Brooklyn Spoke

The story is all too familiar.

After an extensive and years-long community outreach program, a small  handful of people come late to the game to oppose a hugely anticipated and popular streets initiative.

And the arguments are all the same, too.  A concern over historic preservation, scary claims about cars circling endlessly for parking creating congestion and pollution, specious claims of danger made by people who do not engage in the activity they’re criticizing… the list goes on even as it never changes.

In response to complaints about the location of certain Citi Bike stations in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, Councilmember Letitia James is holding a town hall meeting about the bike share program. You can bet that opponents, no matter how small in number, will be out in full force to make their opinions known.  If you live or work in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill, it’s absolutely critical that you attend this meeting and voice your strong support for Citi Bike.

Tish James has been a big supporter of bike share so far and I hope that her main point throughout this meeting is “let’s see.”  Giving in to NIMBYism after the community had ample chances to offer its input but before the system has even launched is truly the wrong way to go here, since once Citi Bike goes live it will produce a treasure trove of data about how each station works and who is using it.  If it turns out that a specific station isn’t being used as anticipated or is creating problems, it can be moved somewhere else.

Many of the current complaints ring hollow, at least when juxtaposed with the relative silence when it comes to similar problems caused by automobiles.  To my knowledge, no one has ever been awakened at 4 AM by a bike alarm going off.   Bike share bicycles will not come equipped with giant sound systems, so there’s no fear of throbbing base shaking your apartment windows in the middle of the night.  While residents of my building are constantly disturbed by the revving of motorcycle engines as they race up and down 4th Avenue, we have so far logged zero complaints to 311 about the bike lane on 3rd.  And will bike share stations become magnets for trash and take up too much space?  Probably not.

You know how I feel about arguments about historic preservation.  Unless and until people are willing to remove all of the historically incongruous automobiles from their blocks, complaints about Citi Bike stations also ring hollow.  If a Citi Bike station defouls your charming neighborhood due to its corporate logos, then anything that bears the symbol of an automobile company also needs to go.  As a matter of fact, I am not aware of any off-brand or generic automobiles specifically designed to blend in with Brooklyn brownstones.

So please ttend this meeting if you can.  Although a small cadre of naysayers will never be assuaged by things such as facts and data, I believe that most opposition will melt away once the bikes are in the stations and the system is active.  Unfortunately for now, the gap between Citi Bike’s installation and its upcoming launch is a giant vacuum into which every wild NIMBY fear is sucked.

The Town Hall will take place at 6:30 this Wednesday, April 24th, at the Benjamin Banneker Acadey, 71-77 Clinton Avenue.  Get there early if you can.  For more info and to RSVP, please visit BikeNYC.org.

I am shocked – shocked! – to learn that a very small number of people are opposed to the placement of bike share stations.

“Jacques Capsouto, 68, says he fears the bike station will take away parking spaces and block the entrance to his Capsouto Freres bistro on Washington Street.”

Capsouto also complained that “stations would make it more difficult for garbage trucks to pick up trash.”

I don’t think anyone should make too big a deal of this.  After all, 5,000 Citi Bike fans can’t be wrong.  However, I do think it’s important to nip these flare-ups in the bud, so here goes…

Like the absurd argument that empty bike lanes are dangerous to cross because of all the cyclists using the bike lane, Capsouto presents two opposing things that can not be true at the same time.  How can it be that a docking station will block the entrance to his business or make it hard for DSNY to pick up trash when the cars that were parked there before did not?  If the docking station replaced parking spaces, then cars already blocked the entrance and the curb!  On the other hand, if the docking station replaced a no standing or loading zone, then the fear of losing parking has no basis in a reality that remained unchanged until yesterday.

You don’t have to love or even understand bicycle sharing, but you do have to live in the world of logical consistency if you want a seat at the table.  You can either be upset over the loss of parking spaces OR you can be upset over a blocked entrance. Pick one.

This sounds like a really great event:

Join Brooklyn Public Library on Saturday, May 11 for the Bike The Branches—a fun and adventurous one-day bike ride to benefit the Brooklyn Public Library.  Experience Brooklyn and BPL like never before, while connecting with family and fellow Brooklynites as you ride to and through our network of 60 neighborhood libraries. Get your passport stamped at each branch—or as many as you can—to be entered into a drawing to win fun prizes.  The first 100 people that register will be entered into a special drawing. Ask your friends and family to sponsor you as your ride for BPL!

