CITIBIKE MEETING MOVED TO LARGER VENUE TO ACCOMMODATE HIGH EXPECTED TURNOUT
Posted on May 5, 2015 at 1:28 pm by West Sider
With a large crowd expected for a meeting next week revealing possible Upper West Side CitiBike locations, the community board has moved the meeting to a new larger location. It will be held at Goddard Riverside Community Center, 593 Columbus Avenue at 88th Street starting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12.
The meeting will include a presentation by the Department of Transportation on possible CitiBike locations from 59h to 86th streets, although it’s not clear how much time (if any) will be set aside for community comments and questions. CitiBike is expected to roll out in two sections: from 59th to 86th street by September, and from 86th to 110th by next March.
We wrote about the issue in more detail here.
Photo by Michel G.
Can’t wait for this! Long overdue.
This is incredibly important news! Once the bikeshare system is where people live (UWS and UES) and not just where they work it will increase in popularity exponentially. The more our streets are enhanced to accommodate bicycles the safer and more livable our city will be for everyone.
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
+1
Great news for the Upper West Side!
I have an annual membership but I haven’t used it much. I think I’ll use it much more when it’s local. I can ride it to local stores, work …
CItibikes on the NW corner of Bway & 96 would be perfect! PLEASE!
Agreed!
There is plenty of sidewalk space to put the racks. I hope they do not usurp any parking places, which are in short supply.
I am not against citibike but we need stronger enforcement of laws regarding bikes. I live in the west 60’s and I daily see bikes riding on the sidewalks, blowing red lights with no regard to pedestrians. Also I feel that liability insurance should be mandated and bikes should have plates like cars so if they take off after an accident the bike and rider can be identified. The bike stations are a nonissue to me.
Agreed. I live in the West 80s and daily see bikes on sidewalks, running red lights, and riding against traffic. If cars did these things as flagrantly, there would be tickets or accidents. If there is no enforcement, it is sadly only a matter of time until someone, either biker or pedestrian, gets hurt.
To West80spedestrian;
You make it sound like people have just now started to ride bikes in the city. The time you allude to has been ticking for years and I don’t see the accidents you profess happening. Bicycles are inherently safer by virtue of their weight and speed, exponentially more so than cars. The proof is in the pudding; how many deaths so far this year have bicycles caused in the city compared to motorized vehicles? The answer is 0 (although two pedestrians were struck and killed last year by unscrupulous bicyclists)I believe this year none. Before last year you have to go back five years to find another cyclist/pedestrian fatality and then before that another six or eight years. Just in March of this year 12 people (six were pedestrians) were killed in NYC due to traffic violence and 786 pedestrians were hurt by collisions with motor vehicles! Two of those pedestrians killed where on the sidewalk when the car struck them. These are all NYPD figures, you can look them up too. But even though the numbers don’t lie and the evidence is self explanatory people freak out when ever the topic of bicycle comes to the surface. Again, why?
I agree, bicyclist should never ride on the sidewalks unless the rider is co-riding with a child and they are riding at a walking pace. Also, bicyclist should ALWAYS yield to pedestrians period. But why do you think liability insurance and license plates are needed when bicyclist-pedestrian collisions are almost non existent? And when they take place almost never does the bicyclist get the opportunity to ride away since they get just as hurt as the person they struck. On contrast at least one pedestrian a day dies in NYC due to getting hit by a car, truck or bus and more often than we care to admit the driver gets away with it. Why do people get outraged by bicyclist behavior (granted some of it is indeed regrettable) but not by equally offensive motorist behavior which by virtue of their much heavier vehicles pose an enormous threat to all other street users? Why is that?
Can you please stick to the subject. Which is illegal bicycle operation. Not cars. Daily I dodge bicycles when I am legally walking in the neighborhood. They are running lights, going the wrong way, no regard for traffic lights or legal requirements. So it is only a matter of time before I or someone I care about gets struck. If they are visibly licensed, it will be easier to report legal offenses, whether or not there is an injury. Your argument that the cyclist does not need liability because they also get injured is absurd. They are causing the incident!
I’m very much sticking to the subject, by making a point that in the great scheme of things it’s a non issue. NYPD already tickets bicyclists for running lights and going the wrong way and riding on side walks (6000+ tickets alone last year). The behavior is already illegal and gets enforced statistically speaking more so than equally offensive behavior from other modes of transportation. The odds of getting struck by a bicyclist are infinitesimal compared to getting struck by a bus as shown in recent tragic events. So why are people getting bent out of shape about this?
What’s absurd is that as a pedestrian I can get run over by a car while walking on the sidewalk and the driver not get a single citation. Cabbies run over people in this city and then get behind the wheel of their cab like nothing ever happened. Absurd is the thousands of pedestrian that get injured in NYC by traffic violence and only an infinitesimal fraction of the drivers are made responsible for their actions. Absurd is the fact that people like you are making a huge deal about a non-issue.
Even pedestrians in this city have a windshield perspective in this city which is again, absurd given car ownership is probably one of the lowest per capita.
I have been almost hit by bikes going the wrong way/through crosswalks/veering onto sidewalks so many times. A couple of times I’ve been nicked (painfully) by a “breaking the law” cyclist. I’ve never been almost hit by a car. Obviously this is only my experience and not an aggregate statistic but I am only in favor of Citibike in our neighborhood if bikers behave (and I have very little hope they will)
Now that everyone has access to a bike in a oh-so bike-friendly city(surrendering life and liberty in the process, but that’s their problem), can the MTA please start banning bicycles on the subways? I’m starting to run out of skin around my lower legs.
Zulu, I think the worry is we will have many more riders in the near future so statistically more accidents will happen. Citibike has several liability lawsuits against them and one rider is being sued directly. Citi bike only carries 10 mil in liability one accident can wipe that out.
If riders would obey the laws residents would not be complaining, it is a quality of life issue. Again bike stations not an issue would like to see them in the street not on sidewalks (less cars is a good thing also)
For once I think the comments are mostly on point. Citibikes are a good thing. Reasonably affordable healthy transportation is hard to argue with.
Are some cyclists dangerous? Yes. But most arent. Look around at the people you see “whizzing by you” on the sidewalk. Chances are they’re deliverymen. The same ones I bet you use to deliver your food, since its NYC after all. Their electric bikes (illegal, btw) move fast, are silent, and they’ll hop curbs to get where they are going.
But citibike users? Not so much.
The number of cyclists keeps going up each year. Its happening. The sooner we get the infrastructure improved to support that, the quicker things get safer for everyone.
I think a lot of the anger and concern is misdirected. CITIBIKES ARE SLOW!! You won’t see them whizzing by because they don’t whiz, they plod.
I am an avid bicyclist and ride both my own bike and citibikes. The sort of pedestrian-bicyclist encounters that happen with “regular” bikes (although I yield to pedestrians, I am guilty of buzzing an oblivious jaywalker or two crossing against the light absorbed in their cellphones) just don’t happen with citibikes.
Welcome our new blue overlords
+1 to the observation that Citibikes are slow. Those beasts are tough to pedal. We aren’t talking about high-end road bikes or (illegal) deliveryman electric-assist bikes here.
NE corner of RSD and 72nd St. would be p[erfect. There is a large area of the wide turn from 72nd that is set off with thin white poles. putting a station there would be safe, and would not lose any parking. Also, PLENTY OF ROOM!!
72nd street right next to the north side train station