Yankees Trail Mets By 10 Racks in “Subway Series of Bike Parking”

Image: SI for Kids.

Yesterday, my Mets got shut out by the last-place Nationals, falling 10 games behind the defending world champion Phillies. Meanwhile, the Yankees grabbed sole possession of first place — for the first time in months! — after beating Baltimore. It pains me just to type the words.

But take heart, Met fans, at least our team provides bike racks at the ballpark. Not so the Yankees. Sarah Braunstein at Sports Illustrated for Kids reports on a recent outing to their new stadium:

Whenever I bike anywhere, I always check to make sure there is a
safe place to park. First, I checked out the New York City Department
of Transportation to find the closest bike rack to the stadium. The
closest one is at the Bronx Supreme Court, about four blocks from the
stadium.

I figured in a city with so many bikers, and with hundreds of miles
of bike lanes, there had to be something closer. So I did what any
adventurous biker would do and called the Yankees themselves.

The
answer to all my questions was ‘NO.’ There are no bike racks at the
stadium. There is no bike parking. They cannot offer indoor bike
parking, even for reporters. There is no possibility of parking a bike
at or in the stadium.

The Mets, Braunstein discovered, have ten bike racks outside CitiField. In the grand scheme of transportation sins, Yankee Stadium’s lack of bike parking pales beside its wanton profusion of traffic-generating car parking. And the Mets, despite their bike racks, are admittedly no livable streets angels (though the approach from the Willets Point station to CitiField is way nicer than the walk to Shea used to be).

Mostly, I just hope the Orioles’ bike-commuting number one starter, Jeremy Guthrie, reads this and gets a little more fired up every time he pitches in the Bronx.