Gas guzzlers, pull over: make way for electric vehicles in New York.
The city is setting aside a hundred parking spots across the five boroughs for electric vehicles to juice up with charging ports.
"Having some of these spaces on the street is a very important means of providing opportunities for all New Yorkers to be able access or own an electric vehicle, if that's a choice they want to make," said Michael Replogle, deputy commissioner for policy for the city transportation department.
About 9,000 electric vehicles are registered in the city, practically a rounding error among the roughly 2 million cars here.
But the city wants to change that, starting with the installation of 50 chargers, one for every two parking spots.
The city transportation department expects that drivers will be charged about the same as filling up at the pump.
These chargers will sprout in more than two dozen neighborhoods, including Manhattan's Upper West Side, starting in the spring.
Like most initiatives that eat up free parking, many drivers are outraged. It follows the removal of thousands of spaces in recent years to improve traffic safety, make way for Citi Bike stands, and, most recently, give trucks delivering all those Amazon packages and other goods places to park.
"It's bad enough you're fighting for spaces now, as it is. They need to do something better," one man said. "If it ain't the bike riders they're trying to appease, now it's the electric cars."
"It's ridiculous," another said. "Why can't you just have random stations that people can charge their car and look for a spot like anybody else?"
But environmental advocates say the e-charging program could spur private companies and large institutions to electrify their fleets.
"It's important to, I think, bring those charging vehicles down to the street to help move this process forward, because otherwise the owners of those fleets have to find places where they can get their vehicles charged," said Cecil Corbin-Mark, deputy director for We ACT for Environmental Justice.
Putting more electric vehicles on the road is part of the city's effort to reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent. Mayor Bill de Blasio also wants 1 in every 5 new cars registered in New York City to be electric, by 2025.