Passive-Aggressive Parallel Parking at CitiBike Station

According to DOT, it’s actually less than 1% — only 0.5%. And I wouldn’t refer to it as “lost to Bike Share” but as “converted to Bike Share” or even better… “upgraded to Bike Share!” ;-)

Bob, I think it’s a shame that other posters have attacked you but it’s hard to take your point of view seriously when you rise to the bait and not only attack them right back but raise the bar by using profanity.

I look forward to your response to my comment to you above asking what you think of converting more parking spaces to metered parking.

I find it interesting how you don’t answer any of the straight forward, non attacking questions, you have been asked… Is it that you simply do not have any cogent answers?

I love the idea of Citibike but I’m so so worried about people getting hurt. Stay safe my friends.

This is an interesting topic – not sure it necessarily increases sales as it depends on what customers arrive by car and who uses the bikes, i.e. a customer vs a tourist who may not be interested in your business.

But, it does increase mobility – which gives people access to more choices… so, now I can stop going to nearby businesses that are mediocre and go to the really good place in Carroll Gardens (for example) that was just too far by foot / train

Ultimately, it brings more options to people – more choices are accessible, so good businesses will do better and worse businesses will suffer

I believe the net affect is increased ‘liquidity’ in the form of access to more of the best

Not to mention that it discourages cars, which we don’t need more of – another bonus

And, glad that none of the doomsday fears have been realized – the sky is still intact j

No bike here!

Like every other picture I see, and the stations I have passed by, nearly every single bike is there. If this city is going to justify this ridiculous use of space and the gross inconvenience that this program causes to the majority of 8.3 million residents and millions who commute into NYC and visit it each day, usage is going to have to be WAY up on these bikes, like 90% the majority of the time. Otherwise, how the hell is this a justification of another means of public transport. Compare the numbers on subways, busses and cab use vs destroying quality of life with these bike stations. I highly doubt this is an effective Idea for this city.

How exactly? Because the 8.3 million residents and tens of millions of commuters and visitors had no way to get anywhere before. They just magically arrive in the city and then sit down on the sidewalk all confused about how to move? That’s why everyone comes here, because there is so much to see, but then no one can see anything because they never had Citi Bikes and had no way to get around.

Because people are either local and walk there or if I live on the upper east side and am meeting a friend in Chelsea at a restaurant, I take the friggin subway. Nearly no one in their right mind is going to use these bikes to really get around. Population 8.3 million, commuter population increases to 20 million, I don’t know estimates on visitors/tourists. 6,000 bikes amidst these numbers is just plain stupid. The amount of space these bike stations take up is utterly insane in a city that is bursting at the seams already. Not enough bang for the buck so to speak.

And all the bikes gone on a day when it rained. And in the first week of the program.

A raging failure.. clearly!

Laurie, you say: “In fact the bike program in this city will replace almost NO regular vehicular traffic.”

This is simply false. People have already used the bikes countless times in place of taxi rides or riding an MTA bus. Every single time they’ve done that they’ve replaced “regular vehicular traffic”. Just one example is this tweet:

https://twitter.com/grossdm/status/339865477402750976

…which reads: “Two rides on citibike share today saved me taxi fares worth one-third of annual membership fee”

Laurie, if you took the time to read one of my comments below you’d know that on the day this photo was taken the rack started completely full but by late morning only had *2* bikes in it.

The rack is full when this photo was taken in mid- afternoon because the Citibike program had a truck come by and restock the rack with bikes.

(Note that in the future the manual distribution of bikes will still be required, but less so. It will take some time for the system to “balance” itself like the living organisim that it is.)

More important than debating the status of this particular bike rack, can you explain how these bikes are “destroying” your quality of life? Do they honk loudly outside your window the way a cab does? Do they idle and fill your lungs with diesel fumes the way an MTA bus does? Do they make your bedroom shake and vibrate every 7 minutes the way the subway does to my bedroom? Do they do all 3 on a daily basis the way the cars on the BQE do?

Please, do explain how these bike racks “destroy” your quality of life. I’m genuinely curious.

Hogwash.

Silly nonsense from a hysterical naysayer. Did you even do a modicum of research before flapping your lips? How did the car park there if the bike rack is always nearly full Einstein? Do you understand that the City would know exactly how many bikes are at each station and periodically re-stocks the racks that are empty as happened n this case? Are you aware that city after city is providing a bike share program and they are enormously successful. Are you aware that NYC has already surpassed use age to the second largest bike share program in Washington DC?

No, I didn’t think so.

Almost no spaces were at metered spots – and those that were, the vendor has to compensate the city.