The original location for the bike rack was outside Duane Park, above.
BY KAITLYN MEADE | New York City’s bike share program, the largest in North America, is slated to launch in Lower Manhattan in time for the summer, with a few relocated stations due to community concerns. The city Department of Transportation reported that Citi Bike will launch in May 2013 with 5,500 bikes at about 300 stations across Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Delayed several times, most recently by Hurricane Sandy, the bike share program is opening nearly a year later than initially planned, but Community Board 1’s Planning Committee remained positive about the program coming to fruition.
Instead, the committee mostly focused on changes to the proposed station locations due to various complaints from property owners and community members.
The most heavily disputed was a location at Duane St. at the corner of Greenwich St. The bike station would be located across the street from the Roc restaurant’s sidewalk cafe. On the D.O.T.’s bike share website, the station is listed as “street (non-parking)” but looking at the street, the station would in fact, have to go in the parking lane, across Greenwich St. from Washington Market Park.
Originally, it was set to go further down Duane St., where the street splits to accommodate the green strip of Duane Park, but was moved because of individual requests submitted to D.O.T.
“That doesn’t seem like a very good location to put it,” Adam Malitz said of the new location. “I live right there, literally. The traffic patterns there, there’s a lot of kids crossing the street to go to the park.”
In fact, committee member Tammy Meltzer noted that there were “so many traffic and pedestrian accidents, that they put a traffic light there because of volume, because it’s the major entrance to the park for the kids.”
“I have a feeling you’re going to get a lot of cars hitting that,” Malitz added. “Taxis tend to go straight up and cars trying to get on Hudson St. make a sharp left at the corner.”
Stephanie Levinsky, a D.O.T. representative, said that slowing down dangerous traffic is a component of these stations, though she acknowledged there was some concern with the way cars are driving in that area. The committee was assured that the D.O.T. would consider shifting station locations if safety was compromised or if they received significant complaints after it was installed.
Another station’s move in Battery Park City also caused a few raised eyebrows. The 25-dock station planned for Brookfield’s property will now be installed next to Gateway Plaza just off South End Ave. on the Battery Park City Authority’s property due to a request from Brookfield Office Properties.
This would shift B.P.C.A. public bike racks that are currently located there. Gateway Plaza Management agreed to provide additional bike racks inside their building for their tenants to replace those racks, but there was no word on whether the relocated racks will be free of charge or exclusively for tenants.
The Citi Bike program itself has three price options available to anyone age 16 or older. Initial costs are $95 for annual membership, $25 for a seven-day pass and $9.95 for a 24-hour pass.
The privately funded, $41 million program was recently delayed by two months (from March to May 2013) when Sandy flooded the storage warehouses, damaging some of the bike and station electrical components.
Asked if there were contingency plans for another such storm, the D.O.T. responded the system would be locked down on the street. The bikes are not likely to float away as they are very heavy, weighing 43 pounds each, and they lock into 1,000-pound
For more information on the bikeshare program, visit nyc.gov/bikeshare.
