By Helaina Hovitz

Last week, 330 CitiBike stations were installed in Manhattan and Brooklyn, garnering a reaction from most Manhattanites that can essentially be boiled down to this: not on my block.

Or, at least, not where it’s currently installed.

The CitiBike program, also called Bike Share, will place bike rental stations throughout parts of the city, allowing riders to pick up a bike at one location and drop it off at any other CitiBike spot.

Sponsored by CitiBank, the program is under the purview of the Department of Transportation (DOT).

On Thursday, May 2nd, Community Board 2 held a meeting at P.S. 41 to give West Village residents a chance to voice their concerns about the Bike Share program, but it wasn’t just West Villagers who showed up to gripe. People from all over the city came to speak their peace about the program — but some of it wasn’t so peaceful.

Chair David Gruber said that the board received 160 calls and emails, 70 percent of which were negative comments.

“The DOT chose not to come to this meeting, we don’t know why,” he said.

“People are upset about the size and volume, and once we saw it in place, we realized red dots on a map aren’t the same as something actually being on a street and installed,” Gruber said of the major complaints about Bike Share.

While most people in attendance said that while they actually weren’t “against” the program, they weren’t happy with the way it was being implemented.

“I’m shocked that this showed up on my block. The magnitude of it and the lack of notice provided to residents by DOT is unconscionable. They’re too big and too clunky on residential streets, and the community was not properly informed,” said West Village resident Lisa Cannistraci, who spoke for many when she added that “they obstruct building entranceways,” a problem that will worsen when the stations are filled with an average of 40 bikes each at the end of the month.

While many in attendance weren’t opposed to the bikes or the bike program, they were “opposed to the way that the city handled placing the bike racks around the city — mainly, in front of their entranceways.”
The bike racks on Barrow Street, for example, are located directly in front of residential buildings with 170 units. Residents claim that elderly people can’t get to their Access a Ride busses, and that ambulances can’t access the building, either.

“That means elderly and children will have to navigate around the bikes to get a cab or Access A Ride. We’re not opposed to the rack, but it needs to be moved, and we have alternative locations in mind,” said Cannistraci. “These bike stations located on historic landmarked blocks are a travesty. They need to be moved to more commercial locations, perhaps in front of the Citibanks, since this is their project.

West Village resident Charlie Decker, 69, wasn’t just concerned about the rack placement, though; he thinks that allowing inexperienced riders to hop on bikes whenever they feel like it, especially after they’ve had a few drinks, is a recipe for disaster.

CitiBike stations will be placed throughout downtown Manhattan.

“It’s dangerous to promote neophytes grabbing a bike in New York, especially tourists. Are you going to wait until 10 people are slaughtered to see that? Inexperienced bikers are going to get hurt riding around New York City,” he said.

Bikes lined the fence outside, and pro Citi Bikers with signs lined themselves up in front of the school’s entrance, eagerly awaiting press.

Hilda Cohen, who works in the West Village and lives in Fort Greene, said that those showing up to protest on Thursday were most likely absent at meetings held to discuss the plans.

“We’ve been involved since 2011, and we’ve been here every step of the way. We’re excited,” said Cohen. “I’ve never experienced a more inclusive community process than the one they did with Bike Share.

Jane Brown, who lives on West 4th between 7th Ave South and W. 10th, said that sanitation trucks haven’t been able to get through the racks, and piles of trash and water have been attracting mice.

“There’s no way for them to clean. It’s a health hazard. Someone’s going to get hit by a fire truck this summer pulling out,” Brown said. “If they’re benefiting and making money off of it, why doesn’t Citibank but them in front of their branches? Let them see the trash, the water, and the mice.“

Residents of 99 Bank Street, among other West Village Streets, countered that they were never alerted of their block being a potential location in the first place, that it was never a red dot on the map they were given.

Ed Zimbalatti, board president of 99 Bank Street, filed a lawsuit last week that has been re-filed as a petition. “The space in front of our building was never designated as a planned site. There was no outreach, it just showed up. Who made this decision, after all this outreach? That’s what we want to know,” said Zimbalatti.

