Photo: DOT
Aug. 8, 2013 By Christian Murray
State Sen. Mike Gianaris formerly announced today that Astoria has been included as part of the Citibike program.
Astoria, which had been left out of the program, joins Sunnyside—as the other Queens community– to be included in Phase II of the Citibike plan.
“Citibike will be a great addition to Astoria, which has a growing cycling community and is already one of the most bike-friendly neighborhoods in the city,” Gianaris said in a statement.
Citibike is already slated to expand into Long Island City as part of Phase I of the rollout, which would bring 7,000 bikes and 420 stations to the city by the end of 2013.
However, the implementation of the program in Long Island City continues to get delayed. The Department of Transportation has said that the delays stem from Hurricane Sandy. The DOT claims that the bikes were in storage at the Brooklyn Navy Yard when the hurricane struck and sustained a great deal of damage.
Upon the completion of Phase 1, the DOT plans additional rounds of expansion. Astoria has been added to the list of future neighborhoods joining Sunnyside, Park Slope and Manhattan’s Upper East and West Side.
Officials are expected to start work on the Astoria Citibike program by the end of the year. The plans will eventually determine what Astoria locations would be best suited for the program.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who pushed to get Long Island City included in Phase 1 of the Citibike program, has been waging war on the DOT, urging the agency to bring Citibike to Long Island City as soon as possible. “We are still waiting on an exact date,” he said. “However, we expect it to be in Long Island City in coming months.”
The date of when Phase II will be introduced is still unknown. “We continue to push DOT to bring CitiBikes to other parts of Western Queens including Astoria, Sunnyside and Woodside as quickly as possible and will keep fighting until it arrives,” Van Bramer said.
The DOT was not available for immediate comment.
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21 Comments
Me too.
I hope they put a 100 bike rack in front of Jimmy Van Bramers home!
That’s a great point. I go to the stores over on Northern Blvd and further into Astoria a lot. I like Socrates Park a lot (along with Gantry Park.) It’s a breeze to get to these places with a bicycle but a real drag if you have to deal with public tansportation. I don’t mind swiping my metrocard for a trip to Citifield or Manhattan, but for getting around Queens, a bicycle is the best.
I am confident that when even the most staunch opponents of the citibike program actually give it a try, they will have a hard time continuing to deny the positive impact it is and will continue to have of the public transit options for New Yorkers. The citibike program creates another fast and flexible means of transportation for commuters and is most beneficial in places exactly like Sunnyside and Astoria, two places hard to commute between if you don’t own a car and don’t want to wait 20 minutes for a bus.
The bike share program has been a great addition to NYC. I look forward to the program coming to Queens, but it would be beneficial to have more bike lanes built in the borough. Cars, bikers, and pedestrians can co-exist.
Are you all out of your mind? Bikers in this area are a menace. They continue to ride on the sidewalks, go through lights, ignore pedestrians. The single bike racks are already taking up space on these narrow sidewalks and the new benches take up the rest, not to mention the large trucks delivering to the supermarkets, yet you want to put in more obstacles like the Citibike racks? There is more merchandise on the sidewalks than in the stores so where are we to walk? Just because VanBramer and his friends want this idiotic plan doesn’t mean that the average Sunnysider wants it. If he likes to bike, fine, maybe he can do it out in the countryside. Don’t even think about putting it under the El!!
We have dedicated so much space to cars in this city, it’s nice to see how this foolish concept is finally being re-evaluated. Think about how many cars are used for maybe 1-2 hours a day, or 3-4 hours a week, then sit idle for days, taking up space that could be better utilized by the community. Look at all of the vehicles on QB during rush hour: so many cars with just one passenger, many of them not even local residents, clogging up our community. Finally, some healthy and common sense ideas are emerging. Bicycles are a great solution to our overcrowded city- cars are increasingly going to be minimalized- get used to it.
So this is what Citibank does with all that bail out money.
Just what we need more bikers that dont follow the traffic laws and cause accidents. Cops should be directed to crack down and give more tickets. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse!!!!!
I don’t need a bike. I can fly.
Hate the bikes and the bike programs!
I can’t wait till the Citi Bike program comes to Queens. Queens has a lot of bike riders and riding bikes really reduces the need of cars, thus contributing to a better environment for everyone and saving money for things you really need.
Can’t wait for this. it’ll help tighten up my caboose.
Bikes and Taxi’s, It’s just not safe to walk the streets of New York anymore
God forbid we lose a parking space right next to the train in the city with the best public transportation in the country.
The Sunnyside library has space where that flag pole is now. The park across the street has room as well. The streets bordering Lou Lodati park are quite wide and could easily fit a bike station without taking away any parking.
However, if there aren’t enough other bike stations where people want to go and can pedal to within the time limit, these bikes won’t be of much use.
A good location would be under the Bliss St station on the east side of the raised pedestrian plaza which will have no reduction in parking spaces. I’m not as familiar with Lowery St. station but a similar space probably exists there as well.
Just what we need. Less parking in Sunnyside.
Any word on the location in Sunnyside?
When the first Sunnysider gets killed or maimed on one of these, maybe we can name a street after him or her.
Van Bramer is a thug, that dude makes it happen.