A few No Parking notices have gone up on several side streets where new docking stations are arriving... we've seen announcements for today and tomorrow on Seventh Street west of Avenue B (thanks, Dave on 7th!) as well as on Fifth Street at Avenue A (thanks JG!) for tomorrow and Thursday ...
In November, DOT reps gave Community Board 3's Transportation, Public Safety, & Environment Committee an update about Citi Bike's expansion in the East Village and Lower East Side.
That presentation is online now right here. (The DOT made presentations to other Community Boards, and find those via this link.)
According to the presentation, "demand shows 1,804 docks [are] still needed in CB3." For now, though, the proposal calls for an installation of 683 docks ... with more capacity coming by extending existing stations.
The presentation showed 11 new stations, with an "equipment swap" on 10th Street between A and B and an expansion of the existing station on 13th Street at Avenue A. At the moment, we don't know how many of the 11 new stations will be installed this week.
This is great: a better usage of the curb space than free car storage for cars that are never moved and their engines are idling for 90 minutes once a week. It a shame though that the department of transportation is not creating Loading Zones on every block for delivery trucks, utility vehicles, Ubers to have curb access without double parking or blocking bus stops, crosswalks etc.
ReplyDeleteMORE obstacles to pedestrians, especially to the elderly, and those who use crutches, wheelchairs or walkers. When the current generation of bike riders gets old, I hope someone will mindlessly inconvenience them the way these infinite docking stations are inconveniencing the rest of us. B/c this is NYC for the young and able-bodied only.
ReplyDeleteI walk with my 96 tr old dad, Citibikes are not the danger—-cars are!
DeleteI like that the Citi Bike racks serve the dual purpose of bike storage and being a mini collect pond for the hypodermic needles that wash down the gutters.
ReplyDeletePeople losing their minds over bikes. Insane
ReplyDeleteMore like losing our life and limbs from kidults who think they are still riding around on their private campus when they come cruising down the sidewalk through the red lights, or the cancerous proliferation of app based delivery services which needs to be addressed by the city council NOW. but some child or senior or worse, tourist, will need to die by bike before the pols'll act.
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent news. Perhaps the only thing more frustrating than being able to find a bike in the morning is when I get home late at night and every dock edition l within 5 blocks is absolutely full. This should help with both of these problems. While expanding the system geographically is important I'm very happy to see increased capacity in areas where it's heavily used.
ReplyDeleteThis won’t help with full docks for long.
ReplyDelete@1:52pm: Seriously? If you have to go 5 blocks to find an available dock for your Citi bike, you might as well have taken the subway home. You are the bike-riding equivalent of a car driving around the block looking for a parking space.
ReplyDeleteI assure you that no matter how many docking stations there ever are, you and many others will continue to be inconvenienced, b/c this entire enterprise is unsustainable. This was never properly thought out to begin with, and now the docking stations are a cancerous growth on the streets of NYC.
It's just about laughable how CONGESTED the streets are with bike docking stations, while people love to complain about how automobiles cause congestion, it's Citi bike stations that are now a full-fledged problem in their own right.
Congrats to City Hall and to Citi bike for effing up NYC to the max. Next up: bike riders fighting each other for a docking station spot!
All of these people whining about lack of accessibility are hilarious. You had an easier time navigating past cars than you do bike racks which actually take up less road space than cars? Come on.
ReplyDelete@2:42pm: Hell, yes, it's easier to navigate around cars than these bike docking stations (they are NOT "bike racks"!).
ReplyDeleteI defy you to get through the space between docking stations if you have an orthopedic boot on your foot, or are using crutches, or a walker, or a wheelchair. (Note: it's actually impossible in a wheelchair, but hey, you can just wheel yourself in TRAFFIC down the block till you can get to a curb cut that'll allow you to get safely onto the SIDEWALK. Nobody in NYC cares if you're now 2/3rds of the way down the block from where you live, and it's dark, cold, and maybe raining! The attitude towards those who need mobility assistance like a wheelchair seems to be: "Suck it up, buttercup".
Meanwhile, the able-bodied are whining about having to go "5 blocks" to find an available dock. I'll get out my nano-violin to play a dirge for the plight of Citi bike riders.
Even the continuous base that connects the docking stations together is a tripping hazard for any ordinary pedestrian.
If NYC had deliberately decided to install the biggest trip-hazard it could think of, these docking stations would be it.