In the middle of the night, a portion of the racks were removed and, for some reason, replaced by a giant slab of rock.

“Clearly there were a lot of plants here,” said Jeff Barr, referring to the group standing with signs and countering their comments to reporters. Barr, who filed the lawsuit at 99 Bank, spoke while leaning on his own bike.

“They’re a great way to ride around, but this location was not properly thought out. The size of the stations are too big for where they are,” Barr said. “Nobody wants to stop the program. But it’s not safe. People will ride on the sidewalk to pull up to the posts.”

His sentiment was echoed by Decker, who expressed concern that “people are going to be popping out of nowhere, buses and trucks are going to be swerving and hitting either them, buildings, or pedestrians.”

Inside, the criticism continued.

“It’s going to be creating more traffic and congestion, and I don’t know how green that amount of pollution is,” said Marna Lawrence. “I also have an objection about using public land for private gain. Citibank has no right to steal public space.”

Michael Murphy, communications director of Transportation Alternatives, a biking/walking/mass transit advocacy group, said that he thinks “the burden of proof lies with the people raising these phantom concerns.”

“Since none of the other major cities currently operating a bike share program endure these problems, what possible reason do we have to think we will in New York City?” he said. “This isn’t a he said/she said situation – we can actually look at the cities where this program is underway and verify whether or not these concerns make any sense.”

The DOT did not respond to specific questions regarding community members’ concerns about safety of riders, garbage truck and emergency vehicle access, or whether some bike rack locations might be relocated. A spokesman said that Citi Bike in conjunction with DOT held 400 meetings with community boards to determine the best locations for the racks, and also consulted the 65,000 online requests and comments.

By Mayor Bloomberg’s estimates, the program will be “great for local businesses” and generate 170 new jobs along with $36 million in revenue for “the city.”

Still, citizens of Gotham remain skeptical.

“I’ll bet you Mayor Bloomberg has never been on a bike in New York City in his life,” Decker challenged on his way out. “And if he has, it wasn’t without an entourage of ten people riding around him.”

By Mike Vidafar

A tweedster during a winter jaunt.

Ted Young-Ing was just an ordinary British cyclist in 2009, when he became the new owner of a pair of plus fours (pants that extend four inches beyond the knee). He had no idea that by the end of that year, he would have changed the landscape of “period cycling” faster than he managed to change into his new threads.

The recipe, Young-Ing discovered, was that he found a way to merge his two loves: turn-of-the-century British garments and bicycles. His brainchild is called Tweed Run, and the enthusiasm surrounding it is hard to deny. To onlookers, it’s the equivalent of a social time capsule, each event expelling a generation hardened (or lost) to two world wars onto a modern landscape for an afternoon reprieve.

While it does stand as tribute to England’s past, Tweed Run’s success is also a product of the personal atmosphere event organizer Jacqui Shannon has instituted in the three years since that inaugural circuit.

With a 500-person limit (any more would make tea-time impractical), Tweed Run maintains a measure of exclusivity traditionally reserved for a turn-of-the-century golf clubhouse. Events have the feel of a members-only gathering, with like-minded cyclists chosen at random via lottery. There’s also an understood adherence to the now-famous line first addressed to the original 2009 participants:

“Now look here: proper attire is expected, bowties, cravats, vintage race jerseys and plus fours!”

Supplementing their fashionable joyrides, Tweed Runners are catered to with afternoon tea and a soiree at the end of the circuit. Adding to the festivities are good-humored awards and enthusiastic onlookers.

As for their adventures across the pond, on Oct. 15, 2011, Young-Ing and Shannon gave New Yorkers their first opportunity to take a trip back in time. The tweedsters, who regularly garnish their passports and take to riding abroad, were met by hundreds of participants eager to take a refined ride through Lower Manhattan, with afternoon tea to be served in Foley Square. However, the inaugural NYC event (sponsored by Rugby Ralph Lauren) was forced to amend its cycling circuit, as circumstance had its way.