Take a tour of Brooklyn’s literary history, culinary highlights or architectural gems on one of our suggested routes, or create your own path to explore the borough and the neighborhood libraries that serve each community. Throughout the day, stop in at select neighborhood libraries to recharge and enjoy entertainment and fun activities

The best part about Bike the Branches is that it’s not a race, it’s a ride created by you , so you can ride as an individual, with a group of friends, or with your school group — and you can bike at your own pace – walking, skateboarding and scooting welcome. Please visit our website at http://www.bklynpubliclibrary.org/bikethebranches to learn more and register.

Bike the Branches is a part of our annual Support the Branches spring campaign (formerly known as Support our Shelves). All proceeds from Support the Branches and Bike the Branches help Brooklyn Public Library bring vital services, resources and programs to every neighborhood in Brooklyn.

How nice that the Brooklyn Public Library is embracing the growing number of families who get around by bicycle!

As the world moves into a bike-friendly future, NBBL still has an active lawsuit against this.

I’ve been saying for a long time that the most comforting fact of the now-dwindling bikelash is that its most fervent agents have so far been unable to come up with any new ideas.  So it’s always comforting when someone far smarter than I agrees.  Writing in the Guardian, Oliver Burkeman declares that “All the major cycling-related arguments have been won.”

“…bike lanes are popular; they don’t hurt local businesses; more biking doesn’t lead to more accidents; bike lanes make pedestrians safer and don’t impede the flow of car traffic.”

This is bad news for tabloid writers, editors measuring page views, and notorious bike lane opponents such as Iris Weinshall, Norman Steisel, and Louise Hainline, but good news for everyone else.

Burkeman writes that “the anti-bike lobby urgently needs some new arguments,” and provides a few suggestions.

In some contexts, bikes are much more dangerous than cars. Consider a heavy bike, dropped from a height of 20ft onto a playground where numerous small children are playing, innocently unaware of the tragedy about to befall them. Now compare this to a car parked on a quiet street. Only the most biased, Brooklyn-dwelling NPR listener could deny the obvious: the bike, in this example, is much, much more dangerous.

It’s ridiculous, of course, but in a way it makes more sense than the bike lane that is unnecessary because no one uses it but dangerous to cross because of the many cyclists using it.

There will be bumps along the bike lane to a people-first future, and there’s still a lot of work to be done, but whatever opposition exists from here on out is just noise.  “The great bike war is over,” Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said recently.  “And the opponents lost.”

On Saturday Brooklyn Skillshare, along with some veteran Transportation Alternatives volunteers and advocates, is hosting an event that should be great for anyone thinking about biking for transportation.

Brooklyn Skillshare & Friends would like to help build your riding confidence in an urban setting!

In anticipation of NYC’s first-ever bike share program as well as yet another round of increased subway fare, there’s never been a better time to brush up on your commuter skills and get on a bike! Also come and learn about various biking groups and advocacies (like Recycle-A-Bicycle, Transportration Alternatives, and WE Bike) in the city and how you can get involved.

Class topics will include:

• Seasoned cyclists tell why they ride and their own personal ethos/etiquette
• Overview of “Biking Laws/Unwritten Rules/Etiquette”
• Flat Fix 101
• Best way to/not to lock a bike
• Tips & Tricks
• Plotting a route

Class will end with an (optional) hour-long group ride up the Kent Avenue Greenway and back ending at Red Lantern Bicycles for celebratory libations! This event is open to new and seasoned cyclists alike—bring your friends!

This free class will be held at the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s BLDG 92 on Saturday, April 13th from 2 PM to 4 PM.  There’s plenty of bike parking available.

I’ll be there with some advice and tips.  I hope to see you on Saturday!

On Saturday, Transportation Alternative’s Paul Steely White nearly broke the Internet when he posted the first picture of a Citi Bike station on a New York City street. Before this weekend the only other sightings were confined to the Brooklyn Navy Yard where a small test program was being conducted, and many people, myself included, were more than relieved to see Paul’s picture of a station on Monroe Street and Classon Ave in Bed-Stuy. Citi Bike is finally on its way.

I headed over to Bed-Stuy on Sunday to get a few more pictures and swung by another station at Fulton Street and Grand Ave in Clinton Hill. First, Monroe and Classon. (Click on any picture for a full-sized version.)

