Parking, air quality in city have improved since coronavirus slowdown
New Yorkers are finally paying attention.
Big Apple residents appear to be taking the state’s social-distancing decree seriously amid the coronavirus pandemic.
And it has lead to some unexpected benefits — less traffic, more parking and even cleaner air, officials said.
“Everything is twice as fast,” one hard hat told The Post while laying down blacktop on Douglaston Parkway in Queens Tuesday. “Yeah, we’re finishing in half the time. No traffic.”
A scan of parks and outdoor areas in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan found them sparsely populated — an indication that city residents are adhering to a statewide lockdown of all non-essential businesses and a call from City Hall prohibiting large public gatherings while the COVID-19 virus continues to spread.
Health officials have told residents to keep at least six feet from each other to curb the outbreak.
At Central Park, folks were spotted sporadically walking dogs, jogging or sitting solo on park benches — while groups no larger than three were hanging out on the Great Lawn.
“People are scared,” Julio Garcia, 32, said as he kicked a ball around with his son at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. “They don’t want to get sick. They don’t want to get other people sick.
“Everyone needs fresh air,” he added. You got to be smart about it.”
Similar scenes played out in Queens at Forest Park, Juniper Valley Park and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Mayor de Blasio on Monday announced stricter guidelines for gatherings at city parks — one day after Gov. Cuomo raged at the number of New Yorkers out and about over the weekend.
With residents now seemingly getting the message, the lockdown has had unexpected positive effects.
“If current trends persist, it is probable major congestion will cease to exist in the country’s most congested cities within a week,” Trevor Reed, an analyst with the private traffic-data company INRIX, said in a statement Tuesday.
Reed said the average speed of cars during rush hour in the New York City metropolitan area on Wednesday — two days after de Blasio ordered city schools to close down — was up 31 percent. And it was up 39 percent by Friday.
The parking-space-finder app SpotHero said requests from motorists looking to be hooked up with a spot were down 13 percent.
Cops were also writing far fewer parking tickets — 4,914 for the week ending on Sunday compared to 2,252 over the same period last year, a decline of more than 54 percent.
The cutback in car traffic has also helped to literally clear the air. “Largely, the lack of vehicles on the road and the lack of people using public transportation as well, such as buses and trains, are definitely going to have a positive effect on the amount of pollution in the atmosphere,” said Jack Boston, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.
Climatologists rate air quality on a 0-500 scale based on the amount of pollen, dust and gases such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere.
Boston said the number hit 25 in the city Tuesday, with any mark under 50 classified as “good.” The index topped 50 as recently as March 11 — just days before de Blasio ordered schools closed and rolling reductions in public activity began.
However, it wasn’t a silver lining for everyone.
“I make $9 all day,” complained the driver of “Pete’s Ice Cream” truck parked at waterfront Grantry State Park in Long Island City, Queens.
“Usually $200, $300 by this time, I don’t know if it’s the weather or the virus,” he added.
Additional reporting by David Meyer, Bernadette Hogan and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon