The Citi Bikes docking stations on the southeast corner of East 11th Street at First Avenue are on the move, as these photos by Greg Matherly of Reciprocal Skateboards show.
The docking stations are headed across First Avenue, to the northwest corner across from Veniero's on East 11th Street. No sooner than this happened did we hear that business owners on this stretch of the street are very unhappy with this move. "That is a serious business killer — especially on holidays and weekends," said one.
Of course, business owners at the previous spot of the docking station were unhappy too. Carlo Giurdanella of Bella Tile had complained that one of the new bike docks had taken away his loading zone.
"I don't know how we’re going to be able to operate really now effectively," he told CBS New York on May 1. "It's sad, dramatic negative impact."
Perhaps the move will mark the return of the longstanding Halal cart here. The made way for a truck after the docking station arrived on the southeast side of East 11th Street...
[May 4]
52 comments:
Such bullshit. Bella Tile have a lot and a curb cut that was in no way impacted by the bike racks. more NIMBY bullshit.
Such is the nature of these things. Everyone's going to have a problem with it, due to the fact that people have unrealistic expectations of how street space ought to be used anyway. While I support the bikeshare program, I think the more important thing that should be done is the creation of commercial loading zones on every block in the city to allow for easier deliveries. Unfortunately, free street parking is an entitlement that few are loathe to give up for any reason at all.
If Veniero's can't stay in business because of the loss of a few parking spaces, they would be really unique in terms of business mix for that area of town. 98% of the customers for those businesses arrive on foot or by public transportation.
This corner is a majjor traffic area with los of double parking as cars wait to get a space or pickup an order of Sfogliatelle, rainbow cookies and anise toast. If this bike station blocks people from Venieros there will be a major cannoli riot on the next big holiday weekend.
What's strange about this rollout is that none of these stations is permanent, they stay in place with their own weight (like many a Venieros customer) and are 4 docks per segment, meaning they could set up much smaller than the massive 40-50 bike stations per location, or at least space them out since they have 3-4 foot spacers to go around manhole covers, in other words these can be installed in a way that allows easy access for all but DOT has chosen a less thoughtful one size fits all approach.
I have seen the bike rental installations in Montreal and they are much more thought out, safe and integrated with each area than any of the ones I have seen here.
So to those who think this is not going to create problems, just look at other cities who have already done it better. What should be a great neighborhood addition is turning into a headache before the program even begins.
Not only are these docking stations hard to maneuver around, they also collect garbage, and any property owner knows that Sanitation will ticket shops and buildings for any minor debris on the sidewalk. Plus the street sweepers have no way to clean on alternate side of the street parking days, or are the rental bikes subject to parking rules too? I guess in Bloombergs mind, more tickets would be a bonus.
Biking is really, really bad for you. And your health. I can see the justification of these arguments.
I think the new location makes more sense. Makes it easier to get to/from the 1st and 2nd Ave bike lanes and the mosque already gets alot of traffic.
As to Veniero's, the bikes are now taking up non-metered street parking spaces that were rarely used by Veniero customers. Besides there is plenty of metered parking on 1st ave, but Veniero's car customers seem to always double park on 11th. Maybe if police gave tickets for double parking, there wouldn't always be traffic in front of Veniero's as there is now...
You do not know what you're.talking about. Anyway, you live in NJ
Brian Van, have to disagree. Veniero's is always jammed up with double parked cars as people run in to pick things up.
At least the riding wounded will have quick access to tasty Italian pastries! A sergeant at the 9th precinct thinks that bike share program will lead to more accidents, via DNA info:
East Village Sergeant Fears Bike Share Program Will
Cause More Crashes
EAST VILLAGE — With thousands of extra bikes set to compete with cars on city streets under the new Citi Bike share program, an NYPD sergeant fears more cyclists will be struck by vehicles on traffic-clogged streets.
"Yes, I am concerned about the bike share program," said Amber Cafaro, traffic safety sergeant at the East Village's 9th Precinct, speaking after the precinct's community council meeting Tuesday night.
"We are going to see a lot of people hit by cars, I think."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan have promoted the Citibank-sponsored program's 6,000 bikes as a boon to the city's economy and transit infrastructure. But Cafaro nonetheless said she fears more crashes involving cyclists as a result.
Cafaro listed recent accidents in the East Village involving distracted cyclists talking on phones and running red lights, along with one biker who slipped on a wet roadway and wound up putting his hand through a car windshield.
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130522/east-village/east-village-traffic-cop-fears-bike-share-program-will-cause-more-crashes
This is not about biking. It is about privatizing public space and corporatizing city services. The use of the bikes is limited to specific classes if people and is not available to all residents. For a instance, under 18. generally, under 18's aren't given a credit card.
@Giovanni
"What's strange about this rollout is that none of these stations is permanent"
That's, maybe, the only thing that WAS thought out here. It's by design.
Once this thing is up and running, these things will be moved all over the place, as well as reduce or enlarged, and in some cases removed.
And for the record: NYC NEVER looks to other cities to see how intelligent, progressive things are done. Just look at Select Bus Service, Muni meter/removal of preinstalled bike lock stands (old meters).Oh yeah, and the subway system.
All of these are some of the worst implementations of these technologies in the world (as well as most expensive) Just look at how any other major city has done these things. NYC = Dead last.
at least they know where they can put their snow in the winter time
I saw a docking station somewhere in the west village the other day. They are popping up everywhere. This could have been thought out a lot better but then again is there ever any critical thinking about anything these days?
Dear business owners: I bike, walk, and take the subway everywhere and if I see you whining about the big mean old city taking away your precious parking spaces that your noble widdle mom and pop business depends on, not on stoopid bike-riding hippies like me and my family, I WILL NEVER BUY YOUR DAMN CANNOLIS OR WHATEVER AGAIN. I'm so sick of you car-worshipping assholes crying about parking spaces as if the tiny number of people in Manhattan who drive are the only people who ever buy anything. Move the fuck to Long Island or New Jersey if you only want to sell shit to people in cars and install yourself a goddamn DRIVE-THROUGH.
There's no flexibility with these bike racks at ALL. They are huge and kill large chunks of the block that would other wise provide parking and delivery access. It's really selfish to inflict this corporate culture project on out neighborhoods with zero outreach or consideration. Fuck you CitiBike.
did you folks forget the number of cabs that double and triple park around the mosque in the large area bounded by 9th street to 12th street, 2nd avenue to avenue a, so they can visit the mosque.
"Move the fuck to Long Island or New Jersey if you only want........"
Yes, the desperate chant of the Transient Rube, I was so waiting for this cliché to show up at a Citi Bike tread.
BTW, as I have posted before, I have ridden around here forever, just rode the 5_Boro Bike Tour. So please, spare me the poisonous barbs of how green bikes are, how healthy they are, etc. And please don’t tell me about DC, about London, etc. We are one of the most congested and packed urban centers in the world, we ARE different. Having been to DC and Toronto recently, take look at the track roadbeds at any underground station, notice how clean they are. Now take a look at the track roadbeds at any underground NYC subway stop. Discarded food and bottles, major trash, major rats, etc. I have grave concerns re this program. Anyone who doesn’t is not clear.
nygrump,
As opposed to all those under 16 with a car?
Right ON, NY Grump!!
If the city was so committed to this project for the public good, they would be installing docking stations where parking is metered, vs usurping the few remaining unmetered spots.
They are arrogantly installing too many of these things too close to each other (often a block apart) without having gauged the demand for this program.
This will only lead to MORE cars roving the streets for longer periods as they ever more desperately seek parking spots.
Wait till the biker casualties start mounting....
Yes! Thank you. Veniero's needs to be a better neighbor and work to stop the ridiculous, honking, entitled BnT who double-park on 11th.
I feel like I'm reading the comment section in the Post.
Yeah because free car parking is a constitutional right., right?
Also none of the docking stations are 1 block apart. Try not to make stuff up.
It is one thing to have the wrong opinion, but it is entirely another to have the wrong facts. The two giant docking stations on St Marks Place between 1st and 2nd Avenues are in fact on opposite ends of the very same block, which, for those who graduated from the School of Slow Learning, you do not have to be a math major to understand are less than a block apart. They are both in the left lane, which ironically used to be a great place to cruise from St.Marks over to Tomkins Sq Park, but now you have to veer into traffi--twice--in order to get around the dual docking stations.
As a daily cyclist I find it amazing that the docking stations are actually blocking previously open areas that have for years been used by bikes. It is becoming obvious this whole program was designed not by people who ride bikes but by someone who flies around in helicopters and sends orders down from the Mother Ship.
Only Bloomberg and Sadik The Wrath Of Khan could come up with a bike sharing program that actually makes biking for people who have biked here for decades more difficult. Luckily there won't be any fat cyclists trying to navigate the new obstacle course since there is a weight limit on bike share rentals, so only the skinny cyclists need to worry as they get sideswiped by speeding taxis.
They don't have to double-park in frontof Venieto's, they're just too lazy to walk a half-block or circle while their friend runs in.
Well said, Giovanni.
(and no, I am not opposed to a well designed, smartly implemented city bike sharing system.)