As you can see, there’s a very prominent sign on the docking station’s kiosk displaying the station’s street and neighborhood location, printed in a font that should be familiar to any regular mass transit user. Functioning largely as a wayfinding map, this side of the kiosk has a small CitiBank logo, and the impression I got when I rode up on the station was that it fit into the overall feel of a typical New York City street environment, even a residential one.

This is the station’s solar pole, allowing the docking station to exist off-the-grid.

Above, a close-up view of the wayfinding map. One nice thing about these is that the maps are oriented in the direction one faces while reading it, rather than in a typical fashion with north at the top. You can more or less crane your head around the station and see Franklin Ave at the end of the block or turn around and see Classon Ave directly behind you, just as it is on the map. Think of a tourist who has to read a map upside down as he’s walking south in Manhattan and you’ll know how helpful this kind of layout can be for the geographically challenged.

This particular station has 19 docks and is located in the parking lane of the street. (The bikes are coming soon, presumably after a much larger number of stations are in place closer to the launch date in May.) For now, traffic barrels and yellow tape block off the area around the station to discourage motorists from parking next to the empty docks.

Back to the kiosk again. Here’s the most important part for anyone looking to purchase a 24-hour or 7-day pass. (Annual members won’t interact with this part of the station very much and will instead simply insert their key fob directly into a dock to unlock or return a bike.)

The prices and fees are no surprise, but seeing them listed on the street really reinforces the idea that Citi Bike won’t compete with longer tourist rentals; a ride of just over one hour would cost $22.95  $26.95. All the other policies are clearly laid out, and while I’m sure we’ll read a few stories in the Post — or Gothamist! — about some poor sap who mistakenly took out a Citi Bike out for a five-hour leisure ride from the Battery to the Little Red Lighthouse with a picnic in between, that rider won’t be able to say he wasn’t warned. And don’t leave the bike leaning against a street sign while you run in to a bodega to grab a bottle of water. While theft hasn’t been an issue with other bicycle sharing systems, you’ll be out “up to $1000 plus administrative fees” if the bike is stolen.

The rules of the road are spelled out very clearly on the kiosk. If you think about it, this will arguably be the best and most direct communication about street etiquette to people on bikes in years. I’m of the opinion that courtesy to others trumps fidelity to the law, so it’s especially nice to see that “Yield to pedestrians” is the first idea on the list. The last one, “Ride with traffic,” strikes me as leaving a bit to be desired, since it could be interpreted by some to mean, “Don’t ride on the sidewalk or on pedestrian pathways, ride where all the cars are instead.” Perhaps “Ride in the same direction of traffic” was too cumbersome, but don’t expect this last rule to stop salmon any time soon.

Users are told that “Helmets are encouraged,” and instructed to visit nearby bike shops. Considering how industrious New Yorkers can be, however, I’m guessing it won’t be long before the same guys who pop up with umbrellas every time there’s the threat of rain set up helmet concessions near Citi Bike stations in popular tourist areas as well.

MasterCard is the “Preferred Payment Sponsor” of CitiBike, so there’s PayPass branding under the keypad.

The bright blue ad on the inner side of the kiosk stands in contrast to the muted tones on the other side, but we’ll see how these change once the system goes live. The tagline under the Citi Bike name — “The bikes are coming very soon. Seriously.” — seems like a nice nod to those who are aware of the system’s many delays, at least for the inside baseball types. And for those with no clue about software troubles or Sandy flooding, it probably just seems like a very New York answer to the very New York question, “What’s going on here?”

The station attracted a fair amount of curiosity while I was there on Sunday and I wasn’t the only one out snapping pictures. The young girl above was having a great time using the docks as a curbside playground. Isn’t it amazing how a bike share station can make people engage with the street in a different way than a parked car?

More curious inspection, above.

A close-up of a dock. Bikes have a triangular locking mechanism on the front which fits into the dock.

Here’s a view of the station on the curbside. The gap between the station and the curb might be problematic as it could collect trash. I know Capital Bike Share and Hubway are meticulous when it comes to upkeep, but expect Citi Bike crews to be busy depending on how and where stations are placed.

