via Citi Bike on Twitter
July 16, 2019, Staff Report
The Citi Bike fleet will stretch into Sunnyside and Woodside by the end of 2023 as part of a massive expansion to the bike sharing system.
City officials today announced the boundaries for the expanded Citi Bike fleet, which will ultimately double the size of the service area and triple the number of bikes to 40,000.
Citi Bike expansion area, via DOT. (Click to expand)
The Citi Bike network will expand eastward from the existing Astoria and Long Island City service area, through Sunnyside and Woodside and along Queens Boulevard into Elmhurst. The network will also expand southward through Maspeth with 65th Place as the eastern boundary in that portion.
Other Queens neighborhoods that Citi Bike will expand to include Jackson Heights and Corona.
Citi Bike will also come to Ridgewood “in the months ahead” as part of an expansion from Brooklyn that’s already underway, City officials said.
The Sunnyside and Woodside Citi Bikes will come about a decade after the system launched in New York, and several years after it was first expanded to Queens in Long Island City in 2015. Citi Bike currently has 12,000 bikes and more than 750 stations in western Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Jersey City, according to the company’s website.
“I’m pleased to see Citi Bike expanding and particularly gratified to see Sunnyside/Woodside included in this next round,” Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said. “All New Yorkers deserve greener, safer and more affordable transportation alternatives. I will push to have all of Woodside included in this expansion and continue to advocate for every neighborhood in our city to have access to bike share.”
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72 Comments
Spread that Covid.
Four and a half years from now and Van Bramer is claiming victory? Give me a break! If we got them NOW it would be years too late.
This should be a public program with democratic accountability, not run by some bullshit bank!
I’m with you on the need for expansion, but it’s not run by a bank. Citibank just paid for naming rights, in a deal that’s currently expiring in 2024 (most likely they’ll extend it later).
Citibike is owned and operated by Motivate, a company that operates bike shares all over the country, and is in turn owned by Lyft. I have no idea why the expansion needs to take 4 years.
I’ll care about the plight of adults riding their 2 wheeled toys when they start obeying the rules of the road and kick in more to cover the costs of the road diet. Let’s raise some revenue by forcing all bikers 21 and older to register their toy, get plates too, that way we can make a mint when they go through 1 red light after another. This will also go a long way in holding the insane # of irresponsible cyclists accountable for their actions. Last I checked one doesn’t need insurance to ride a bike. What happens when one of these idiots hits a car/ped? These fees will help pay for the expense of these new lanes. On top of city taxes, car owners also pay inspection and registration fees, tolls, meters which all go to help the city. A nice 10+% tax on new bikes would also help cover the cost of street redesigning. funny that the same 1-2 stick up the arse bikers post non stop, it’s so obviously the same couple of bozos who don’t seem to own a thesaurus and post under different names. You aren’t fooling anyone, TA….
Oh lord, this nonsense again. The whole license plate/insurance thing is so inherently absurd I won’t go into it again, but let’s talk about the fees you mentioned:
–Inspection and registration fees combined are under $100. That’s the cost you have to pay to store your massive piece of private property on public streets. A fraction of what a parking garage costs. Inspection also includes testing for emissions that bikes don’t produce.
–Tolls pay for highways, bridges, and tunnels that bikes don’t have access to. Most of which can be avoided by cars as well.
–Meters are for large parking spaces that bikes don’t need, and cars can also avoid.
You’re also not factoring in all wear-and-tear on the streets created by cars. That’s a massive amount of money in repairs and maintenance that don’t apply to bikes or pedestrians—both of whom pay all of those other taxes you do while costing the city. Fact is your car is costing the city way more than $100. It’s basic math. No thesaurus necessary.
A woman was knocked down and brain damaged in May while crossing 57th street in manhattan by a biker who ran the red light! She died! How come we never talk about pedestrians bring killed or injured? A reason why bikers need to follow the rules, ride in their lane and obey traffic lights and be licensed and insured. This is the second pedestrian severe injury!
Better question: Why are you focusing your anger on bikers and not cars and trucks which account for 99% of pedestrian deaths?
They can place the bike station on my block – that way we won’t have to deal with people parking, dumping their garbage alongside the sidewalk.
How naiive are you?
I grew up in Woodside, (and aside from moving to Brooklyn for a few years), and live here with my wife and two kids. I consider myself a lifelong Woodsider. I also own three cars and two motorcycles. If there any anyone that benefits from street parking its me.