“It was a very unfortunate coincidence that the protests on Wall Street [Occupy Wall Street] were occurring and that the city had given us Foley Square for the tea stop. We really wanted to do the full ride, but with everything going on, we were advised not to,” said Shannon. “We ended up doing a shorter version…but we’d like the chance to come back and show New Yorkers how London does Tweed Run.”

With authentic British resolve, New Yorkers didn’t let the circumstantial abbreviation put a damper on their day. Instead, Tweed Run transformed into a day-long outdoor festival in the area surrounding the Ralph Lauren Rugby Store at 99 University Place in Noho. With featured events and prizes, (including awards for Best Dressed and Best Moustache) Young-Ing and Shannon managed to hold a strikingly memorable first go in the Big Apple.

“New York City has a strong bike scene and I’m lucky enough to know Brendt Barbur, the founder of The Bicycle Film Festival. [Barbur] and his team were super helpful at every step of our planning for New York,” said Shannon. Looking ahead, Young-Ing has revealed plans for another New York City Tweed Run, tentatively scheduled for spring 2013. As usual, they hope to rally nearly 500 participants to take to the streets, decked in tweed—just in time for the Big Apple’s annual ripening.

For now, Young-Ing and Shannon have returned to London. Their impending cruise, scheduled for May 6, 2012, continues to draw the attention of a wide cross-section; history buffs, vintage cycling enthusiasts and Britophiles all vie for a chance to ride.

And for Tweed Run, there’s no international bias—Americans are welcome to put their names in the hat in the hope of joining the tweedsters wherever they ride. Indeed, Shannon notes on Tweed Run’s website that lottery spots are chosen well in advance to give international participants ample time to plan ahead.

For the cycling community, it’s time to take notice: where there’s tea, vintage one-speeders and hundreds of cyclists who look like they’ve pedaled straight out of a Sherlock Holmes story, there cannot be any doubt as to who’s behind it. It’s Tweed Run—those dapper dames and proper gents who have perfected the art of cycling transposition.

For more information on Tweed Run, visit tweedrun.com or follow them on twitter
@tweedrun. 

For the first time in years, there will be three cyclist shows in four weeks. It’s all happening during Bike Month NYC (May), and the shows will celebrate all types of bikes, all kinds of riders, and the activity that brings them together.

Bike Month NYC will kick off with the New Amsterdam Bike Show, set to serenade New Yorkers with two days of bikes galore on April 28 and 29. The event, which is being organized by Manhattan Media, aims to establish New York as North America’s premiere Cycling Capitol. With sponsorship straight from the “Mecca” (KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, who fly out of Amsterdam, widely regarded as the “Biking Capitol of the World”) and an eye for a wide range of consumer tastes in bikes, The New Amsterdam Bike Show looks to lead the way for cyclists this spring.

But Manhattan Media’s darling child isn’t the only pony in this show. It’s all about the bikes, and for that reason, cycling fans should rejoice at the fact that the festivities will continue when TD Bank’s Five Borough Bike Tour’s “Bike Expo” returns – this time with 80 booths and scores of additional activities. The Bike Expo hopes to bring “cycling to the center stage” on May 3 through 5, the days preceding the TD Bank Five Borough Bike Tour.

And while the grueling Five Borough circuit will claim the day for thousands of New Yorkers on May 6, there will still be more to do in the big bad city for those who just can’t get enough of the cycle-centric craze. And so, New Yorkers get one last reprieve in the form of the Gran Fondo Bike Expo – a homage to the road cycling and Italian-style bike racing, which will run on May 18 and 19 out of Penn Plaza Pavilion.

So if you haven’t already, switch gears! Forget running sneakers and costly cars. Just locate your old bike – or better yet, buy a new one! It’s time to ride, and it’s time to join the rest of the city in a month of cycling-centered initiatives.

After all, cyclists are more than the individuals who pedal: they are a community, as vibrant and vital to the city’s character as any activity. And this year, the New York cycling community is putting the rest of us on notice. This year, the city that never sleeps is becoming the city whose wheels never stop spinning.

