This afternoon at the new Citi Bikes docking station on St. Mark's Place just west of First Avenue... Per Jose Garcia: "The fire department just discovered that the new Citi Bikes are smack dab in the middle of the firelane. They seemed very unhappy."
28 comments:
Previous posts suggested this station replaced parked cars.
This post says the station is in the fire lane.
Which is it?
If it's the former, then FDNY access to the street hasn't changed at all.
They don't look THAT sturdy, surely a truck can just drive right over them.
There's no fire lane on St. Mark's Place, the whole north side is a No Parking Anytime regulation. This is reparations for firefighters parking wherever they want near firehouses.
And when loaded with bikes these will take up 3x the space, further limiting the ability of FCNY & other emergency vehicles to get through.
Are these a potential obstacle to firefighters? I guess cars can be either driven away or towed, but these things don't look like they are easily moved.
That's not a @#$% "fire lane."
Fire lanes are on Avenues, not cross-town streets.
Also, you may laugh, but mark my words: bike share is going to PREVENT far, far more injuries and fatalities than a fire truck's slightly increased speed on St. Marks could ever.
Too bad. We need bikes not a bunch of crying firefighters. More space is blocked by illegally parked cops and firefighters all day everyday than a couple of bikes ever will. Maybe we should just fly more surveillance drones?
"We need bikes not a bunch of crying firefighters."
Wait `til your apartment catches fire, curly.
"bike share is going to PREVENT far, far more injuries and fatalities than a fire truck's slightly increased speed on St. Marks could ever."
2:37 pm and 2:59 pm. Sure hope your condo won't be on fire. Firetrucks speed because they're responding to, hello, an emergency. Remember 9/11? Oh, right you were only 10 y.o. or so just watching it on TV in Podunk, Wisconsin. But then again, if there is a fire or an adversity, you'd be Citibiking to the next Citi ATM and catch that next flight to mommy and daddy.
Maybe we should just eliminate FDNY, much like Bloomberg is eliminating hospitals, since you guysr are invincible? Or have Firebikes instead of firetrucks.
New York's Bravest > New York's Narcissists.
Dock this.
@anon3:22
I'm with you. We should eliminate FDNY, nursing homes, hospitals, affordable housing, homeless shelters and... We should have as many citi bike docking stations, public art and outdoor street fairs and festivals as possible.
I still can't believe that St. Vincents will be luxury condos and Rosie O'Donnell will be moving into the penthouse there for $8M. It's all about progress.
3:22,
You aren't an Oath Keeper by any chance, are you?
Those things are an eyesore and are popping up all over the citi faster than bank branches. Now we'll have even more bicyclists buzzing through red lights and endangering pedestrians. All the while yelling, ringing their bells and carrying on. BOO HISS!
4:21 pm, You aren't a Skull and Bones or Freemason and a Citi corporate shiller by any chance, are you?
This is going to be a nightmare. I have been to Paris and seen drunken people riding the bikes in their program through the streets at 2am, while holding hands and singing. No helmets, no working lights. It may have looked charming if it were in some romantic comedy about 20 somethings enjoying Paris. I can't wait to see the crowds of drunk idiots using these for their next pub crawl. I am sure the folks who organize pub crawls are all over this and soon enough we will see packs of drunken idiots riding these bikes from the 13th Step to the Village PourHouse to Destination etc. For those of you saying that this will be used by locals, you will be in for a rude awakening when you go to get a bike on Sunday morning for a nice ride and there is vomit all over the docking station from the idiots who used it the night before as their chariot. Have you ever walked the streets of this neighborhood on a Friday and Saturday evening and witnessed the utter bedlam out there. Drunks staggering into the street screaming at cabs, cabs swerving to pick-up drunks, food-delivery guys on all kinds of bikes zipping everywhere. You have to have your head ona swivel if you are walking to make sure someone doesn't crash into you on foot or on a bike or in a motorized vehicle. Now you are gonna crowd the streets and sidewals with these docking stations and have a bunch of people who aren't used to driving a bike in NYC and will most likely not even be sober adding to that mix. For those of you who support this because you think it will make your life a little easier or fun, get a clue, this is gonna be a dangerous situation for all of us, pedestrians, experienced bike riders and those evil doers who happen to drive a car.
Anon @ 4:51: Yeah, you're right! We shouldn't have subways or buses or cabs, either, because drunk people might use them to transport themselves between bars or puke on them!
