Downtown Brooklyn commuters say the streets have become nearly impossible to navigate, clogged with double-parked cars, blocked bike lanes and vehicles parked in no-standing zones.

Now, elected officials are calling on the city to step up enforcement.

Survey finds hundreds of illegally parked vehicles across neighborhood

Paul Vogel, who lives in Prospect Heights and bikes through the area daily, says there are stretches of road he avoids altogether.

"There is a bike lane on Adams Street, but it's unusable," Vogel said.

He's one of many who complain of rampant illegal parking in the neighborhood, drivers standing in bike lanes, parking on hydrants or taking up lanes meant for traffic.

Councilmember Lincoln Restler says the scale of the problem is staggering.

"There are cars literally parked in the roadway, where cars are supposed to be moving," he told CBSN News New York's Hannah Kliger during a recent walkthrough.

To understand how bad the issue really is, Restler's staff conducted a survey.

"We found on average that there are 457 illegally parked cars on any given day ... just in Downtown Brooklyn," he said. "And the worst offenders are near our courthouses, near police precincts or fire stations."

Walking along Adams Street, Restler pointed to dozens of vehicles he said don't belong there.

"They just park their cars in the crosswalks, in the bike lanes, in no standing zones. And it creates really dangerous conditions," he said. "These are the people that are responsible for enforcing the law, right? Upholding the law. And yet they break it every single day."

Potential solutions to address illegal parking

The councilmember says he's pushing for a three-part solution.

"Firstly, we've introduced legislation to revoke 60,000 placards ... Secondly, we need to significantly increase NYPD enforcement across our neighborhood of illegal parking," he said, adding he's also pushing for legislation that would allow civilians to submit violations. "We need proper hardening of bike lanes so that cars can't come in to bike lanes. We need to put bollards."

According to the NYPD, the 84th Precinct issued nearly 120,000 parking summonses this year-to-date, including 920 for placard violations. Police also towed more than 2,000 cars and booted 500 others.

"The 84th Precinct continues to address illegal parking daily and the Transportation Bureau supplements any additional enforcement and resources as needed," an NYPD spokesperson said in a statement.

Still, Vogel believes the city should consider moving parking enforcement out of the police department altogether.

"That makes more sense because then there could actually be enforcement. Because right now we'll see traffic enforcement agents walk right past the placard abuse. They don't touch it," he said.

For now, neighbors hope that stepped-up enforcement, or a new approach entirely, will make Downtown Brooklyn's streets safer for everyone.

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