After teasing Upper West Siders for years by promising to deploy Citi Bikes in our neighborhood, the city says it’s really, actually, probably, almost definitely, going to expand the network next year. Almost certainly, hopefully.
Polly Trottenberg, the head of the Department of Transportation, said “‘confidently’ that Citi Bike will expand to Upper East and Upper West sides sometime in 2015,” according to WNYC reporter Kate Hinds.
The CitiBike program has been extremely popular, but the company that runs it has had significant financial problems, delaying the expected expansion. An expected deal with Related Companies could infuse the system with new cash, however. The bikes are now available only as far North as 60th street and Broadway.
Streetsblog reported on Tuesday that the plan is to extend it to as far as 140th street, although it’s not clear if it would reach that high on both the East and West sides. In any case, it’s expected to encompass the entire Upper West Side. Streetsblog notes that this could lead to more protected bike lanes, including one on Amsterdam Avenue.
“While some of these areas, mainly in Brooklyn, already enjoy dense parts of the cycling network, the coming of Citi Bike should spur creation of more protected bike lane capacity on the Upper East and West Sides. In particular, the city should implement a protected lane between 60th and 100th Streets on Second Avenue as soon as subway construction wraps up, connect the Columbus Avenue lane to Ninth Avenue, and develop northbound protected routes on the Upper West Side. Additional east/west bike capacity could be linked to the cross-park routes like 72nd and 102nd Streets, likely to be heavily used by Citi Bike riders.”
The expansion is likely dependent on the deal with Related being finalized. So, stay tuned…
About time!
Woooooo the sooner the better!
A big +1!
I might actually use it if it comes up here. I’ve only used it 3 times downtown despite my company buying me a year membership. At that cost per ride I could have just taken taxis!
Best news I’ve heard all day, BY FAR!
Excellent! Fewer expressways in the middle of our neighborhoods and more room for foot-powered traffic: bring on a more livable city.
The best iPhone app for Citibike is Spotcycle since it cleanly shows how many bikes are left on the map itself and indeed it ends above 59th.
As a cyclist I’m conflicted about this news. On one hand it’s great, providing a green, efficient method of transportation in our neighborhood.
On the other hand I cringe when thinking about inexperienced cyclists with no helmets on their cell phones on WEA. Probably won’t take one month after launching on the UWS for there to be a bad accident on WEA involving a CitiBike. Just my .02.
I’m an avid cyclist, and I’m all for the addition of more bikes. I’d rather compete with “inexperienced” cyclists than idiots behind the wheel of a 2 ton death machine (aka automobiles)!
I’m a cyclist too, and I use Citibikes when convenient. They are slow and lumbering. Not much of a risk to pedestrians really. And if Citibikers can bike safely in midtown (which they do) then the UWS should be no problem. Citibikes work. Somehow. Trust the force.
If that happens the City will just have to build concrete-divided bike lanes down West End Avenue (ideally on either side of the road), to match the coming new pedestrian islands being installed to save the police the burden of enforcing the traffic laws on cars.
Problem solved! Who needed West End Avenue, anyway? As long as earbud listeners get to ride their CitiBikes!
Agreed.
I think it’s time to share this exciting travel experience with the East Side. Bike lanes on Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue. I am sure there are loads of people on the East Side who would love this opportunity to ride to work and around town.
Why are you here?
Stay on your side of the park.
And keep the triple-parked limos.
For your info I was born on the Upper West Side and have lived here for close to 70 years. My comment was made in jest because it seems as if all the new bike lanes are planned for MY part of town. I think it’s funny that there are no plans except for the Second Avenue bike lane. Exactly how many bike lanes are there on the East Side? How many on the West Side?
great! for those who can cycle, this will make cross-town travel so much easier and quicker. and also will support commuters.
Oh no! I was never afraid of cars — but bicyclists, yes. Very afraid. I hope they require the bikers to have licenses and follow all traffic laws.
Have licenses – no
Follow all traffic laws – yes
Enforced – intermittently
BTW, who is “they”?
You mean like they require auto drivers to have licenses and follow all traffic laws?
Great news. I’m looking forward to riding these around for errands, Fairway, Zabars …
Very happy to hear that, but if we really want to change how people travel in town, maybe we should emulate London, which just announced that it is spending 900 MILLION pounds on making London more bike-friendly, including building cross-London bicycle “superhighways.”
https://www.london24.com/news/cycling/900m_crossrail_for_bikes_unveiled_with_two_dutch_style_cycle_superhighways_across_london_1_3755491
Actually this is London catching up to NY, not the other way around. A “superhighway” is just marketing; they’re talking about taking valuable “carriageway space” for protected bike lanes and reorganize the flow. Just like NY has. Right now London just has painted stripes that most cars (esp taxis) ignore, and even play chicken with the bikers. I’ll lay odds they adopt some of the NY bike lane ideas like “blending turn lanes”. As for the huge amount of money.. well.. London is a LOT bigger than NY, and there is nowhere near enough space to do this sort of thing easily like there is in NY. So gloat, don’t be jealous.
