Bike Habitat’s Charlie McCorkell: Citi Bike No Threat to NYC Bike Shops

Charlie McCorkell is a pioneering NYC bike advocate and the owner of one of the city’s most successful bike shops, Bicycle Habitat. His flagship store is on Lafayette Street, just north of Spring, which is right in the middle of the Citi Bike service area. After observing the first day of NYC bike-share from the store, he sent a note of thanks to Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

Contrary to the sensationalism in the Post, McCorkell says that experience from other cities shows that bike-share isn’t a threat to people who sell bikes. Here’s a snippet from his message, which he shared with Streetsblog:

Best story today. One guy came in with his Citibike and told me he has not ridden a bike in NYC for 33 years. He bought an annual membership and at 2:30 had ridden for 2.5 hours. He recycled the bike 4 times at that point. WOW. He loved riding in the city today and wants to try tomorrow.

Today is just for blue key holders. 4 people came into the shop with Citibikes and bought helmets. A total of 12 helmet coupons redemptions at the Soho store so far.

Judging by my conversations in the shop on a beautiful first day, CITIBIKE is a hit.

I saw the article in the Post today about Frank’s bike shop. This is a concern I am hearing from other dealers. I have done my due diligence (spoke with dealers in DC,  Montreal, Madison and Denver) and understand the going gets a little rough for the first few months and then comes back.

Thank you, I feel this will be a major win for all New Yorkers.