This summer, New York City will launch a bike sharing program featuring 10,000 new public bicycles at 600 bike sharing stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The idea is that each bike station would be no more than 1,000 feet away from the next one, so New Yorkers between 79th Street and northwest Brooklyn would not have to walk far to find the closest station.
The good news is that individual neighborhoods can decide where bike stations will go, and they are looking to residents for guidance. Over the next two months, the Department of Transportation (DOT) will hold community planning workshops in the relevant neighborhoods, and residents are encouraged to attend to help determine where to place the bike stations.
The first of these meetings is scheduled for this Tuesday, January 31, to determine the placement of stations in Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, and Clinton. See the New York City Bike Share timeline to see when your neighborhood’s meeting will be held.
The DOT is also asking for input on its website: residents can suggest locations for bike share stations and indicate why they’d be good spots for sharing stations.
New York City’s Bike Share program will be funded by private sponsorship rather than tax dollars, and membership will cost less than a monthly subway pass.
See this DOT video for a glimpse at how the bike sharing system will work:
So, New Yorkers, where would you like to see a bike station in your neighborhood?
Photo: New York DOT, NYC Bike Share
via [Streetsblog, DOT]
