Photo: Lesly Juarez on Unsplash
Sept. 3, 2020 By Allie Griffin
City Comptroller Scott Stringer proposed a “bike-to-school” plan for New York City high school students Thursday.
Stringer called on the city and philanthropic partners to provide free bikes and Citi Bike memberships to low-income public high school students. He also wants the city to build one and a half miles of protected bike lanes around 50 high school buildings across the city in the next year.
He said the proposal offers a sustainable, safe and healthy transportation option for young people to get to school at a time when the MTA is facing a major deficit and the the Department of Education (DOE) has yet to finalize any contracts with school bus companies.
“Building out bike lanes around New York City high schools and providing bikes to lower-income students would open the door to biking for hundreds of thousands of young people,” Stringer said in a statement. “By taking this action, we can allow New York City’s youth to get around their city, improve health and educational outcomes, and connect with their communities.”
As of 2015, about 18 percent of high school students biked or walked to school — down from 23 percent in 2009, according to the NYC Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
Stringer said that number should be much higher, as 40 percent of high school students attend school within their home district and 83 percent within their borough of residence.
“We have a unique opportunity to make biking easier, safer, and more accessible and fundamentally shift how the next generation thinks about getting around our city,” he said.
The comptroller also pointed to a number of studies that show daily exercise, such as biking to school, significantly improves concentration, cognitive skills and school performance.
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8 Comments
Not one of the politicians urging closed streets, bike lanes, scooters, Citi Bike, and attacking private cars and street parking has shown by robust example. Pandering to group of voters is all it is. Ask your employees to bike or walk. No hired cars tax write offs or out of your budget. No free cars, signs for your windows that let you park anywhere and not get tickets. No limo drivers. You will save taxpayers a fortune and help us go green.
I cant wait for the lawsuits.
Enough said.
Horrible idea to put children on bikes in NYC streets. After all the bike deaths since this great bike lane idea.
Another dumbass idea from people completely out of touch with what the city truly needs
Any moron who supports sending their kids to school by bike IN A CITY is a person who doesnt love children . I bet you anything…anybody supporting this doesnt have kids who will utilize this.
High schoolers are 14-19 years old. Teenagers are not children Karen
Only low income students will get bikes, lol. Anyway the cost of each student in NYC is 28K per year. That money being spent (wasted) the students should be be picked to and from school with a limousine.
You’re right, rich people should get free bikes too, that’s way more PC. Can you imagine what might happen if a teenager got a free bike pass?
Yes! This is a brilliant idea. It’s the perfect time to get more kids on bikes and expand our city’s infrastructure to encourage this healthy, active, environmentally sustainable mode of transit. Especially with concerns around COVID as we reopen and subways get packed again.