Yeah, no. Sorry, I’d like to see your side to this issue, but I literally can’t picture it. I’m thinking, from your descriptions, that you are apposed to crosswalks? Don’t get me wrong, crosswalks suck, and are statistically the most dangerous place for being hit by moving vehicles, but why are you trying to take walkers and wheelchairs through the bike docks? It does not compute
ReplyDeleteRemember that time whe Robert Moses thought building more highways would relieve congestion?
ReplyDeletere: Anon 4:59PM Do you think people in wheelchairs go to the corner to be picked up by car services ? They don't. They get picked up directly in front of their home.
ReplyDelete@4:49pm: I agree you can't picture it. It seems likely you've never had a serious mobility issue in NYC b/c if you had, you would be able to picture it. But you're in favor of crosswalks, which you admit are one of the more dangerous places one can be.
ReplyDeletePicture a person in a wheelchair OR using a walker, and trying to do their errands in the neighborhood. And hey, right in front of their building is a bank of bike docking stations that could easily be 40-50 feet of consecutive blockage of access to the curb. Every mobility limited person in that kind of situation (and there are a lot of them) has to go the loooong way around every time, no matter the weather or anything else. It's an imposition on the mobility impaired.
Picture someone who needs to use a walker & is coming home from a doctor's visit in a cab or an access-a-ride van. Except that right in front of their building is a bank of bike docking stations that, again, can easily be taking 40-50 feet of curb access. That person CANNOT get out of the cab or van in front of their building, they cannot take the most direct way into their building. They have to get out of the cab or van however far down the block, and then they need to get to a curb cut (which usually means going to the corner) in order to get onto the sidewalk, and then they have to double-back to get to their building, which was inaccessible to them b/c the curb was blocked by docking stations.
Every single time that person has to go somewhere, or come home from somewhere, they are being impeded, they are being inconvenienced, and if they're in a crosswalk they are in danger of being hit by a car, a bike, a truck, a scooter, whatever. That person is effectively being dismissed by society as unworthy of ease-of-access in their comings & goings. That person, who already has a mobility issue, is deliberately being impaired further by the proliferation of bike docking stations.
If you don't think that's a problem, that would be b/c you're not stuck in a wheelchair or don't need a walker, and you're not familiar with the aggravation of ALWAYS having to go out of your way, to travel extra distance with your body and whatever you are carrying - no matter how unwell you are, or how weak, or how tired - all b/c Citi bike has been handed nearly unlimited amounts of curb space in NYC with no consideration of ADA compliance. And Citi bike users are, in that way, deemed more important than everyone who has a mobility issue.
It sure looks like an absolute preference for the young & fit & able-bodied. It sure looks like no one, whether in government or at Citi bike, ever took into account the needs of *everyone* who lives here.
Constantly more and more bikes (Citi, delivery, plus motor scooters) and no enforcement, while less and less parking.
ReplyDeleteAND don't get me started on the restaurant sheds. All in all, a disgusting and dangerous mess.
Perhaps the solution would be to take all the car parking away and make wheelchair width spaces between every 20 feet of bike docks. buildings are typically 25 feet wide or more. that would mean more accessibility for wheelchairs than they have now with free car parking. of course then buildings would start to just dump the nightly garbage (aka free rat food) in plastic bags in those spaces. like they do now between cars.
ReplyDelete@6:35 pm So if someone in a wheelchair lives at a building where there's a 50' citibike dock right in the middle, they would have to go 25' at most out of their way. Is 25' really that far? And what if there were cars parked in front of the building instead of the citibike dock? How would someone in a wheelchair or walker get through the cars?
ReplyDeleteYou're trying to use people with disabilities as an excuse for why we shouldn't invest in a form of transportation that's healthy, inexpensive, environmentally conscious, and relieves pressure on every other form we have here (which you might have noticed can all get pretty congested). There are terrible bikers out there, and there are terrible drivers, subway riders, bus passengers, and pedestrians. The problem isn't the bikes, it's the people, and it's only some of them.
I'm truly sorry you feel so victimized by citibike but change isn't just coming, it's here. I hope you can be honest with yourself and admit there's a real reason you're so anti-biking, because it doesn't seem to have to do with people with disabilities.
Amen
DeleteWe’re all living through some crazy shit. At least we have that in common.
