L.I.C. Locals Debate Cycle Sharing Pgm.
Department of Transportation (DOT) representatives picked the brains of Long Island City residents at a town hall last Monday, May 21 at the New York Irish Center focusing on the city’s new bike share program.
The program will come to the area in July; earlier this May, City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer had announced 10 locations which are being considered as possible bike share hubs.
According to the DOT’s Brooke McKenna, who moderated one of several roundtables, the program will be “a new, really flexible alternative” to other methods of transportation, perfect for short trips to and from work.
“I think it’s really going to fit New Yorkers’ lifestyles for exactly that reason,” she said.
Over 10,000 bikes will be available at 600 stations scattered throughout the city. Alta, the company handling the program, will run it at no taxpayer expense; Citicorp will be the program’s sponsor (thus the branding of the cycles as Citibikes). McKenna claimed that the program will bring 300 private-sector jobs to the city.
Passes will be available on an annual, weekly and daily basis. The $10 daily and $20 weekly pass will allow a resident to take a 30-minute trip from one station to another. A $97 annual pass will allow a cyclist to take a free 45-minute trip. Longer trips will result in extra fees.
Residents will be able to purchase the passes at https://citibikenyc.com, where an online map will also be available. Those with mobile phones will be able to use applications to find a station closest to them, and Alta plans on releasing information that will allow websites and app makers to integrate Citibike data into their products.
Print maps will also be made available.
Those with passes will receive a key fob that unlocks a bike from its station.
If a cyclist reaches their destination station and finds all the racks are full, they can “check in,” find the next closest station and receive an additional 15 minutes to reach the station before being charged additional fees. In addition, if you hit multiple stations along the way, the timer will be reset each time.
McKenna emphasized that the program is “really meant for short trips;” it is a tool for “transportation rather than recreation.”
The stations themselves install under one hour and are solar-powered, with no roadwork or digging required. Alta plans on having one station available every 1,000 feet, with clusters at major tourist and retail destinations. The stations can be placed on the street instead of parkat ing spaces, or in locations on roadways where parking would not be allowed. They are also small enough to fit on wide sidewalks.
While the stations will be permanent, with no stations open on a seasonal or special-event basis, the number of racks and available bikes can be shifted to meet increased demand in a particular area.
In Washington D.C., for instance, the number of bikes available in their similar bike share program was increased on July 4 to such an extent that kiosk workers used hand scanners to check in bikers heading to and from the National Mall.
Payment options for residents who do not own credit cards are “still in the works,” with Alta talking to city agencies including the city Housing Authority on how to best offer bike service to low-income residents.
A Citibike is made with custom parts to thwart thieves, and is “meant to be a tank” with a heavy design and nitrogen-inflated tires. According to the bike share website, the program will assume liability if an equipment malfunction causes a cyclist to get into an accident, but “if a rider is disobeying traffic laws or is reckless, then that person will be liable.”
Bike helmets are not a part of the program but the city hopes to persuade bike shops to sell helmets at a discount to residents with passes, according to McKenna.
The cost of a replacement bike is $1,000.
McKenna navigated those sitting at the roundtable through a series of exercises, asking them to show what they would use a rented bike for, and which locations in northwest Queens were good or bad spots for bike rental kiosks.
“Conceptually, I love this,” said Steve Scofield, a Queens resident and Transportation Alternatives volunteer who sat in on McKenna’s roundtable. However, he added that “I’m concerned about people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”
“There’s a lot of support and excitement about this program in Queens,” Van Bramer, who has been known to bike himself, told the Times Newsweekly. “I’m happy with wherever [the bike stations] go because the community had a say in where they go.”