By Mike Vidafar

A tweedster during a winter jaunt. Photo by Ben Broomfield

Ted Young-Ing was just an ordinary British cyclist in 2009, when he became the new owner of a pair of plus fours (pants that extend four inches beyond the knee). He had no idea that by the end of that year, he would have changed the landscape of “period cycling” faster than he managed to change into his new threads.

The recipe, Young-Ing discovered, was that he found a way to merge his two loves: turn-of-the-century British garments and bicycles. His brainchild is called Tweed Run, and the enthusiasm surrounding it is hard to deny. To onlookers, it’s the equivalent of a social time capsule, each event expelling a generation hardened (or lost) to two world wars onto a modern landscape for an afternoon reprieve.

While it does stand as tribute to England’s past, Tweed Run’s success is also a product of the personal atmosphere event organizer Jacqui Shannon has instituted in the three years since that inaugural circuit.

With a 500-person limit (any more would make tea-time impractical), Tweed Run maintains a measure of exclusivity traditionally reserved for a turn-of-the-century golf clubhouse. Events have the feel of a members-only gathering, with like-minded cyclists chosen at random via lottery. There’s also an understood adherence to the now-famous line first addressed to the original 2009 participants:

“Now look here: proper attire is expected, bowties, cravats, vintage race jerseys and plus fours!”

Supplementing their fashionable joyrides, Tweed Runners are catered to with afternoon tea and a soiree at the end of the circuit. Adding to the festivities are good-humored awards and enthusiastic onlookers.

As for their adventures across the pond, on Oct. 15, 2011, Young-Ing and Shannon gave New Yorkers their first opportunity to take a trip back in time. The tweedsters, who regularly garnish their passports and take to riding abroad, were met by hundreds of participants eager to take a refined ride through Lower Manhattan, with afternoon tea to be served in Foley Square. However, the inaugural NYC event (sponsored by Rugby Ralph Lauren) was forced to amend its cycling circuit, as circumstance had its way.

“It was a very unfortunate coincidence that the protests on Wall Street [Occupy Wall Street] were occurring and that the city had given us Foley Square for the tea stop. We really wanted to do the full ride, but with everything going on, we were advised not to,” said Shannon. “We ended up doing a shorter version…but we’d like the chance to come back and show New Yorkers how London does Tweed Run.”

With authentic British resolve, New Yorkers didn’t let the circumstantial abbreviation put a damper on their day. Instead, Tweed Run transformed into a day-long outdoor festival in the area surrounding the Ralph Lauren Rugby Store at 99 University Place in Noho. With featured events and prizes, (including awards for Best Dressed and Best Moustache) Young-Ing and Shannon managed to hold a strikingly memorable first go in the Big Apple.

“New York City has a strong bike scene and I’m lucky enough to know Brendt Barbur, the founder of The Bicycle Film Festival. [Barbur] and his team were super helpful at every step of our planning for New York,” said Shannon. Looking ahead, Young-Ing has revealed plans for another New York City Tweed Run, tentatively scheduled for spring 2013. As usual, they hope to rally nearly 500 participants to take to the streets, decked in tweed—just in time for the Big Apple’s annual ripening.

For now, Young-Ing and Shannon have returned to London. Their impending cruise, scheduled for May 6, 2012, continues to draw the attention of a wide cross-section; history buffs, vintage cycling enthusiasts and Britophiles all vie for a chance to ride.

And for Tweed Run, there’s no international bias—Americans are welcome to put their names in the hat in the hope of joining the tweedsters wherever they ride. Indeed, Shannon notes on Tweed Run’s website that lottery spots are chosen well in advance to give international participants ample time to plan ahead.

For the cycling community, it’s time to take notice: where there’s tea, vintage one-speeders and hundreds of cyclists who look like they’ve pedaled straight out of a Sherlock Holmes story, there cannot be any doubt as to who’s behind it. It’s Tweed Run—those dapper dames and proper gents who have perfected the art of cycling transposition.

For more information on Tweed Run, visit tweedrun.com or follow them on twitter
@tweedrun. 

