It’s reaching new Heights!
Citi Bike’s docks will gobble up on-street parking and sidewalk spaces in Crown Heights and Prospect Heights in the coming weeks as part of its latest expansion, which kicked off Sept. 12, prompting a wave of divergent emotions among the nabes’ cyclists and motorists, according to a local civic honcho.
“We have a lot of bikers and we have a lot of drivers,” said Musa Moore, chairman of Community Board 9. “It’s mixed feelings.”
Twenty-five docking stations will be installed in Crown Heights and Prospect Heights, with an additional two destined for Sterling Street near the edge of Prospect Lefferts Gardens. All together, they will hold around 400 Citibank-sponsored bikes.
This year’s push follows a 2016 expansion that brought 60 docking stations to neighborhoods on the other side of Brooklyn’s Backyard, where even progressive Park Slope residents were loathe to sacrifice precious parking spots on the altar of Citi Bike.
Residents of the Red Hook Houses also voiced complaints about losing street parking after the rental program installed four stations around the massive public housing complex last year.
And on-street spots are just as sought after in the nabes the service is expanding to, according to Moore, who said drivers already circle blocks looking for spaces.
“Sometimes it takes people an hour to find parking, it’s such a congested community,” Moore said.
The Department of Transportation invited locals to suggest locations for bike stations during a public review process earlier this year. The agency — which has the final say in deciding docking sites — then picked and chose when to heed the community’s advice, according to Moore.
“Some they listened to, and some they didn’t,” he said.
Community Board 9’s Transportation Committee is expected to review the new Citi Bike sites at its next meeting, according to the chairman, who said he is not sure whether the panel intends to challenge the city’s planned rollout.
