A Citi Bike station that was installed on the roadway at the corner of Northern Boulevard and 43rd Street in January 2021 (Photo: Queens Post)
Feb. 2, 2022 By Christian Murray
Citi Bike stations will start being installed in Sunnyside and Woodside in early May, according to the DOT.
The DOT released a draft plan yesterday and said that 71 stations will be installed in the Sunnyside and Woodside district, with the majority being stations located on the roadway.
Each station is likely to have approximately 20 bike docks, although the stations near transit locations are likely to be bigger.
A DOT representative presented the plan at Community Board 2’s Transportation Committee Tuesday night and said the agency was amenable to change station locations.
“These are not a done deal, per se,” said Lisa Morasco, a senior planner with the DOT. Furthermore, she said, the stations are modular—as opposed to being hardwired into the ground– so they can be easily moved.
The draft plan of Citi Bike’s expansion into Sunnyside and Woodside (DOT)
The demand for Citi Bike is high, according to Morasco.
“We have over 160,000 annual numbers and we had over 100 million unique riders in 2021 making it really clear that Citi Bike is a mode of transportation that New Yorkers use and want,” Morasco said.
The DOT’s role with Citi Bike, she said, is to select sites and conduct outreach, with Lyft being in charge of the day-to-day maintenance of the service.
Source: DOT
The expansion into Sunnyside and Woodside is part of the DOT’s plan to build out the bike-sharing network across New York City that began in 2013 with Phase 1 of its installation process.
Citi Bike first came to Queens in 2015 under Phase 2 with docking stations in Long Island City. The network was then extended into Astoria and the far reaches of Long Island City in 2017. It was extended once again into northwest Astoria and East Elmhurst at the beginning for 2021.
The Sunnyside/Wooodside stations are part of Phase 3 that will later extend into Maspeth, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Corona– as well as deeper into the other boroughs.
Morasco said the Sunnyside and Woodside locations were selected based on outreach conducted by DOT’s ambassador team as well as responses it had received from an interactive portal it had on its website.
The portal provided residents with the ability to recommend suitable locations—or state where they didn’t make sense. In total, 764 comments were submitted through the site.
The DOT, Morasco said, also aims to have a station every few blocks within a coverage district. The idea is to have a station within a 3-to-5-minute walk from one another.
Morasco did not say how many parking spaces would be lost as a result of the stations.
“That’s something we don’t generally calculate [at this stage].”
She did, however, say that the number of stations that will be on the roadway is an indicator of how many spaces will be eliminated. Most of the sites are planned to go on the roadway.
Citi Bike’s expansion into Sunnyside and Woodside. This map provides station locations in northern Sunnyside. The boxes indicate sites planned to be on the roadway (N=north). The triangles are stations planned to be on sidewalks (W=west) (DOT)
Citi Bike’s expansion into Sunnyside and Woodside. This map provides station locations in northern Woodside. The boxes indicate stations planned to go on the roadway, while triangles are stations planned to go on the sidewalk (DOT)
Citi Bike’s expansion into Sunnyside and Woodside. This map provides station locations in Woodside (DOT) The boxes indicate stations planned to go on the roadway, while triangles are stations planned to go on the sidewalk (DOT)
Citi Bike’s expansion into Sunnyside and Woodside. This map provides station locations in the southern portion of Sunnyside and Woodside (DOT). The boxes indicate stations planned to go on the roadway, while triangles are stations planned to go on the sidewalk (DOT)
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58 Comments
Can these bikes go on the sidewalk? Where are we supposed to park our cars?
Where are motorists supposed to park now? Do we not count?
YESSS! Thank you so much!
Citi Bikes in every borough have made the neighborhoods ugly! Even 5th Avenue in Manhattan where apartments are very expensive have those ugly portals outside of their buildings. The city is disgusting and nobody gives a dam about neighborhoods anymore. I was driving the other day near my house in Queens and a messenger on a bike cut across the street in front of my car. Good thing I was watching him. He gave me the finger. I told him what he could do with it.
Drive into manhattan Monday and the whole area in the village fifth ave in the teens are a horror story The bikers are not all in the biking kanes, cars can’t park, pedestrians being knocked over
This has to be looked at with total community input
How dare you take away good car parking Spaces?
The Sunnyside/Woodside district? You know it’s not someone from NYC writing this article.
Umm, Christian Murray is the SSP.
If intra-borough public transportation options were increased perhaps less people would need to drive. Are the Queens bus “redesigns” (service cuts and bus route eliminations) that were announced pre-COVID still on the board? Expecting people over 65 or anyone to bike in <30 degree weather isn't an answer either.
Oh great, more cycling on the sidewalks weaving in and out of pedestrians.
Oh great…more cyclists riding on the sidewalks weaving in and out of pedestrians. Don’t say it doesn’t happen bc it does!
Oh great…more cycling on the sidewalks weaving in and out of pedestrians!?
