EVG reader Brett notes that the docking stations arrived this morning around 10...
... here on East 14th Street... just east of Avenue B and adjacent to Stuy Town...
Bike docking stations also arrived this morning on East Sixth Street ... on the south side of the street near Avenue B...
[Photo by Sally Davies]
33 comments:
Oh noes! Now Stuy Town will become full of jerks!!
E.V.: Love ya, but enough of the bike share posts. We get it. The racks are being installed everywhere. Yawn.
Stuy Town is already becoming full of jerks! Now it'll become full of jerks on bikes, in the name of green earth.
Where exactly the Stuy Town bike racks are being placed? I hope on the actual street and not the inset roadway. It's already too narrow.
And since we are on the topic of suggesting to Grieve how to run his blog, I'd like to suggest we stop letting anonymous comments on the CitiBike posts. STFU already Citi Trolls/Shills.
Is there a camera in every one?
help they're everywheeeeeeeere
Rumor has it, due to its proximity to the L train stop, these racks will be stocked with special Citi-penny-farthings to appease the William$burg crowd. Our dear hamlet will soon be invaded by hispters with 1920's train conductor facial hair ironically using proper hand gestures to alert their turns. We're all doomed!
Thank you all for your comments on this fine blog!
At Citi, we are looking forward for residents and tourists to be just as excited about the new bikes as we are.
Peter Cooper and "Stuy" Town is the perfect place where Old New York and New New York can bike together. We truly look forward to residents coming down and having a great time.
Don't forget to stop by your local branch and say hello!
- Citi :D
A friend of mine, a long-time community activist, used to say "There's no such thing as dirty money".
That's good, because although I'm totally in favor of more bikes in NY, there's not much money that's dirtier than Citi's (if you take all the damage done to all the lives in the financial crisis...)
The Stuy Town Citi Bank bike racks are being placed (as per the photos posted here) not on the actual project Stuy Town 14th street side but at the service road islands that face 14th street.
I agree that all these posts are silly. Because each new one seems to imply "Oh no, they're at it again, here comes yet another docking station." This is not really the same as documenting say, each new Subway or 7-11 that opens up. Even if I don't agree with the Shitbike program I have to understand that the ubiquity of these things is just part of the program. It only works if there are docks located everywhere. A bikeshare is not going to work if they can only be docked at a few select locations here and there.
Crazy Eddie is exactly right. I live in that building and can tell you that the racks are entirely in the island. They don't block parking, sidewalks, or anything else for that matter either on 14th Street or on the Service Road...
This is not available to the public because it requires a credit card and credit cards are only available to those who have been approved by the Treasury Dept. This is a privatization of our streets. The mainstreaming of biking will not be enjoyed by most bikers, you will be pulled over for not having your registration and insurance in order. You wait.
There should be a post for each station so people affected by them have a place to comment and share information. Keep up the good - and I'm sure tedious - work Grieve!
@ 3:00 PM
It only works if there are docks located everywhere.
Have you ever seen a public parking lot for cars?
Have you ever seen a neighborhood subway station?
One thing that "could" be nice about this is if all of these kiosk / terminals have the ability to be lit up as a free CitiWiFi network.
Nah, probably wouldn't be nice actually.
@4:13PM
Yes, I've seen public parking lots for cars. They're nearly on every street in New York City next to the sidewalks; cars park along the curbs. They're ubiquitous!
Just thought I'd mention that here in Paris, France (where I am now) they now have a CAR share system. The bikes have been here a long time. Now you can take an electric car out whenever you want.
It's just like zip cars, but they are electric and you have to plug them in when you return them.
Just letting you know what the future might hold.
Well, once the mass tourist casualties start adding up from collisions with MTA buses, work trucks, and bad city drivers maybe the city will actually take some steps to make biking safer in the city
Hmmm... the last picture reminded me of a line of urinals, wonder how long it will take the drunk frat dudes [and maybe the beckas] to use them as such...
Are these things properly grounded?...
Bikes are common, accepted, desirable forms of transport throughout the world. About time for the US to catch up. I was in DC over the weekend and their bikeshare bikes (and stands) were everywhere, and all sorts of folks were using them -- tourists, guys with yoga mats, business people. No harm done.
Bikes w/o monitoring. Great. Motorized bikes flying through the sidewalks, lights, either way/any way. Who cares. For those who don't see it, the city is going down. Where's Guilliani? At least he would have controlled such nonsense!
...is there going to be any way to keep bikers, citi or other, from going the wrong way on every street and/or from riding on the sidewalks? over here in dorm land (E 12th St) that's all day, every day. Very difficult to remember to look both ways before crossing a one-way street... but of course, that's the pedestrian's fault, n'est pas?
hey nygrump: to make this truly public by your definition, how would you suggest we deal with the questions of theft/collateral and paying for usage, if not with credit cards?
