Why We Need the Bicycle Access Bill

So, I’ve done a lot of posts about the Bicycle Access Bill the past few months, and I try to include one or two nuggets of information every time that get at why the bill matters and what a big difference it would make. I never got around to posting a real good story about having one’s bike rejected from one’s place of work. Luckily, Reuters blogger Felix Salmon has that covered:

I did end up buying a folding bike this weekend — a Montague DX — and proudly carried it, folded in half, into 3 Times Square this
morning, after having been told by a security guard that folding bikes
were OK to bring in to the office. Except, it turns out, they’re not.
The only way you’re allowed to bring a folding bike into the building,
it turns out, is if it’s packed up into a bag. Otherwise, no dice.

I suppose my next hope is that NYC’s bike-friendly new
transportation commissioner will install some permanent bike parking in
the acreage of Times Square she recently pedestrianized.

I’m sure the property managers at 3 Times Square have concocted some far-fetched safety-related pretense to explain why folding bikes have to be in a bag to get inside the building. But let’s get real. This is about appearances. There’s some notion of office building propriety that the mere sight of a bicycle would violate.

At this point, the best hope for Felix Salmon and other cyclists rests with the New York City Council, especially transportation committee chair John Liu and Speaker Christine Quinn. How much longer will thousands of New Yorkers have to wait before they can ride to work without worrying about theft?