I happened upon another station at Fulton Street and Grand Avenue. This one is located on the sidewalk and has 31 docks. It’s also perfectly placed right next to a bus stop. Hop off of a bus, grab a bike, go home. Or drop off a bike, get on a bus, and go to work. Either way, it’s a perfect illustration of how bike share complements an existing transit system.

“Soon a lot more people will have a key to the city,” written against the silhouette of a bicycle wheel, seems like an acknowledgment to something regular users of bicycles already know. It’s also a sign that Citi Bike’s marketing will tend toward the positive, which is always a good idea.

Just like at Classon and Monroe, curious passers-by take in the new street furniture.

More and more stations will be added as we near Citi Bike’s May launch and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out when the switch if flipped on the whole system, especially when stations are placed in more prominent or iconic New York locations. For now we’ll just have to revel in the excitement that has already greeted these first stations’ appearance in Brooklyn.

What are you doing Monday night?  Coming out to learn more about the Riders Alliance, that’s what. Via Eric McClure of Park Slope Neighbors:

Please join Park Slope Neighbors at a

Happy Hour for Better Transit

Find out more about the Riders Alliance and how you can get involved in the fight for better bus and subway service!

Monday, April 8th
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Sheep Station: 149 4th Avenue (corner of Douglass)
RSVP below

Featuring complimentary hors d’ouevres and happy hour specials on drinks.

No charge to attend.  Eat, drink and find out more about winning better transit in New York!

It should be a great night. Please RSVP here.

More bike parking may be coming to Brooklyn. Via the Brooklyn Spectator:

Finding a parking spot may be a competitive sport in Brooklyn, but six spots stand a good chance of being sacrificed to make room for 45 bike parking slots, as laid out in a Department of Transportation (DOT) plan covering several North Brooklyn streets.

The bicycle corrals are slated for a stretch of Grand Street near Driggs Avenue (outside Williamsburg Cinemas), Broadway near Berry Avenue (near Marlow and Sons), and Frost Street at Meeker Avenue.

Brooklyn Community Board 1′s transportation committee approved the plan at their March meeting, agreeing with the DOT that the parking spot trade-off provides more benefits than downsides. The plan still faces a board vote at the April 9 meeting.

Of course, the spots aren’t being “sacrificed” at all since they will remain parking spots.  It’s just that more vehicles will fit in them now. Perhaps “repurposed” is a better word.

If you can attend the April 9th CB1 public hearing and board meeting  please do.  It’s at 6:30 PM at the Swinging 60’s Senior Center, 211 Ainslie Street, at the corner of Manhattan Avenue.

We’re mere weeks away from the debut of Citi Bike — I hope! — and the New York Post is ON IT with a piece which turns the fears and concerns of a small handful of anti-bicycle New Yorkers into a city-wide problem.  The headline “New Yorkers trying to prevent bike-share racks from going on their block” should actually be preceded by the phrase, “Small number of…”

Here’s the supposed problem some SoHo residents have with a bike share station that was already moved once to accommodate their concerns:

Now they’re fighting the rack’s new spot in a no-parking area of the street on Cleveland Place near Kenmare Street, saying the busy intersection is too dangerous for a rental kiosk.

Georgette Fleischer, the founder of Friends of Petrosino Square, had this to say about DOT.

“The very agency you’d think would be most concerned about public safety on our streets seems to be absolutely unmoved,” she added.

And here’s what one Tribeca resident and community decision-maker had to say about a proposed bike share station at Duane and Greenwich:

“This area has a lot of congestion,” said Adam Malitz, a community-board member and plaza resident. “It’s not a good corner to put a lot of bikes.

“But [the city] has made all the decisions at this point and is saying, ‘We’ll look at it in the future if there are problems.’ I just hope someone doesn’t get hit by a car.”

Emphasis mine.  Fleischer and Malitz demonstrate the perfect NIMBY tactic: set up an impossible standard but couch it in a simple and reasonable concern for the safety of cyclists.  Because we’re all concerned about safety, right?

Then there’s the other impossible standard, that of DOT engagement with the community and the idea that the DOT remains “unmoved” by the concerns of longtime residents.  Except for the fact that the Post story cites four examples of locations the DOT reconsidered after community pushback, including one each in SoHo and Tribeca, it’s totally true!

Here’s the video that appeared at Sony Stores, including the one one Madison Avenue.  Many thanks to Sony for including me in the project and for showing some great New York City biking action on the big screen.