By Devin Gannon, Thu, May 24, 2018 Photo via mamojo
Four outer-borough neighborhoods undeserved by Citi Bike will host dockless bike-share programs this summer, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday. In July, the city’s pilot kicks off in the beach communities of Coney Island and the Rockaways. The Bronx and Staten Island will also have the bike-share program, a first for both boroughs, near Fordham University and on the North Shore. “We are bringing new, inexpensive transportation options to neighborhoods that need them,” de Blasio said in a statement. “Dockless public bike sharing starts this summer, and we’re excited to see how New Yorkers embrace this new service.”
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By Michelle Colman, Tue, May 1, 2018 Photo via NYC DOT/Flickr
May is National Bike Month and Transportation Alternatives (TransAlt) is hosting its Bike Commuter Challenge. TransAlt and the city are challenging New Yorkers to swap their normal commuting routine and cycle to work. With Citi Bikes on almost every block, over 250 miles of new bicycle lanes, and the hellacious winter behind us, there is no excuse not to “man up.” Especially since, according to NYC DOT, more than 800,000 New Yorkers ride a bike regularly, which is 140,000 more than rode five years ago and means that NYC commuters already bike to work more than any other U.S. city.
There’s more bike-related fun to be had in May
By Michelle Colman, Wed, January 17, 2018 Photo of Fairway on the Red Hook waterfront, via CityRealty
The story of Red Hook is ripe for a movie-rights bidding war. In the past, there were mobsters and maritime ports, hurricanes and housing developments. Now there are politicians and developers fighting to rebuild and locals fighting back. In the end, what will happen to Red Hook is unknown but none of the massive proposals will happen in the near future. It is a small community in a big city that is tackling the issue many neighborhoods have dealt with in the past – how to grow.
After the massive Hurricane Sandy rebuilding effort, there is a very solid and passionate local population and a growing cluster of cool restaurants, retailers, and artists attracted to the area. That coupled with the recent political attention by Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio and the developers drooling over the possibilities of the 130 acres of land ripe for redevelopment (that’s six times the size of the $25 billion Hudson Yards development) make Red Hook very newsworthy.
Transportation, development, and more
By Devin Gannon, Tue, September 5, 2017 Photo courtesy of Nick Harris on Flickr
Since it was first introduced to New York City in 2013, Citi Bike, a bike-share program, has grown from operating 6,000 bikes to a current total of 10,000 bikes in over 600 locations. Looking to expand even further, Citi Bike will add 2,000 bikes and 140 new stations in Long Island City, Astoria, Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. According to Metro, the expansion will begin on Sept. 12 and continue until the end of the year.
More this way
By Diane Pham, Fri, August 11, 2017 Image via Spin Bikeshare Facebook
UPDATE 8/13/17: Spin will not debut their bikes in NYC Monday. Gothamist writes that that the company is postponing operations following a cease and desist letter received from the Department of Transportation.
Watch out Citi Bike, some new competition is rolling in on Monday. As the Post first reports, San Francisco-based bike-sharing company Spin has plans to drop off 300 bikes across NYC—150 throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn and another 150 in the Rockaways. Unlike Citi Bike, however, these new rides will be equipped with a self-locking mobile app-based technology, giving riders the option to leave their bikes in any location they please. One of the biggest challenges for Citi Bike has been figuring how to rebalance docking stations for users, particularly around rush hour when docks are either completely full or empty.
Find out more here
By Emily Nonko, Tue, August 1, 2017 Image via Nick Harris/Flickr
As the city subway systems struggle to keep up with increased ridership, it’s a no brainer that more New Yorkers would take to the streets on bicycles rather than deal with the modern-day headaches of train travel. In fact, as 6sqft reported just yesterday, more commuters bike to work here than any other U.S. city. With the growth of bike riding, Mayor de Blasio’s administration is further expanding biker-friendly infrastructure. According to Crain’s, the Department of Transportation announced plans this Monday to add 10 miles of protected bicycle lanes and allocate 50 miles of regular bikeways annually starting this year.
Read more about the mayor’s bike lane rollout
By Dana Schulz, Mon, July 31, 2017 Image via WikiCommons
Earlier this year, 6sqft shared data from the Department of Transportation that found daily Citi Bike ridership had grown 80 percent from 2010 to 2015, and now, according to new information published in the Times, those figures have ballooned even more. Last Wednesday was “the highest single-day ridership of any system in the Western world outside of Paris,” reports the bike share program, with a staggering 70,286 trips. These figures are part of an overall bike-centric trend in the city that “has outpaced population and employment growth” with New Yorkers taking an average of 450,000 daily bike trips, exponentially higher than the 2005 average of 170,000. And about one-fifth of these trips is by commuters, making New York home to more bike commuters than any other city in the country.
More details ahead
By Michelle Cohen, Thu, May 18, 2017 Image by Nick Harris flickr CC
6sqft recently reported that so many people are hopping on Citi Bikes that even bus ridership has been affected. But there are parts of New York City–Staten Island and the Bronx for example–don’t have that option because the familiar blue bikes haven’t made it into their neighborhoods–yet. Citi Bike parent company, Motivate, has approached City Hall with a plan that would add 6,000 bikes to the system–4,000 of them in areas that currently have no docks–without spending tax revenue, the New York Daily News reports.
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By Michelle Cohen, Tue, May 9, 2017 Photo via Peter Burka on Flickr
A new before-and-after study shows that in New York City thousands of potential bus rides are likely happening by bike instead, reports CityLab. Recent research published in a new journal article on bike sharing stations along city bus routes, by Kayleigh Campbell and Candace Brakewood, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York, revealed that for every thousand Citi Bike docks situated along Brooklyn and Manhattan bus routes, bus trips dropped by 2.42 percent. The study includes trips made between May 2012 and July 2014 and controls for a wide variety of factors in order to show the impact of bike sharing on bus ridership.
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By Michelle Cohen, Fri, March 3, 2017 After initial skepticism and half-hearted arguments from bike-haters and snide remarks from bike snob cities like Seattle and San Francisco, New York City’s first official bike sharing system has turned out to be a success–that much we know. The numbers compiled by Priceonomics Data Studio for their client Spin reveal some surprising numbers when it comes to how we’re using those bikes. D.C., for example, beat the other cities handily on most metrics, with San Francisco and Seattle consistently at the bottom of the list. Ok, so the research was done for a bike sharing startup hoping to expand its station-less system (more on that, too), but it’s interesting to compare statistics of share programs in the nation’s biggest adopters of this new public transportation option–and get a chance to see how Citi Bike fares.
Find out more fascinating bike share facts
