This roll-out needs more wheels!
City transportation bigwigs on Thursday unveiled the locations of 62 Citi Bike docks they plan to install in and around Brownstone Brooklyn starting in spring next year, and local transit enthusiasts have only one gripe — they wish there were more.
“It seemed a little on the low-density side,” said Eric McClure, who leads the Community Board 6 Transportation Committee, which unanimously approved the bike-rental station sites for Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, the Columbia Street Waterfront District, Gowanus, and Park Slope.
But residents’ dreams of more bank-sponsored bikes lining their streets could still come true — once the city wraps up rolling out all 62 new stations sometime in 2017, Citi Bike will look at adding more if it can find the funds, according to one panel member.
“It’s very capital and labor intensive to roll out the stations,” said committee member Bill Blum. “But the plan is to fill it in and, overall, it’s a great beginning.”
The new locations, which the city’s transportation department says it chose based on years of meetings with residents, can be found directly adjacent to most parks, schools, and subway stations within the community board’s boundaries.
Green spaces that will not get their own bike berths include Dimattina Playground in Carroll Gardens, and Harold Ickes Playground and Mother Cabrini Park in the Columbia Street Waterfront District, while Carroll Park, Boerum Park, and Nicholas Naquan Heyward Jr Park in Boerum Hill are a few blocks from the closest post.
Likewise, a few schools will be left in the lurch — meaning students will have to walk more than two blocks to find a rental bike — including PS 146 and PS 58 in Carroll Gardens.
But locals say they don’t mind walking a short distance to take the bulky blue bikes for a spin.
“According to the map there will be one a block from my apartment so I’ll definitely use it pretty frequently,” said long-time Park Sloper Doug Gordon.
Not all residents are thrilled, though — one local griped that the plans are conspicuously devoid of stations on some major thoroughfares like Court and Hicks streets in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, while more residential strips are stuffed full of them.
“The fact of the matter was they weren’t on Court and Hicks, which is where those Citibikes should be placed, not in residential areas where you need the parking,” said Carroll Gardens resident Joe Ruiz.
And one specific station on Henry Street is likely to eat up parking spots near the Key Foods, so the city should move it to a no-standing zone around the corner on Degraw Street, he said.
“Where they are now they’re going to be taking up parking,” said Ruiz.
The full community board will vote on the plan at a meeting on Nov. 10.