Construction of protected bike lanes is scheduled to start April 2, and Upper East Side and Harlem small business owners are pretty worried about the negative impact they will have on their bottom line. Our West Side neighbors said, “Goodbye, Columbus Avenue” to their mom-and-pop stores and hello to the chain drugstores and banks, thanks to the bike lanes.
Since the Great Recession, two to eight stores have closed on the blocks along First and Second avenues from 57th to 96th Street and with overtime charges for limited delivery accessibility and reduced parking spots, there’s little hope for new businesses to open and pay high rents.

In addition to damage to businesses, getting picked up or dropped off will be particularly difficult for our residents, especially the elderly and handicapped, with protected bike lanes on one side and Select Bus lanes on the other. Far more people need to take taxis or be transported by car and buses than need bike lanes—for no more than 22,000 cycling commuters, according to the DOT.

Despite complaints to City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin’s office about lawless cyclists and lack of enforcement from 72 percent of her constituents, Transportation Commissioner Jannette Sadik-Khan is adding 10,000 uninsured rental bikes and installing 40-foot-wide bike stations in our neighborhood in July. If you can’t run, be sure to look in every direction when walking on our sidewalks and before crossing our streets.

Susan P. Forman
East 63rd Street

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

Bikers ride through Central Park.

A new shift is about to once again change the battling dynamic between vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians traveling through Central Park. In the coming weeks, the Central Park Conservancy and the Department of Transportation will be jointly presenting a plan to community boards 7 (Upper West Side) and 8 (Upper East Side) outlining their plans to permanently change the 72nd Street transverse, also known at Terrace Drive. The plan will reduce the number of cars on the road while allowing for an increased number of bicycles.

While the idea of more bikes on the park’s roadways might raise the ire of some local residents, the plan was actually conceived as a way to encourage cyclists off the pedestrian and shared paths and back onto the road.

“The purpose of this plan—developed in conjunction with DOT and Parks Department—is to encourage bicyclists to use the drives instead of interior pedestrian paths,” said Dena Libner, spokesperson for the Central Park Conservancy. “More bike access on the drives, we believe, should help in accomplishing this.”

Currently, the drive accommodates two lanes of vehicle traffic and one bike lane, with a fence between the bike lane and the pedestrian path on the south side. Each vehicle lane is 11 feet wide, with a three-foot buffer between the cars and the eight-foot-wide bike path.

The new plan will create wider buffer zones, with the intent to allow more bicycles and keep pedestrians safer, and allow bikers to travel both east and west on 72nd Street. Two lanes of traffic will become one single 11-foot-wide lane, with a four-foot shoulder on the north side and a four-foot buffer on the other, separating the cars from the double bike lanes. Each bike lane, divided by a dotted line, will be slightly narrower than the previous one, at seven feet wide each.

The DOT has already conducted a traffic study to determine the Loss of Service (LOS) rate that will result in narrowing the road for drivers.

Right now, an average of about 500 cars travel on Terrace Drive during the morning peak hours of 8–9:30 a.m., with an average delay of 9.8 seconds. Using this as a benchmark, the DOT estimates that the LOS level will be a “B” on an A-F scale, with A being the current condition and F being the worst possible, meaning the changes will produce “reasonably unimpeded traffic with average travel speeds about 20 percent less” than current, with an average delay of 13 seconds for the same number of cars.

In other words, if the projections hold, cross-park car trips may only be held up by an additional 3.2 seconds, on average, as a result of this change.

The Parks Department and the Conservancy have implemented several changes recently to address the increasing numbers of cyclists crossing the park on a daily basis as well as the safety concerns of pedestrians who don’t want to share paths with bicycles zooming past. Earlier this year, the park debuted a newly shared path for bicyclists and pedestrians to cross the park at 96th Street, in answer to bicyclists demanding safer cross-park routes. It faced some severe opposition from both East and West Side community board members, but so far has not caused major controversy in action.

While the CPC will be presenting the plan to the community boards and listening to feedback, the new configuration is already slated to switch over in the coming months and is designed to stay.

