Today’s Headlines

  • Man Dies After Driving SUV Into Sea Gate Home (WABC, WCBS, WNBC, News)
  • Public Advocate Debate Transportation Questions? Horse Carriages and Subway Station Names (NY1)
  • Gothamist and WCBS Pick Up Citi Bike Distribution Story
  • Thompson Gets Support From E-Hail Opponents (Crain’s)
  • New York State’s Complete Streets Law Has a Loophole (MTR)
  • Taxi of Tomorrow Begins Production (Gothamist)
  • MTA Kicks Out Arbitrator for History of Pro-TWU Rulings (News, 2nd Avenue Sagas)
  • MTA Bus Drivers Want More Protection From Assaults (Advance)
  • San Francisco Tries Jedi Mind Trick to Account for Speed Limit Increase (Streetsblog SF)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • M to the I

    And here’s a good one from AM NY about pedestrians and delivery workers using bicycle lanes inappropriately. http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/bike-lanes-the-new-site-of-midtown-turf-wars-1.5900799

  • Bolwerk

    It almost seems like deliberate cruelty to make bus drivers handle collections. They are sitting ducks if someone wants to assault them. This is another reason POP should be implemented bus system-wide, and not only on SelectBus. Fare inspectors are not sitting ducks and can be trained to deal with violent people.

    Bus drivers should focus on one thing: operating the bus. This is exactly the attitude we have toward train operators, who have a much easier, safer job in an environment where they aren’t dealing with pedestrians and SUV-handling imbeciles.

  • Anonymous

    Citibike is never going to be a reliable commuting device for traditional commuters. There are hundreds of thousands of people who come into Penn Station in the morning and head to somewhere in midtown. Whether you have 50, 100, 500 or 1,000 bikes available they will all eventually get taken. There will never be enough to be 100% reliable. The rebalancing is probably cost prohibitive and really should be avoided if we want to keep the system working and profitable. Citibike should:
    1) Increase the number of docks and bikes. A parking spot that can hold 1 car is better used by holding 10 shared bikes that are used 7 times a day.
    2) Target reverse commuters with cheap memberships or some other incentives. If you could get 500 reverse commuters a day to bring a bike to Penn Station during rush hour in the morning you wouldn’t need all of these trucks and employees to rebalance.
    3) Come up with other incentives to get people to go against the flow. Maybe give tourists a dollar off their daily membership for every bike they redistribute during peak times.

    Even after doing that there will always be shortages for peak commute directions. People should get used to using citibike for more random trips. Heading to a meeting across town during the day. Going to a restaurant at night that is too far to walk. etc.

  • Reader

    In reality, if people want to use a bike to commute from GCT or Penn Station to their offices on a reliable basis, what you need are secure bike parking spaces, garages, and other places where suburban commuters can stash their own personal bicycles overnight, much as you see around transit centers in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.

  • carma

    agree that even more bikes and docks may not satisfy the demand. but its unlikely (extremely unlikely) that all the penn and GS commuters will head to a citibike after they get off. if anything, the subway will STILL serve as the primary mode after the commuter rail. although it is true that the demand is overwhelming the supply at this point. we need more supply, and not just from rebalancing, but from more bikes and stations.