Hipsters with bikes commuting from Williamsburg into Manhattan have a hassle-free ride to look forward to — if everything goes as planned.
In an effort to eliminate automobile congestion and provide Bedford Avenue station-boarding L train riders a safe place to leave their bikes for eight-plus hours a day, the Department of Transportation has installed nine new bike racks outside what Deputy Press Secretary for the DOT Chris Gilbride refers to as the “mass transit hub of Williamsburg.”
Gilbride says that the main reason for the new racks is to discourage commuters from North Brooklyn to Manhattan from driving their cars to the subway.
“This is the first time we’ve removed car space to accommodate bike parking in New York City,” he said. “Anyone who has been to Williamsburg knows that this is important, as cycling is booming in the neighborhood.”
The initiative, part of the City Racks Program —which has installed 690 new bike racks in Brooklyn since 1996 — will, depending on who you ask, accommodate 30 extra cyclists or merely create a target for bike thieves in the neighborhood.
Some riders, like Greenpoint-dwelling graphic designer Benjamin Running, applaud the city’s actions, saying, “I rarely rode my bike to the Bedford stop before the new racks were installed because there was rarely space available for bike parking. Every sign post, street light, fence and whatever else had bikes locked to it.”
He said the new racks raised awareness of the increased bike congestion at Bedford Avenue.
“Abandoned bikes had built up over time, so many of the available spots were kind of permanently occupied,” says Running. “There were also several raids where police removed locked bikes with no notice. This was not a friendly environment for locking your bike.”
However, several bike-to-L regulars, like Greenpoint writer/activist Chris Thomasm, say that this increased attention to the locked-up bikes has already turned negative.
“At first I was pretty excited about the new racks at Bedford,” he said. “Then last week as I was locking it up there, a girl walked over and told me her bike had just been stolen from that exact bike rack the night before. She just stared at me until I was spooked into biking to Lorimer Street station and locking it in front of the nice, safe pizzeria.”
Craig Murphey, a south Williamsburg resident, often rides his bike all the way to Harlem, where he works as an Anti-Hunger Community Organizer. Like Thomas, he rarely utilizes the new racks, as he feels that there aren’t enough to accommodate the plethora of new riders.
“It’s still a pain to find a nearby spot to lock up,” said Murphey.
“It seems like there are certainly more bikes locked up around there these days, which to me means that the demand is still exceeding the supply and they should really work on that.”
While reactions to the bike racks have been both positive and negative, the Department of Transportation views the racks as an integral part of PlaNYC 2030, an initiative unveiled by Mayor Bloomberg on Earth Day that is zeroing in on cycling as a major solution to environmental concerns in the city.
In addition to the racks, which can be requested in any other neighborhood by dialing 311 and filing a report, the city also has a three-year bike lane expansion plan underway as well as the inception of the official NYC bike helmet, which has been distributed for free to over 3000 city bikers this year.
However, getting Williamsburg hipsters to muss up their deliberate coifs will be an entirely different, arduous task in itself.