“This change will be permanent,” Libner confirmed. “We expect more cyclists to use the drive for cross-park commutes and travel, and pedestrians to be able to navigate interior paths with greater ease.”

By Scott M. Stringer

For anyone who spends time on the streets of Manhattan, the congestion in our bike lanes has become a familiar sight: Cars and buses block the lanes for minutes at a time, sometimes longer. When motorists open their doors without checking for oncoming bikes, collisions can injure passengers and riders alike.

Pedestrians also clog the lanes, even as cyclists approach. And bike riders contribute to the problem by riding the wrong way in designated lanes.

I am a big supporter of bike lanes. They enrich our environment and boost the quality of life and health of New York City residents. But misuse by all parties, including motorists, pedestrians and cyclists, is undermining their success.

That’s why, in response to numerous complaints by constituents, my office recently conducted an unprecedented survey of bike lanes in Manhattan. We found more than 1,700 abuses at 11 separate sites, based on observations by my staff during morning and evening rush hours over three days in October.

On the Upper West Side we found motor vehicles and pedestrians repeatedly blocking lanes, misuse of the lanes by city vehicles, cyclists riding on the sidewalk and other safety hazards. Over three one-hour observation periods, surveyors noted 156 total infractions at 94th Street and Columbus Avenue. Of those, 116 were motor vehicles and pedestrians. Surveyors also observed a DOT vehicle parked in the bike lane for an entire hour and an unmarked police vehicle in an apparent non-emergency situation cutting through protected bike lanes, to circumvent traffic stopped by a red light.

For the Upper West Side community and the rest of our city, the bottom line is clear: We need to develop a bicycle-friendly culture where New Yorkers respect the bike lane and clear the path.

The Department of Transportation has done a great job in creating bike lanes. But we need to make sure they are working properly, so they can be enjoyed in all of our neighborhoods. My office has made the following recommendations:

• Increase enforcement against motorists who drive in or obstruct bike lanes. This was the most significant and prevalent threat to bike lanes found in our study. During our survey, we observed 275 motor vehicle blockages in bike lanes, but only two summonses were issued.
• Provide enhanced street signage for cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles. In particular, the Department of Transportation should provide signs that warn riders against cycling the wrong way in bike lanes.
• Taxi Cab Public Awareness Campaign on Dooring. Dooring, the act of hitting a cyclist with an open car door, is a serious threat to bicyclist and passenger safety. The Taxi and Limousine Commission should launch a campaign to educate drivers and the public about the problem.
• Reserve parking spots for deliveries along commercial streets to discourage potential bike lane blockages. This would help reduce a serious cause of obstructions in many Manhattan bike lanes.
• Increase the frequency of Bike Boxes along bike routes. Cyclists often report that for their own safety they must get a head start on motor vehicles at red lights. DOT, in response, has created Bike Boxes that give riders a safe place while waiting for traffic signals to change. We need more of them.
• Where appropriate, DOT should develop bike lanes that reduce the mixing of cyclists, pedestrians and motorists.

Finally, I urge DOT to conduct regular surveys such as the one by my office, so we can have a more reliable source of information whether our bikes lanes are working properly.

_

Scott M. Stringer is an Upper West Side resident and Manhattan Borough President.

A bike lane on the Upper West Side is especially bad for bicyclists, according to a new study by Hunter College.

The observations by Hunter students show that the West Side’s bike route ranks as one of the most obstructed lanes.

On a Tuesday morning, between 8 and 9 a.m., there were 17 obstructions on the West 106th Street lane, between Riverside Drive and Central Park West.

Cars made up 30 percent of bike lane blockage, according to the study. Small trucks and taxis made up 17 and 14 percent, respectively.

However, one bike lane, Central Park West from West 79th to 85th streets, had no obstructions during an observation on a Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m.

Wiley Norvell, communications director for Transportation Alternatives, said the report confirms what bicyclists throughout the city see first-hand.

“Our bike lane network is, in many cases, rendered dangerous or unusable,” Norvell said. “There’s some hope around the corner. We encourage the city to expand the number of protected bike lanes.”