That said, I am THRILLED that we’re FINALLY getting Citibike in the neighborhood. Don’t mind losing a handful of spots to accomodate dozens of times more in bikes. (Besides, they’ll probably put the bike stations on sidewalks, and by parks. They’re quiet, they promote excercise, they’re clean, and despite from some haters welcomed by most people. Yes, I do also agree that cyclists need to follow traffic laws – and do wish cops will enforce them more in Woodside (and everywhere else).
Shocking as it may seem to some of the people complaining, they’re actually fun to ride. *GASP!*
I just wish we had them sooner.
not worth the money. its way too expensive.
That depends how you use it. An annual membership is $170 (minus $15 if you use a Citibank card). If you use it just 1.5 times per week, each ride costs $2.17. Cheaper than the subway.
Abundy,
The citibike saves me 1000$ a year. I stopped buying a monthly metrocard while I had the membership. Also, my health insurance reimburses me in full for riding citibike 50x a year!
If you are capable of riding a bike, I encourage you to try them. They are really enjoyable, and make walking anywhere so much faster.
I am excited to ride citibike/Lyft bike in suburban neighborhoods that dont have access to bus/trains.
If you ride a bike then don’t tak your bike on the train anymore. Bikers also never stop for people who walk!
I’m a Senior Citizen. I used to ride a bike, but now am afraid of them. I have to look both ways for the bikes and then look both ways for a car, while standing in an island between them. At least with a car, they only come one way.
Astoria was always better than sunnyside
In front of my building this morning i saw 2 syringes and bloody tissues on the sidewalk..I guess it would have been newsworthy had the drug addict left them in a bike lane..
Dont use it. You might catch aids
A Single Ride is just $3 and includes the first 30 minutes of one ride on a classic Citi Bike or $5 for a single ride on their electric bike. or a $1200 fine charged to your credit card if you dont dock it properly and someone takes it. yet its $2.75 for the subway or bus. yeah, i’m really rushing to get this. what a great deal.
Yeah, you definitely shouldn’t do it if you’re planning to only use single-rides, and don’t plan to make sure it’s docked correctly.
People with annual unlimited-ride memberships and plan on making sure the green light appears when you dock it will be just fine.
Syringes ? Isn’t syringes the new go to topic whose origins trace back to Pat Robertson CBN – Christian Broadcasting and constantly repeated by Fox News?
@Arvin…There are humans defecating under the the El on a daily basis..One has to be careful while walking…The progressives choose to ignore this..Someone throws thumbtacks in a bike lane and they call for a federal investigation!!
Where?
Probably would have been “newsworthy” if you took a few pictures and sent them to the news or posted them on one of the local FB groups. That’s how the thumbtack story got started.
Heck no ! – where are we supposed to park our
cars ? Ding Dong bike riders getting road /parking FREE and car owners pay to the roof for tolls/ins/registration & etc . FIX our transit system is crumbly – did anyone took a look how rusted & corroded under the 7 elevated train ?? What they waiting for ?
Maybe you should pay to store your private property
Has anyone seen a bike rider pedal UPHILL from 39th st to 42st on greenpoint??? I haven’t
I do it all the time, but what does that even have to do with this topic anyway? What are you responding to‽
I do it regularly. Thanks for making me lol, Rikki. You can always be relied upon for a silly and nonsensical comment. Thanks for adding some levity. How’s that reverse commute coming along?
And people look like dweebs riding them in office clothes!
Would you prefer a different color?
This is so frustrating. They need money to expand faster and several council members outside of the service area have offered public funds to help it reach them sooner. This is a no brainer for our area but particularly for the transit desert areas of eastern queens. Expand faster please!!!
2023? 4 years. Why so long? It’s only bicycles.
Most of us who want to ride already have a bike. I’ve been riding around this area regularly since the late nineties and have little need for Citibike. It will be great if more people were riding around on bicycles, though western Queens needs to be an area that’s as inhospitable to cars and big trucks as possible. Eliminating free parking wherever possible is a great first step. Penalizing double-parked trucks should also
happen more frequently.
2023? In 4 years? We will all be underwater by then.
I thought an elected official is supposed to represent ALL his/her constituents. It’s obvious JVB is biased in favor of “transportation alternatives” to cars without considering that there are those of us who are not physically capable of riding bikes. Where will the bike stands be placed? Remove more parking spots or place them on sidewalks? How about in front of his home?
“ALL constituents” includes cyclists. The city has catered almost exclusively to cars for longer than most of us have been alive. In a city where cars are the worst way to get around for most people, if they can even afford it to begin with. Why get angry over the scales tipping towards the middle even a little bit?
