UPPER WEST SIDE — Worried about getting your car stolen? Park it on the Upper West Side.
The neighborhood has the lowest car theft rate in the entire city, according to DNAinfo.com's new Crime & Safety Report.
The Upper West Side chalked up just 78 stolen vehicles in 2010, compared with 324 in Ozone Park, Queens, where drivers were most likely to get their cars stolen that year, according to DNAinfo.com's comprehensive analysis of recent NYPD and census data.
In Manhattan, the neighborhood with the highest car theft rate was Midtown. The area actually had fewer total car thefts than the Upper West Side — 71 in 2010 — but a much smaller population of 74,717 compared to the Upper West Side's 209,109 residents.
Experts offered a few theories as to why this might be the case.
Traditionally, northern Queens has been a car theft hot spot, in part because it's a more suburban area, said John Corlett, legislative committee chairman for AAA New York. Larger families there keep multiple vehicles parked in driveways and on the street, he said.
"It could be there are more garages [on the Upper West Side] and vehicle ownership rates could be lower," Corlett said.
Frank Scafidi, spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which ranks cities nationwide by car theft rates, agreed.
"Where a vehicle is left parked overnight or for the day is a factor," Scafidi said. "If you've got the wherewithal to have a garage, it’s less likely to be a target."
The Upper West Side could also be a less target-rich environment for car thieves, Scafidi said.
The most commonly stolen cars in the United States last year were the 1994 Honda Accord, 1995 Honda Civic and 1991 Toyota Camry. Other favorite choices for auto thieves included the 1999 full-size Chevrolet pickup and 1997 Ford F-150 pickup.
"I can't imagine a lot of those vehicles being on the streets of the Upper West Side," Scafidi said. "You're going to have a nicer ride, and usually with a nicer vehicle you're going to have much more theft protection coming right out of the factory."
Newer cars are much tougher to steal than their mid-1990s counterparts, said Scafidi, because they're equipped with better anti-theft devices. The rate of theft among Hondas dropped significantly after 1997, when the car maker started using "smart keys" that must be near the car for the vehicle to start, Scafidi said.
The Upper West Side's densely populated blocks could be a factor as well, according to Scafidi.
"If you've got an area where people are home during the day or out and about they’re going to take the time to report suspicious activity," Scafidi said.
The neighborhood’s low car theft rate could also boil down to simple geography. Whitestone, Queens was once popular with auto thieves, and many theorized it was because the neighborhood had two bridges nearby — the Throgs Neck and the Whitestone — that provided quick getaway routes, said Robert Sinclair, Jr., a spokesman for AAA New York.
“You could steal a car, get on the highway and be points north very quickly,” Sinclair, Jr. said. “It’s just the opposite on the Upper West Side. It’s pretty dense, and you’ve got a long way to go before you hit a bridge or highway. And you’ve got a light on every block.
'If you’re trying to get away, youR chances are not good.”