Don’t say it doesn’t happen bc it does!
TAKING AWAY OUR PARKING SPACES FOR CITY BIKES.TOTAL BS.WE DRIVERS PAY YEARLY+SO ON FOR THIS.MAKE BIKE RIDERS PAY FOR THE USE OF OUR STREETS.THEY DONT FOLLOW RULES OF THE ROAD.
ALSO PARK THE BIKES ON THE SIDEWALKS BY BUILDINGS SO NOT TO TAKE UP OUR PARKING SPACES THAT WE PAY FOR THROUGH CAR REG.FEES FROM THE STATE FOR USE OF THE ROADWAYS
why do all the people demanding free parking seem so unhinged ? Make bike riders pay for streets? It’s called taxes…
Let them all obey traffic rules also! They should all have licenses as well!
Requiring cars to have licenses is why so they so rarely break the law. Oh wait…
Parking a car in NYC is free, whereas Citi Bike pays to use the same space. Those fees are covered by Citi Bike user fees. Your registration with the state DMV does NOT pay for parking.
Free? I think not. Many metered parking spaces in Sunnyside.
Parking a car in most of NYC is free, whereas Citi Bike pays to use the same space. Those fees are covered by Citi Bike user fees. Your registration with the state DMV does NOT pay for parking. Nor do the couple of bucks you use to feed the meter. Bottom line is that you pay thousands of dollars less for that parking than Citi Bike and its users and have no right to be upset on the grounds that you pay more.
We pay to use streets in our registration. Nothing is free
Fees paid by drivers of every vehicle – insurance, registration, inspections, gas, tolls, and on and on pay for the roads the reckless bicyclists ride! They go through stop signs and red lights and weave in and out of traffic and if there’s a camera in the area, they don’t give a dam because nothing is going to happen – they’re not going t0 get an orange piece of paper in the mail. Drivers have to worry about alternate side parking and meters. Bikes are parked locked onto poles or meters.
Parkinga car is not free in New York, you pay for registration on a vehicle and each person also pays there city and state tax every year. Part of all of that, that drivers pay goes towards parking on city streets. We pay far more than an Citibike user. As well, and it doesn’t matter that they have a contract with the city, no private company should be taking up tax payer funded parking spaces. Put the damn things on the sidewalk like they have in many other parts of the city, in-line with the trees near the curb.
James,
If an out of state guest drives to NYC, are they allowed to park on the curb per signed regulations? If your registration directly funds your parking permit, which is not needed in NYC, then interlopers should not be allowed to park without paying. If ASP parking is free, which it is, then anyone with out of state plates will have equal access, which they do.
Not sure why this is so difficult for people to understand!
As for not allowing for free private use of public space- totally agree! If citi bike, a hot dog vendor, a contractor, or a private car use any public space, they should pay for it!
Hoping this will increase my rentals. People are paying more to be neat bike lanes and stations.
Absolutely no consideration for renters living in legal 2/3 family homes who don’t have the luxury of parking their cars in a driveway or garage. We have to park on the street and with all the illegal conversions/basement apartments there’s the unseen residents who also use street parking. Guess what? They don’t say how many spots are being taken up by these racks, but even 1 less spot is a hardship for the unlucky renters. Maybe if the cost of homes around here weren’t so ridiculous we could actually buy here and have our own driveway or garage. We live here because it’s a great area to raise our families. But you’re driving us out (no pun intended).
If a single space can serve one car driver, or 20 people who ride bikes, it seems like this is a big win for the neighborhood overall. 20>1
You will still find parking! The sky is not falling! Calm down! It’s not all about you!
This is biased information.
You neglected sales tax of vehicles. Think of $30,000 taxed is almost $2,600, now multiply that per car.. and 30 is cheap! Fuel tax was designed to pay for roads. If you go on tax.ny.gov you’ll see nys residents paid $528,121,869 in 2019.
And don’t forget registration fees. So I’m not going to say oh cars should have the right to park. I’m just going to point out that cars do pay for the roads..
The sales tax argument makes no sense. It’s like saying the tax on lettuce goes to farm subsidies. It just doesn’t work that way.
As for the gas tax, revenue from tolls, parking meters, and fines -that pays for a FRACTION of the user cost of roads. ALL roads are subsidized, toll-free roads more than others, by much more than DMV registrations. We all pay into the funds that keep up our roads. Citi Bike directly pays the city to place bike racks, so its users literally pay towards a permit that pays for that specific use of the road. You may not make the disingeuous argument that cars are more deserving, but if I had a nickel for every bat out of hell saying that, I could probably expand Citi Bike to Little Neck by the end of 2022!
The taxes, registration fees and various other fees that drivers pay don’t actually come close to paying the real costs of driving. Most of the cost of road maintenance, lighting, and various other things actually comes out of general taxation.
