(2008-04-08) Nyc Govt Parking Slow Attack

NYC is finally trying to cut back on Government Parking, but it's taking longer than expected. The city has given out no fewer than 142,000 free parking permits to public employees and others. That's twice as many as City Hall had estimated were in circulation. And after two months of research, city officials cannot say who has them all... There are two basic types of placards: those used by the police, teachers and others to park near their workplaces, and those that allow penalty-free parking at meters and in no-parking zones for vehicles on official city business. The larger category, numbering about 120,000, allows city employees to park in specially designated areas on the street near their workplaces. These include 49,876 permits issued to police officers, civilian employees of the Police Department and auxiliary police officers, and about 63,000 permits given to teachers and other Department Of Education employees, city officials say.

Aug'2008 update: after the August phase of placard reductions (see the linked PDF), there should be 78k fewer (mainly from 52k reduced at Department Of Education).

Has Street Traffic been reduced? If not, does that invalidate the original study?