By Gus Saltonstall
A popular Citi Bike station at the corner of West End Avenue and 107th Street vanished at the end of last week.
Multiple Upper West Siders reached out to West Side Rag asking if the bike dock, which is adjacent to Straus Park, was gone for good?
The Rag reached out to the Department of Transportation to get clarity on the situation.
The Citi Bike station at the corner of West End Avenue and 107th Street was removed last Friday for milling and street paving operations in the surrounding area, a spokesperson from the DOT stated.
Milling is the process of grinding off the top layer of asphalt or surface of a roadway, and is generally done in preparation for paving a road.
The Citi Bike station will be returned after the paving and road resurfacing process is complete, which generally takes a few weeks, the DOT spokesperson added.
Citi Bike’s website also shows the station currently out of service, but also says “it will be (back) soon.”
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They should all be gone for good, citibike docking stations could be placed inside storefronts with human staff there to help instead of all these smoke shops!
I think lots of people underestimate the popularity and distribution of the CitiBike system. There are almost 2,000 docks with 4.7 million rides per month and increasing every year….
So that’s… 2,000 empty storefronts around the city, some need to be quite large. During rush hour, they need to accommodate many people entering and exiting simultaneously with bikes… I don’t know how many millions of dollars that would cost in rent and 24/7 staff…
This is all aside from the fact that I don’t think there’s a reason you need staff to help use a CitiBike and there are much better uses for the city’s storefronts.
Citibike is already losing money and I doubt there is public appetite to bring bikeshare into the MTA fold.
Pls use some common sense and look at the picture
Notice the street looks a bit odd with the pavement chewed up and the manholes all a bit razed.
Can you say look for the signs that said, “No Parking, Street reconstruction………..”
It looks like the street was “milled” by DOT and in about 3 weeks they will repave it.
Once the pavement, lane marks etc are done by the contractor Cit, really Lyft has the choice of putting it back or not
Return the streets to autos. The bike stations are contributing to traffic congestion and ultimately pollution and global warming.
Better yet, we need to return the streets to their original use – pedestrians!
Ha ha. That’s the best “scientific” comment I’ve seen for some time
Actually horses and then you would have horse waste issues. That is why cars were seen as good, because dealing with car emissions was better than horse waste.
After looking at the snap I went right to the “weekly resurfacing” Calander, rather than hopping DOT’s press folks get back to me and found Bway from 152 and south is being worked on, with a number of side streets being added as needed.
Not to nerd out but FYI 5th ave is being done from the Harlem River Drive to 135 as well as other streets in the city
Thank you, Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill….
Lets hope not. These racks shoukd only be were used. Citibike pays nothing- isnt taxed and this is public space. They are a private company making millions using public space. More money to give Trans Alt ( bike lobby) as one of their big donors. There is no accountability from Citibike. The e Citibike rider that killed Priscilla Loke got a red light ticket. Citibike told her family “ we aren’t responsible. Yet- Citibike has NO real safety training for first time users! Helmets arent required. The e bikes are riding ALL over our sidewalks and fly through red lights 90% of time. People ride looking down on phone. The saying “ If you build it, they will come” doesn’t work with these racks. Too many racks. There are many that are rarely used. I don’t want to hear it. I video the racks on uws at all times of the day – as do hundreds of our members. It is criminal what Citibike is doing – pushing more e bike ridership, while NEVER pushing safety or accountability. More ridership at tje cost of lives and the maiming of New Yorkers. Shame.
Citibike does pay fees to the city for lost parking meter revenue. However an argument can be made that they are more productive as parking spaces as parking spaces are used by different types of vehicles which make trips that are less convenient to make by public transit. Whereas Citibike tends to siphon off existing public transit usage and urbanists who support Citibike want public subsidies for it while complaining about high subsidies for every other mode of transportation that they do not like. Not only that Lyft has explicitly said they wanted to convert Citibike riders to rideshare riders, thus completing the push to siphon off public transit riders in the most transit rich areas all while telling people who cannot afford to live in gentrifying neighborhoods to take the train or multiple trains or a bus to multiple trains.
Yes Citibike siphons from public transit.
Also worth noting that NYC DOT actively promotes and encourages bicycling – in twitter/x constantly, in advertising, in public events/open streets events, in helmet giveaway programs and other.
And NYC DOT implemented Open Streets on bus routes causing bus diversion.
In contrast, NYC DOT does not actively promote MTA bus and subway – just the generic advice to use mass transit…..
Lyft owns the DOT, quite obviously and – my plumbers, electricians, Amazon, Fresh Direct and other delivery and service people will look mighty funny on a Citibike – and charge me four times over.
I am impressed with the speed and accuracy of WSR’s reporting. I’m not referring specifically to this story — I mean the general coverage.
Citibike racks are just one more factor adding to the hellscape we now have in NY. There are way too many of them where bikes are just warehoused on the street. Citibike riders are often the worst riders acting as if their membership gives them carte blanche to ride through red lights, on sidewalks, on the wrong side of streets and on pedestrian paths in the parks.
Citibike/Lyft must be held responsible for injuries and deaths (yes deaths) caused by their riders! If you are unlucky enough to have a rack near your building you’ll be finding them riding to and from on the sidewalk to get to the rack endangering pedestrians and your residents.
I was met with an explosive tirade when I asked a Citibike rider to not ride on the sidewalk!! This kind of behavior never happened with such violence and frequency as it does now!
Reduce the number of Citibikes riding and occupying our streets! Make Citibike liable for the reckless riders who injure! And have the Mayor FINALLY regulate them together with other e-bikes to stop the daily injury of NYC pedestrians! Anything less continues a blight which has made our city treacherous for the majority of New Yorkers!
Yes there are citibike riders who behave badly but many of us do not. I don’t ride the wrong wa,y, ride on sidewalks or run people over. Let’s not hysterical and exaggerate about daily injuries and the need to get rid of them. I get fed up with the behavior of car drivers and pedestrians but I’m not calling for them to be eliminated. However I will agree that all of the above need to be ticketed for infractions – which is not happening.
Regarding bus transportation….
Does anyone know if the M66 bus stop (eastbound) on the SE corner of 65th Street (by pain quotidienne) will be returning?
Or is it gone for good?
It’s gone because of construction on that block. It is temporary, but no idea when it will return.
The Lyftbike station by the Apple Store was removed a couple of months ago. It was then quickly replaced.
The headline here is clickbait, at least to those interested in keeping the Lyftbike docks.
Since the reporter/editor knew that station was simply removed for street repaving, one sentence would have covered this “reporting”: Citibike station temporarily removed because of street work.
Given that just this afternoon a jerk on a Lyftbike going the wrong way in the “protected” Columbus Ave. “bike” lane ran a red light as I was about to step into the “bike” lane: All Lyftbike stations should be removed from the City.