Months after the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) installed several Citi Bike stations throughout parts of Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village and Glendale, residents voiced their frustrations during the May 10 Community Board 5 meeting.
During the meeting, which was held at Christ the King High School, Dorothy Workmeister, a resident living on 65th Lane in Middle Village, expressed her concern about the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.
“I’m very concerned about safety — not only the safety of the people riding the bikes, but the pedestrians and the elderly [people] and the young children playing on the block,” Workmeister said.
She also said that the bike stations are too close to each other.
“There is a station with 26 spots for the bikes right here at 56-26 Metropolitan Ave.,” Workmeister says. “It’s less than a tenth of a mile away.”
Francis Perez, another resident living on 65th Lane, told CB 5 members that the bike station located near the block often goes unused. Perez also believes that there was not enough notice regarding the installation of the station.
“Citi Bikes were placed on our block — not one notice, not an email, not a flyer to the homeowners. It all sneaked up on us, and that’s not right,” Perez said. “This neighborhood is full of families. None of them use these bikes to go to work.”
The DOT installed the Citi Bike stations earlier this year after months of debate from CB 5 and other community groups on where to put the stations.
During the meeting, CB 5 Transportation Committee Chairman Eric Butkiewicz confirmed that they were working with the DOT to discuss better locations for the stations.
“We have been addressing specific locations at our committee meetings, “Butkiewicz said. “The DOT did take feedback from us [but] they put a lot in bad spots.”
He also revealed that the committee has already recommended new station locations to the DOT during a recent CB 5 Transportation committee meeting.
