Once they've ticketed, I think you can then call a private towing company, but at that point parking authority can also call a towing company. After the two hours it takes for them to show up and ticket, the rest of the time is somewhat of a wash. I'm not bitter....

You cannot call a private towing company to tow someone blocking your driveway unless their vehicle is physically on your (private) property. If they're in the street, the towing company has to be engaged by PA. Source: me, I've tried calling a tow company direct because parking authority sucks.

My comment was meant to be more high-level, it stands to reason that there would be mounds of political red tape. New York also cannot just deploy congestion pricing at will, either. It had to be signed into law by state legislature as well as the New York State governor, and still requires approval on a federal level from the FHWA.

Can't the city enact some sort of pared-down congestion pricing to discourage using city streets to circumvent traffic? I.e. if you enter JC from specific exits and then proceed to enter the Holland Tunnel before a certain amount of time elapses, you get billed a congestion pricing surcharge? If NYC is allowed to move forward with a much more restrictive congestion pricing model, I can't imagine that this would be illegal.

"Let me just ask if a bunch of people want an already lackluster service reduced to provide a parallel service that benefits them in no way, shape, or form -- I can't wait to see the results!"

I've noticed a huge uptick in Tonelle Ave traffic corresponding to the start of a pilot iniative to make St. Paul's a one-way (i.e. closed to Eastbound traffic). Correlation=/=causation, but I can't imagine it's helping things at all.