For bonus points, tell us how privately-owned cars and cabs _aren't_ privatization of our streets. Tons of well-intentioned people feel swapping parking for bikes and bike lanes is exactly the opposite, and this is a great chance to educate us and not sound like an aptly-named crackpot. So go for it!
Cars pay for their street usage through gas taxes, registration and license fees as well as tolls. They also pay additional taxes for off street parking, and don't forget the meter maids !
You allow somebody to leave something equal in value, not a 'credit card'- Then its fair for all! Like NY Grump said -and Forcing bike riders to have registration is only necessary if you make them ride with cars, fostering accidents. Rip out these poorly executed bike lanes-
My City would have a separate avenue for bike traffic so you'd needn't register a 2 wheelers.
Otherwise, as it now stands, bikers need a license
So: car owners pay for streets, therefore nobody else can use streets. That's not privatization?
And: assuming the value of a citibike is roughly $300, what should people leave, a nice stack of silver coins? Sounds convenient. Times 30 bikes per station and I guess we better have an armed guard too.
First of all, "Citi Never Sleeps" has some F*cking nerve posting on this blog. Grieve, very cute, but can u pls block that self-aggrandizing HORSESH*T going forward?
I sad it once, and I'll say it again. the only one who will benefit here is CITI.
None of these profits are going back to city programs! ZERO! I dont know how they're even calling it a city program. It is TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY PRIVATIZED. The only involvement the city actually has here is handing off yet a nother sweetheart deal to their corporate wh0res, while SCREWING the rest of us. But that's just BAU for the Bloomie administration.
Because you have to pay w/ credit card (and have no option to buy a token with cash) they will be able to monitor and track your every move. I bet a million dollars there are tracking devices on these things. Same thing w/ metrocards - they are trying to make it so that you have to use credit cards. There is a huge campaign against cash in general - bc cash = anonyminity.
Welcome to the age of Big Brother.
Welcome to the Police State.
Welcome to the New World Order.
Well Glamma and other conspiracy worriers... just don't participate in the CitiBike share... I don't because i find insanely overpriced and i'm thrifty... and if you think cash= anonymity when you buy anything with cash most likely there is a camera taking a pic somewhere and in today's digital age you will be recognized by someone who will turn you in for 15 seconds of fame.
If this program was really intended for the locals or as a transportation alternative, then how is it that the Bronx won't be getting this?
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130508/mott-haven/bronx-cyclists-wonder-whether-borough-will-get-city-bike-share-program. Th way this is being marketed and propagandized that it's for local, then the Bronx is where these can be really useful. But if you look at the maps of the docking stations, they are mostly in the tourists spots, and the way they rush putting those docking stations there for the Memorial Day start date signifies that these are for mostly tourists.
It's aimed for tourists where Citi can make money of off them. By the time the tourists have seen all the fees that they have unknowingly or knowingly incurred, they're already back in their hometowns or countries where it's too late or resigned for them to question the fees. Only a few will dispute the fees.
This program is for profit, giving money to the pockets of Alta Bicycle Share and CitiBank for which there is little or no return to the public. The public parking spaces at least fund the city when they are ticketed or paying via the meters.
And to those who can't wait for this and spend their entire day from one corral to another just riding (good that you don't have to work and have a trust fund), I'd like to see you riding this and going out and about in a corporate bike on a torrential rain like this morning.
Each bike will be equipped with a GPS, and you can be sure that Citi Bike will profit from this by selling information to marketers. Section 18 of the user agreement specifically states that "aggregate and other" data is permitted to be disclosed:
https://www.citibikenyc.com/user-agreement
"NYCBS may disclose aggregate and other data about Members in accordance with applicable law, including general latitude and longitude data for Member addresses (provided this would not allow any individual's address to be separately identified)."
Wake up people, These bike corrals are one of the biggest land grabs in Bloombergs history, surpassed only by the vast giveaway to his developer friends just a few years ago under the west side rezoning plan, and the upcoming East Midtown rezoning project which will sell off all the air rights to his developer friends in east midtown for pennies on the dollar.
The public is losing access to hundreds of parking spaces and easier street crossing for pedestrians in exchange for Citibank billboards and tourist rides, the result of which will clog streets with more cars looking for parking spots while pushing up parking rates.
They will also make streets dirtier and harder to maintain. Look at the corrals as they are already collecting trash and debris between the docking stations. Sanitations street sweepers cannot clean them, so I guess someone will need to use a broom, and forget about snow plows. Imagine what these will look like after the next blizzard with mounds of ice and dirty snow piled high.
The basic idea is a good one but requires a much better and more gradual rollout to learn what works, but Bloomnerg wants his legacy and won't slow down for anyone or anything. New York City is his social experiment, and we are all his guinea pigs. Oink!
It would be cheaper for CitiBunk to give away the bikes for free in Le Bronx, just sayin'
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