ReplyDelete@8:55pm: Spend a week confined in a wheelchair - genuinely confined in a wheelchair, trying to get things done in NYC - and then get back to me.
ReplyDeleteYou can't even think correctly about this issue, b/c if a person in a wheelchair has to go 25 feet out of their way in one direction, they also have to go ANOTHER 25 feet out of their way in the return direction. But you don't give a shit about that, or about those people.
NO, I'm not "trying to use people with disabilities as an excuse" for anything. You seem to think people with disabilities are not really full people, and their concerns are of no importance (and certainly of no interest to you!).
I'm telling you what the reality is for people who can't just hop on a bike and tool around, but again, you don't care about any of those people. And, BTW, the "problem" is the fucking DOCKING stations.
As for your write-off of me and others like me, you insultingly say "I hope you can be honest with yourself and admit there's a real reason you're so anti-biking, because it doesn't seem to have to do with people with disabilities." Wow, just wow. How about if you stop pretending you know me or my situation? I'm not anti-biking; but I am plenty offended by the snotty, shitty, entitled attitude of people like you who tell me "change is here" and that the change doesn't include disabled people.
Now how about if you tell me the "real reason" why YOU don't care about your fellow New Yorkers who have mobility challenges?
Bottom line: You don't know jack about people with disabilities and what they face in trying to get around in NYC, but you've made it clear that anyone with a disability is not a full person with full rights in your eyes.
You think you'll never be disabled? Can't happen to you? Your life can change permanently in the blink of an eye. You're not exempt, even though you believe you are. You are one bad moment or one accident away from becoming one of those disabled people you so discount & disdain.
I have a question. If a wheelchair user comes out of their building and there is a citibike dock there, they need to go down to the corner to access the street. That is a nuisance for them.
DeleteBut if there is a row of parked cars in front of their building, they likely have to go down to the corner to access the street also, no?
But if there is neither obstacle there in front of their building, don't they need to go to the corner to access the street anyway, as that is where the curb cuts are?
And when I have had to use crutches, because of injury, I was unlikely to cross the street midblock, as is my usual practice, because I was fearful about not being quick enough.
Shitibike stations are ugly and the noise created when shikers ram a Shitibike
ReplyDeleteinto one is obnoxious.
Citibike/Lyft should just hire more bike rebalancers for the exsisting stations instead of taking up even more public space for a private corporation.
ReplyDeleteBut hey..since it's a pandemic and Deblasio is about to leave office everything is getting pushed through without much formal neighborhood input.
We can officially add Citi Bike Derangement Syndrome to the list of mental afflictions affecting residents of lower Manhattan.
ReplyDeleteThis is so fucked. Citibike and Deblasio are the same. We needed more bike racks, and less seduction. These bikes are limited. You cannot ride over a bridge without carrying a minimum of 20 pounds.EAST River Park destruction... Sheds in the gutter. Now ....pay for your ride. Good lord. More corruption emerged from the Pandemic that was just waiting. People who live on the first floor now have more noise. I SUGGEST we read Mother Courage. Or Nietzsche on stupidity.
ReplyDelete@ 2:46 AM
ReplyDeleteTrying to understand your argument here. Where exactly is a Citibike docking station blocking wheelchair access to a crosswalk? You can be specific with a street and intersection as this is a local blog. Without details this seems like EV Grieve Comment Thread Bike/Citibike Derangement Syndrome, an entertaining if niche local malady.
Rows of parked cars block sidewalk access to the street on most blocks. Pedestrians, and by extension wheelchairs, are granted the sidewalks and crosswalks. That's it. Some Citibike docks take up sidewalk space but so does regular outdoor seating, sanitation pickup (or lack thereof), fruit stands, vendors, trees, construction, private on street garbage cans, slow walkers and now restaurant sheds.
Public space will always be a tradeoff.
@1:18pm: Try re-reading what I actually wrote. YOU write "Where exactly is a Citibike docking station blocking wheelchair access to a crosswalk?" - but I NEVER said any such thing.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sure, public space will always be a tradeoff, but the disabled are part of the taxpaying public, too! Yet time and again, those who are perceived to be the least important get left out when those decisions are made.
Enjoy your docking stations; they;re a tradeoff, just like the destruction of the East River park is a tradeoff, right?
Jesus, how much more can they "extend" these stations. Someone needs to put a check on Lyft.
ReplyDelete