The problem is just that the NYC bureaucracies are some of the worst, unintelligent and inefficient in the country. (and I'm not even opposed to bureaucracies either)
Most people don't call the distance between Avenues 1 block and the docking stations were publicly disclosed and the subject of many meetings over many months.
Bitch, moan and complain seems to be all the bike share haters know how to do. Bike share is a good thing for NYC even if you are too dumb to figure it out or too selfish because you want your parking spots or in the case of Giovanni the bike lanes all to himself.
yeah but those people aren't New Yorkers..here, we call the distance from Avenue to Avenue one block...Go back to your native habitat!
"Most people don't call the distance between Avenues 1 block"
These docking station are corporate poison. I await the implementation of the rest of a possibly decent trend (bicycling)
CitiBike shills STFU already. What do you care? You're transients and will be gone in 2 years anyway forcing some other trendy bullshit on some other city you're not from.
This isn't DC. This isn't Europe. It's NYC. Population 8+ million. Personally, I can't WAIT to watch this program fail in a spectacular way.
Forgetting about cars for a minute..... I can't wait for pedestrians to be run down by idiot, inexperienced, inconsiderate bike renters who ignore all traffic laws while they save the environment and pour money into the pockets of Citibank. Enjoy !
Fuck the bikes. What are we a 3rd world country?
the amount of butthurt nimby bullshit in this thread is amazing.
also...nobody calls the distance from avenue to avenue one block. nobody.
so, experts, what IS the distance from one av to another called? a native new yorker awaits your lofty know-it-all reply.
also, how do you pronounce "Houston Street?"
Ah, that old bottle cry again: "This ain't no namby-pamby Europe..." WTF does that even MEAN? Europe wasn't Europe, in the context of having a great biking infrastructure, *until it put in a great biking infrastructure.* In Copenhagen, that was like thirty years ago. In Paris and London, more like three. If ANYTHING is particularly, distinctly, uniquely New York, it's how ill-suited cars are to this city, and how well-suited bikes and walking are. Stop thumping your stupid chests about how gritty and authentic and macho-cool our decrepit, 1950s-era transportation infrastructure is. It sucks, it's over, and you'll all have a good NIMBY cry and move on to hating on something else stupid
this is not rocket science. a block from avenue to avenue is still one block. a block is not a measurement, it is a physical entity. there are very few block in the city that are the same size. if a block between two avenues is not a block, what is it?
and please, don't expect anything intelligent from DOT. the engineers that designed the bike share program don't ride bikes. they probably ride around in chauffeured cars.
do they even live in the city?
and the engineers that designed the select bus certainly never ride the bus. the local bus is primarily used by elderly and handicapped people and the wait can be over 45 minutes between local buses.
this city is being reconfigured for tourists, students and the wealthy.
Mr Anonymous is obviously an out of towner: the constant 'avenue' comment.
He, She, iT : We have a grid here. Avenue to Avenue is 1 block, just as 42nd st to 43 st is also 1 block.
Who is paying for all this moving around? Our taxes? Jeez.
"also...nobody calls the distance from avenue to avenue one block. nobody."
Damn, I gave those people asking me for directions to Tompkins Square Park outside Veselka the wrong information. I pointed east and told them it was 2 blocks.
The DOT just released a study about the bike lanes on 8th and 9th ave and the results are surprising: retail sales in local businesses is up 50%, and there's a nearly 60% decrease in injuries among all users of the streets, bike and pedestrian.
This isn't just about the bike lanes, but also about pedestrian islands, etc. etc. all this new stuff being installed.
There are real financial and safety advantages for our town by not just having streets be mini-freeways through our neighborhoods. With this much positive change, for so little money spent, isn't it worth giving these street/bike/transpo changes a shot? If the Citibikes don't work out, fine, but let's see what happens first. It could be a great thing.
Nobody calls the distance between two avenues a block? This 9th gen NYer does, as does everyone in my family, everyone I grew with, and everyone I currently know. What do you call it, a cornfield?
Call me crazy, but the go to "Citibike shills" red herring is the most Post/Fox News comment that I can imagine.
And how many times do it have to be explained that tax dollars are not being used for the bike share (at least yet).
I've lived here a decade and to me the generic usage of "block" as a measuring unit refers to the street to street distance. Which I understood to be roughly 1/20 of a mile. When I say something like "oh it's about 10 blocks from here" I'm referring to that distance. Again I understood it to be something of a roughly standardized unit. Avenue to avenue lengths seem to be all different. At any rate I can't believe I have gotten sucked into a semantics debate with you people. It's not even a relevant discussion, its just snarking on each other. This bikeshare thing is tearing us all even farther apart. Good day.
Of course tax dollars are going into this program. In addition, the program has diverted efforts from other important conditions that need to be addressed by the DOT. This is a rush job and it shows. Also, there iare definitely stations 1 block away from each other.
