DOT and Motivate Will Put New Citi Bike Stations Closer Together

Brooklyn CB 6 and other parts of the city where Citi Bike expansions have fallen short on standards for station density are in line for new "infill" stations. Image: DOT — There will be more bike-share stations in Brooklyn Community Board 6 than this map indicates. Image: DOT

The Citi Bike expansion that began last year has always been tempered by the fact that new stations are spread more thinly than the original bike-share network — making the expansion zones less convenient for bike-share users. Now it looks like DOT and Motivate, the company that runs Citi Bike, are going to fix that.

In a press release about Citi Bike expansion in 2016, the mayor’s office announced today that up to 42 new stations will be placed in “portions of the system installed in 2015, including the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of Manhattan, and portions planned for installation in 2016 and 2017.”

The city expects to have “more than 600 stations” and 10,000 bikes operational by the end of this year. The system will extend up to 110th Street in Manhattan, and to the neighborhoods between Red Hook and Park Slope in Brooklyn. More expansions are slated for next year.

The 42 “infill” stations will put more bike-share stations in the expansion zones within a short walk of each other, and that’s one of the keys to making the whole network function as well as it should.

The National Association of City Transportation Officials recommends 28 bike-share stations per square mile. But recent Citi Bike expansions on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side, as well as expansions into Harlem and Park Slope that have been mapped but not installed, have all fallen short of that standard.

It’s possible that some of the infill stations will cannibalize docks from other stations, and we’re still crunching the numbers to see if 42 new stations is enough to achieve the density that NACTO recommends. But today’s announcement is definitely good news for the future of bike-share in NYC.

DOT will be presenting the infill station locations publicly in the coming weeks, beginning tonight at Brooklyn Community Board 6.

com63

yay! They should add density below 59th st as well. I’m sure they have identified areas in the first three years of operation that can use more stations. If there are parking spots on nearly every block, why can’t we have the same for bike share eventually?
NYCyclist

The press release: http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/469-16/mayor-de-blasio-motivate-citi-continued-expansion-the-citi-bike-program-further
Vooch

Citibike to 110th street by September. Four short Months.

The tiny area of Citibike on UES from 60th to 86th Generates more than 3,000 workday trips. This suggests that expansion to 110th will generate easily 7,000 Citibike trips in UES.

Add in the standard 4:1 Ratio private Bike to Citibike and the UES cranks are going to experience 24,000 to 30,000 total Cycling trips during a Typical workday.

I’m not even including boosts from network effects & critical mass &’2nd Ave PBL extension. This Might get Goose total UES workday trips to 28,000 to 36,000.

at that level of activity – We don’t need no stinking painted bike Lanes. We’ll own the Streets.
Frank Kotter

Because *parking spots*
com63

They should frame the issue as: we are converting 3 car parking spots to 15 bicycle parking spots.
Joe Enoch

I seem to recall that they were supposed to expand in the UWS and UES this spring. Looks like that’s not happening….
com63

They did a partial expansion, but not all the way up to 110th. You can see the map on their website.
Frank Kotter

95% are already lost at ‘we are converting 3 car parking…..’
NYCyclist

Expansion on the UWS and UES to 110th St (and parts of Brooklyn) will start in August.
Eric McClure

True. Yet those 15 bike parking spots will generate roughly 105 bike trips per day, give or take, while those three car parking spots will generate three trips per week — when alternate-side parking kicks in.
Frank Kotter

Preaching to the choir, Eric.
Vooch

It’s going to take the cranks getting swarmed by cyclists on the riadway and also being inundated by bikes stored on sidewalks to change the poltical dynamic.

Instead of advocatss begging on our hands and knees for infrastructure, wouldn’t it be better for the cranks to be demanding more bike lanes ?

what would it require for the cranks to say ‘get those bikes out of my lane and in a PBL’ ?

Would swarms of cyclists on every crosstown street and every avenue change the dynamic ? If advocates stopped pushing for infrastructure, would the cranks start demanding it ?

At what volume of cyclists would the cranks start demanding ‘bikes be put in their own lanes ?’

We know that at current volumes (about 10% of roadway traffic) the cranks believe cycling is a irritating fad. Would bikes as 20% of roadway traffic change their minds ?
AMH

Disappointed–I was counting on expansion to 130 St this year. At this rate, with price increases the cost will be over $200 before I can even use the system.

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