Bronx, but most of the ones I've seen have come with parking where there previously was none. That oversight was one of the big things that made me question his qualifications to be mayor.

We may have gotten rid of a few hundred parking spaces in Manhattan in the past ten years, but it seems like we've been saddled with a lot more in the other four boroughs. The exact number could probably be counted, but it would be several days' work.

How do we even begin to address this issue without people thinking we're nuts? I've been in a room with Helen Marshall gushing about all the new developments in Flushing, and I'll be damned if I'm going to stand up and say, "What's with all the parking?"

This terrific piece sheds light on a disasterous, and seemingly out of control, problem. There is such profound myopia and ignorance about parking, that the public officials who should be stemming the problem, are fueling it.

Readers should be very, very concerned.

If this massive reservoir of new off-street parking is not stopped, it will unleash a deluge of new traffic which will swamp congestion pricing, car-free parks and neighborhood traffic calming.

The sheer scope of the parking being added is daunting, and it's being added everywhere except the core of Manhattan. Queens especially is shaping up to be a transportation disaster.

The new bus service John Liu is calling for will never be an attractive commute option while below market parking is being built. The buses will lack the convenience and flexibility of the private cars, and will sit stuck and underused in traffic. It is simply nonsense to call for more buses and support more and cheaper parking.