You are correct that the distance between avenues is not the same. But the distance between numbered streets is the same per the 1816 map. Thus, everyone knows what your talking about if you say walk 5 blocks north but nobody except B and Ts and people looking to argue suggest going from 1st Ave to 6th ave is 5 blocks.
While the trolls have succeeded In diverting the conversation away from bike sharing to the definition of a block, I agree that no one would say that the distance from 1st ave to 6th ave is 5 blocks. In fact above 23 st it is 8 blocks, (let's count it out, from 1st to 2nd, 3rd, Lex,Park,Mad, Bway, 5th, 6th = 8 blocks) below 23d St. it depends on what street you're on, it's stll at least 7 blocks when you count Gramercy Park East and West, Irving Place, or further downtown Lafayette, Mercer, Thompson, Macdougal etc. in other words, when going crosstown its not enough to simply add and subtract the numbers, you also have to count the streets that have names. It's a new concept that we call Math.
The only reason this is relevant is here to prove the point that some of these Citishills clearly have no idea about the basic geography of NYC, which diminishes value of their comments to less than zero.Tthey are clearly either trolls or paid Citishills, and they should at least use facts and not uninformed opinions.
Mayor Bloomberg, another non-native NY transplant,
was on his radio show this morning displaying his own ignorance of NYC streets when he said that people who complain they can't walk around the new bike sharing stations are forgetting that before the docking stations were installed. they couldn't get around the cars that were parked bumper to bumper. Actually, no, Mr Mayor, we could and still can get around the parked cars because they actually leave spaces in between each other (most of the time) so they can more easily get in and out. But perhaps your valet or chauffeur never explained this to you.
The real issue now is adjusting the locations so people can do basic things like put their kids on a school bus, catch a cab, get the elderly on Access a Ride, allow ambulances and fire trucks to rescue us, and trucks to do garbage pickups, make commercial deliveries, and clean the streets, all of which are being impeded by the 50-60 bike long stations, which could easily be broken up into smaller segments.
Not only was this Bloomberg statement yet another an idiotic comment from an allegedly brilliant billionaire Mayor, it displayed his utter and complete disdain for anyone who disagrees with him, especially when he is clearly wrong. Remember the utter nonsense he created and pain he put the city through before he finally cancelled the NY Marathon after Hurricane Sandy? And the large size soft drink ban that failed? And now he's cursing out a taxi cab fleet owner and threatening to ruin him? Can you say Napoleon Complex?
The good news is that thanks to blogs like this and community complaints, the DOT is already making adjustments to the program by moving stations around and putting up protection, but they obviosly need pubIc feedback to help get it right and to make it work as well as we all hope it will.
Now I'm going for a walk around the block. Or is that two blocks, or three?
Anon 8:52 wrote: "And how many times do it have to be explained that tax dollars are not being used for the bike share (at least yet)."
You're wrong. The DOT claims that it has held 400 meeting regarding Citi Bike. So obviously a lerge number of DOT staffers are assigned full-time to this project. Our tax dollars are paying their salaries.
11:44,
You do have a point.
8:52
But my exasperation stands with respect to people calling anyone that is supportive of the bike sharing plan any of the following:
- Troll
- Citibank shill
- A "new" (used as a pejorative)resident of NYC - unless, of course, that person has a French accent
That truck has the best white-sauce in the city!
To all the anti-automobile idiots. Questions, how did you arrive in new york, did you ride your bikes from Shaker Heights?
How do you think they deliver goods to those bodegas wheere you overpay for spam and those overpriced coffee shops? on bikes? you idiots.
"also, how do you pronounce 'Houston Street?'"
My late father, a native New Yorker since 1930 pronouned it "hue-stun". who fucking cares how you pronounce it. It's named after some guy from the South, who was related to the guy they named the City of Houston after.
house-ton, Hue-stun. Who fucking cares. Get a life.
Funny. Texans can't even pronounce the name of their own city correctly.
"This is not about biking. It is about privatizing public space and corporatizing city services. The use of the bikes is limited to specific classes if people and is not available to all residents. For a instance, under 18. generally, under 18's aren't given a credit card. "
This is much different than the space being used for parking, which we all know is not reserved for private property and is available to all residents regardless of age or economic status.
Oh god, if someone thinks that car drivers are somehow entitled to park their private vehicles on public property for free my god damn eyes are going roll right out of my head!
Business owners who think that they were somehow getting a big enough fraction of their business form people who are driving to and parking at their location in Manhattan are also delusional. They need to not think of this as losing 3-4 parking spots, they're actually gaining 30+ parking spots, because that is actually what's happening.
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