Please, let me print and frame your comment so I can laugh at it a year from now along with all these other absurd gloom-and-doom predictions.
lol at the Citibike shills on here. What's next, the FDNY should use tricycles instead of trucks becuz fire trucks are sooo Houston and not New York? Personally, I can't wait until an out of control cab plows into a row of $1200 (retail?) bikes and mows them down like dominoes.
One thing for sure is there ugly as hell! Both the docking stations and the bikes!
It's too big. It's a taxpayer-funded bailout waiting to happen. The whole point of these public-private partnerships in the modern age seems to be to fleece the taxpayer. (See "New Yankee Stadium")
4:32,
I'm none of those (though my grandfather was a freemason for much of his life). I just got a really strong "Stop and Frisk" vibe from you. Maybe I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.
4:21
6:25,
Citibike shills? Are you serious? People that support a bike share program are "shills"?
Is this some sort of performance art piece where you are doing your best Free Republic poster impression?
I think comparing the program with Yankee Stadium isn't a very good analogy. The city has no initial investment and if the programs runs out of money, the city can just pull the plug, have the bikes scooped up and call it a day.
Yankee Stadium was just a direct handout to the Steinbrenner family because the Yankees may have moved to... I have no idea, which makes it even more ridiculous.
I've lived in the East Village for 7 years and I read this site every day. It's such a valuable source for me, just as the NY Times and others sites are.
I'm sure I'll be mocked on this but I rarely read the comments because, when I do, so many are just nasty and mean-spirited. Like if someone offers a contrary opinion it's just name calling and then they're automatically from FlyOverLand or Ohioconsin or whatever fake offensive state it is that just doesn't get "NYC" because, hey, you weren't here on 09/11. I mean, a lot of us aren't "from" here but it doesn't mean we don't value and love the East Village.
I'm sure by just posting this I'll be called out and told to go back to Tennesippi and drink my Big Gulp and my Starbucks and be all "wooooo" because my name is Lindsey Megan Amber.
Honestly, the articles on this site are great but, damn, the comments (not all) just bum me out.
@Anon 9:29
It's not just the people who are mean-spirited but I have to add, in my mean-spirited way, that the bike-share program has engendered enough hysteria to provide fodder for several doctoral dissertations. I have no idea why. Maybe I can apply for a grant to study this.
(This is the internet, and I am a lizard.)
The reference to 9/11 and those who weren't here when that tragedy happened is to show and remind them that it was frantic when it happened. The FDNY was the first responders trying to save people's lives. Disrespecting them and calling them whiny over these bikesharing is disgusting and disconcerting. That's nasty and mean spirited. But you know what the FDNY doesn't care where you're from. They'll be there for you providing emergency needs and protecting you and your property. Unlike the attitude of the bikesharers, which is every man for himself.
Who I am: I have lived in downtown NYC since 1974. I was here during 9/11. I have lived in the EV and LES for 15 years.
What I think: I love bikes. I hate traffic. I am surprised by how people are acting like bike shares = chaos, death, destruction and the fall of Rome. As for the scene conjured by 4:51 of "drunken people riding the bikes in their program through the streets at 2am, while holding hands and singing," frankly, that sounds pretty awesome to me, but then, I choose Dionysus over Apollo any time--that's why I hate chain stores, sterile development, monotony and miles of cars, cars, cars.
Great that you love bikes, 11:23am. And your missing the point about 9/11. Great that you were here on 9/11 but didn't expand on that. That should mean that you saw how FDNY risked their live while saving lives. These bikeshares, however and meanwhile, make statements such as "We need bikes not a bunch of crying firefighters."
And basically you're saying that we must love and accept bikesharing because it = love, harmony, peace, bliss for all eternity. Yeah.
@anon 11:23
So far I've been critical by the hysteria, but what's this Apollo vs Dionysis? If bikeshare is going to bring out the closet Oswald Spengers, then a little hysteria may be warranted.
I see now that just "being here" on 9/11 is no longer enough to comment positively on bike shares. New qualifications: must have been *born* in NYC, never have left the five boroughs, must be over 98 years old, must have been *inside* the towers when they fell.
Qualifications for shrieking hysterically over bike shares and equating bike docks with buildings burning out of control and dissing firefighters: hmmm, own a car. NIMBY-prone. Pro-global warming. Into honking, pedestrian deaths (yes, cars do kill people more than bikes kill people), speeding, the smell of exhaust, hot summers, megastorms...
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