Sorry – lived and biked there from 2002 – 2006; even then it was better than NYC is now. At least in Central London, there are far more bikers, as well as more protected bike lanes. Be happy to see a race to the top, though.
Happy to hear of Citibike’s expansion.
Glad to the new administration rethought the knee jerk idea of scraping Bloomberg’s (true) progressive ideas. Some of which are actuallly good. Like encouraging bike use in the City.
For you naysayers – I would suggest a trip to Copenhagen and other European cities to see how bike use is great for all in tight urban environment. Sure beats the billions to built new highways and subways. Although new subways should be built too.
CITIBike is an ad for CITIBank. I think bikes are great when ridden within the law. I think rent bikes is great too. I think renting bikes should be done by small business not the taxpayer while the service is selling CitBank . If the City wants to rent bikes fine but take th Citibank name off this program. It really is offensive.
Stop calling it CITI Bike. Citi Bank provides almost none if any of the funding. It was pretty much a one shot deal to make Bloomberg happy. Bike rentals that have ended some thriving small businesses should not be celebrated.
The City should be spending its money on basic services not propping up something that is nothing more than free advertising for a huge bank that is already enjoying billions of taxpayer dollars and free money from the FED.
Citibank paid an annual $7 million to sponsor the program. Could argue that it’s a better deal for them than the $20 million a year for naming rights on the Mets ballpark, but how do you mean the bikes are free advertising for them?
New York City taxpayers don’t pay anything to subsidize the bikeshare.
I heard somewhere that a lot of the small bike rental places are renting stolen bikes. Not sure if this is true, though.
DUMBEST THING I EVER HEARD…. BLOOMBERG RUINED THE CITY….. WILL THIS NEVER END ? ? ?
This would be fine if bikers would obey the traffic laws. Instead, the vast majority of them don’t stop at red lights, go against the traffic on one-way streets, ride on the public footpaths in Central Park, go uptown in downtown bicycle paths and downtown in uptown bicycle paths, ride on the sidewalks, etc. And asking bikers to please obey existing biking laws is almost always responded to with silence, obscene gestures, or even hostile confrontations. Until the biking community can police its own members, I am 100% against the expansion of anything that encourages more biking in the city. And this includes not only restaurant delivery people whose limited command of English puts them at a disadvantage, but also obviously educated people of a higher economic level who think they can flout the safety laws with impunity. Expansion of biking is not a good thing for pedestrians in this city.
sad but true
Pedestrians, cars, busses, trucks, bikes……they’re all a hazard to each other. Pedestrians jaywalk, cars, busses, trucks speed & double park, bikes go thru red lights, on sidewalks, against traffic….whatever is convenient for them. Bike lanes are an OK idea, certainly eco friendly but should be required to have bike licenses/plates at a very minimal fee so if they do break traffic laws we can at least try to catch them on traffic cams. Of course then we should have NYPD bike police. We did once….are they still around? Have you ever tried to cross the park drive in Central Park on a weekend….not for the slow and infirm. 🙂
Great more bikes on crowed sidewalk and still no enforcement
Bike license plates are essential. A bike is a fast-moving wheeled vehicle, like a car, truck, or bus, all of which have license plates for identification. The bikers in the park totally ignore the new signs that ask them to walk their bikes on the public paths. 99 out of 100 bikers ignore red lights. Instead of being the healthy and eco-friendly activity it should be, biking has turned out to be a hazard for pedestrians. The bottom line is that the right of the pedestrian must always prevail. Right now, it never does. Look left. Look right. Look left again. Cross your fingers, and pray you get across the street or park pathway without getting hit. Bikers, you should be ashamed of yourselves! Obey the laws! Don’t ignore or curse at someone who asks you to do so. Why does getting on a bike turn someone into a deaf or rude or obscene or confrontational person? And will the city of New York please take greater action to enforce existing bike laws and protect its walking citizens before it thinks about expanding bike lanes. The biking community should police itself.
I’m not defending rude cyclists. BUT cyclists have been responsible for two pedestrian deaths in NYC since May 2009 (one in 2009 in midtown Manhattan, the next in August 2014 in Central Park). Since July 4 this year, drivers have killed at least 20 pedestrians, 5 cyclists, 4 passengers, plus 8 drivers and 6 motorcyclists in NYC. It’s incredible, how dangerous motor traffic is.