Great!! More danger for pedestrians, especially elderly and/or disabled persons. No one can look in two directions at once to see cars and bikes as well as scooters, etc.
As more & more folks use bikes, scooters, and foot power, there will be fewer motor vehicles on our roads. As we all know, they’re the true danger that pedestrians face; they’re responsible for so many injuries and deaths that we can barely keep count (not to mention how they pollute the air.)
It’s not even a matter of looking both ways. These bikers are Still riding on sidewalks and whizzing making left & right turns. I have almost been hit by this type of problem a few times!
Who came up with these spots for the bikes? Stevie Wonder? What kind of fool looked at a map and put bike stations 2-3 blocks away from one another?
That seems pretty reasonable. After all, if I’m leaving my apartment, a bike station a mile away isn’t much help, right? We want to make it easy to get a bike wherever you are, so spacing them 2-3 blocks apart is a good distance–denser would be better, obviously, but this is a good start
Just wondering why the stations are being put in when the Citibank station at 48th near Stop and Shop in Woodside is hardly ever used. Pass by quite frequently on my way to the stores and those racks are usually always filled up.
oh i can answer that. its to annoy real new yorkers that are not pretentious hipsters pretending to be new yorkers. nobody wants these eye sores.
ABoondy everyone under 60 is not a “hipster” ?
That station is at the extreme end of the whole Citibike network and is not in a residential area. There aren’t a lot of residents around that station that would have a Citibike membership. But Citibike has proven to be extremely popular and demand is very high throughout Queens.
Not that my opinion matters
I’m happy we are finally getting them since we had the bike lanes rammed down our throats.
I do however feel that the locations are shit. Why not put them under the 7 under the subway stations? Also, why not put one on 43rd along side the 7-11 where they already have no parking. Instead I feel like they just went for taking parking spots on purpose.
Also, please use the lanes when safe to do so.
Good news bad locations
The outrage in this borough is always hilarious. It borders on parody at this point. There’s a lot of short sighted responses. We actually need less cars and less car usage on the road not more. If you want to know why then do some research first.
Hooray! I’ve lived in the neighborhood for six years and have been waiting for this announcement every day of that time.
I’m sorry – but – traffic calming is coming??? Pedestrian safety is coming??? Are you flipping kidding me?!!! If you are a pedestrian these days your life is difficult and miserable!
That’s why these things need to come. But they’re coming too slowly. Call Council Member Julie Won and Mayor Eric Adams and the DOT and tell them you want more pedestrian safety features and fewer and slower cars on the road. Call your State Senator and Assembly Member and tell them you want the Crash Victim Rights and Safety Act passed. Join an advocacy group like Families For Safe Streets to get what you want. Don’t wait for your elected officials to do this for you. Push them!
This is the worst news of the year of 2022 so far. If you want to rent a citibike you should have insurance that comes with it and be registered as well. Just like automobiles have to adhere to these rules so should people who ride these things. If the State of NY is so money hungry they should definitely look into this.
I have said this many many times. For the first time I am not the only one, this is great. Anything that moves must involve not only insurance but also helmet, driver’s license, and strong policing, with the same fines as for drivers.
Get the drivers in helmets first and then we cyclists will talk.
THIS is the worst news of 2022?? Buddy, take it down a notch.
There’s no insurance offered and Citi Bike is owned by Lyft, not the state.
ED, have you taken a moment to think about your simplistic insurance and registration argument? Or is it just purely a punitive measure you needlessly want to inflict on cyclists?
The reason auto insurance is mandatory is because even a small incident involving an automobile can cause thousands of dollars of property damage and potential death to the person on the other end. A 40lb citibike can also hurt or kill someone, but we are talking orders of magnitude less risk. The risk is so much lower that insurance is not mandated and should be optional. I have been biking for decades and have never gotten hurt.
With all of that said, I am also a licensed and registered driver, and I actually do carry an additional insurance policy that applies to my bike. It won’t apply to my riding a Citi Bike (I checked) so I will have to be careful if I choose to do so.
the state is always money hungry. i think the level of corruption and theft of tax dollars is far beyond what anyone can comprehend.
The number of Citibikes that have been involved in situations that needed insurance is tiny. The bureaucracy involved would be expensive, though.
Yea. MORE lost parking spaces!!!
I know the reaction to this will be that this means parking loss, but at the meeting the DOT rep said they try to place the stations where there is no parking because of daylighting or other reasons. But honestly, the writing has been on the wall for a long time: CitiBike is coming; daylighting is coming; loading zones are coming; traffic calming is coming; pedestrian safety is coming. This all means road use for things other than auto parking. These are good things for the whole community.
This is exciting and overdue! Local businesses had better get ready for the new influx of customers coming now that we’re going to be linked into one of the largest transportation networks in the city. I have ridden a bike to far-flung neighborhoods just for some great dumplings!
Are these real people?
Are these written by more than one person?