As for “those not physically capable of riding bikes,” have you considered turning your anger on the people who only own cars for convenience, and mostly just let them sit in one spot for days at a time? They take up far more parking spots than a few bike lanes and Citibike stations ever could.
Patret- Just because a particular project doesn’t benefit you or me doesn’t mean we’re being ignored by the councilman. I read recently citi-bikes was trying to work with libraries as drop off locations and docking stations would not be needed for bikes in the near future.
Reducing the number of cars on the road will reduce congestion and make it easier for the crowd that’s scared of bikes.
If you’re worried about parking, consider paying for storage for your private property.
B-b-but parking!
all i want to know is how many parking spaces will be sacrificed for this expansion.
Does it matter? You can fit 7 Citibike docks in the same space as one car, and each bike in the city is used an average of 6 times, giving those 7 docks an average of 42 uses/day. How much does a parking space for a car get used?
I’m sure you’ll respond that this is a quiet neighborhood (which is fair), so let’s say each only gets used once/day. That’s still 7 uses versus 1 for a car that sits there all day… which nobody complains about.
Also, a Citibike membership is a lot cheaper than a car, and far less hassle to deal with. That makes them accessible to the a higher percentage of the population who either can’t afford, or don’t want to deal with, owning a car. Isn’t that a good thing?
As many as possible and necessary!
All of them.
2023. Lol. Let’s not do anything quickly. You can build a bridge faster than that.
They can put it off till the 12th of Never as far as I’m concerned. We don’t need more reckless entitled ***h***s to look out for when crossing the street.
Oh great, where will I find public parking places to store my private property for free?
Also, I casually drive faster than the speed limit, but one time I saw a cyclist roll a stop sign. Why do they think they’re above the law?!
How about a driveway? How come nobody in Queens uses a driveway for what it’s meant for, to park? I see cars roll thru stop signs and the red lights on Queens Blvd all the time, but see bikers behave, so now what?
Boo!
Now we know why they built all those bike lanes.
You’ve cracked the case!
Are bikers required to honor one way streets and stop signs?
Bikers freely go in both directions on Skillman and 43 rd avenues in Sunnyside. They regularly ignore lights and stop signs. They regularly side swipe cars and many ignore wearing helmets. The city seems to let this behavior slip through the cracks with no legal requirements for bikers. Where is the legislative initiative to make bikers liable?
Helmets are not required by law.
And since when do you care about rider safety?
You won’t believe this…but I regularly see cars speeding and rolling stop signs! Where is the legislative initiative to make drivers liable?
How many more parking spots will be deleted by the radical anti-car movement?
bike lanes have been appearing in major American cities for a decade
they reduce fatalities and congestion
some people even have a car AND a bike! Imagine that! I thought you had to be “anti-car” to ride a bike?!
All of them. Thanks for the opportunity to clear this up.
Put it in Sunnyside Gardens
Will the Citibike stations take some more parking spots in Sunnyside/Woodside Councilman? Where is the suggested location?
Should be near the subway entrances.
I can’t wait
Great. Just what we need. Crappy bikes cluttering up the streets and eliminating more parking. Just one more stupid idea forced on us by politicians that don’t both to ASK!!!
If you think bikes are cluttering up the streets, you should see what cars are doing. Literally every street in this neighborhood is losing TWO LANES because people just leave their gigantic metal cages sitting there all day (space that could be used for lots of things, including wider sidewalks0. Some of them even double park! And that’s without even getting into the cost of repairing streets they tear up and the pollution.
Thank god i moved. How many more parking spots are going to get swallowed up?
What do you care Mary? You moved.
Though I am happy to see these bikes coming in, it is unfortunate that the expansion took this long.
The Community Board approved of this? How much more street Parking will we lose? These are “Ableist” proposals, so many existing disabled residents aren’t served by these proposals. The answer is to ACTUALLY FIX THE SURFACE TRANSIT SYSTEM, with “Wheelchair Accessible” Coaches, not further inconvenience the disabled.
do you know what a false dichotomy is?
I do agree that there should be more done to make all subway stops accessible.
Jesus Mary and Joseph! Four years is a long time! They already have them further down on Skillman ave. in the middle of nowhere! Why is it taking them so long? I can’t wait for it to come.
It’s crazy. From my building there are 3 different stations almost exactly a mile away in 3 different directions. Hopefully “by 2023” means the full phase 3 rollout, and they’ll actually do the closer neighborhoods first.
2023 -_______-
Sunnyside is the closest to the city