Open Thread Wednesday 8/7/13

By on August 7, 2013 12:39 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • mucow

    Yeah, they’re tanks! To keep this on topic, I think we both can agree that if ridership levels dropped to 40% of current levels for a month or two, the system would by no means be sitting idle, correct?

    So I take it we can move past the concern that the docks will become trash-strewn, idle eyesores during the height of the winter, then?

  • MonroeOrange

    it has always been a problem…the intersection on atlantic and hicks is particularly dangerous, as cars making the left don’t always look for pedestrians…it is also dangerous at orange as well…cars pick up alot of speed there. Henry street too can be dangerous as well, closer to atlantic…

  • MonroeOrange

    Well Drew..if you want to mock a serious issue that’s fine…but more to the point, there should be more enforcement of speeding down hicks street in the future. you can go 100mph without fear of ever getting a ticket…and hicks street serves as a alternate route for cab drivers and other cars that get off the highway and head to the brooklyn bridge.

  • MonroeOrange

    my prediction isn’t ridership dropping to 40% for just two months, my prediction is ridership will drop for at least 5 months Nov – March…and maybe even in Oct if we get a particularly cold fall…i think we will see trash strewn idle eyesores for many months, which i for one am against…

  • Joe A

    I didn’t threaten to throw garbage at people. I threatened to remove garbage placed on the bicycles I am paying for and returning the garbage to their rightful owners by flinging it into their lobby. I make no apologies for advising that building’s management of my intentions and would happily do it again, but guess what? They don’t place their garbage on the bikes anymore. Mission Accomplished

  • Joe A

    Was it you that did this MO?

  • Joe A

    MonroeOrange riding his/her bicycle through Brooklyn Heights.

  • MonroeOrange

    I would expect nothing less from you Mr. Crusty…

    so to keep track..you threaten your neighbors with throwing garbage on them and you post a picture of a man in a bikini to mock people who live alternative lifestyles?….we are so lucky to share a neighborhood with you.

    everyone on this blog should be outraged at his post…(the person in the picture may be wearing that not as a joke but as a lifestyle choice)…shame on you Crusty…im not surprised though.

  • MonroeOrange

    so the rightful owners live in the lobby? keep on digging that whole Crusty..keep on digging

  • Joe A

    The building’s management intentionally decided to place their garbage on property that I, and other annual members, pay for and thereby making it impossible for me to use. You support that? You have a problem if someone removed their garbage from other’s private property and returned it to them? Really? You are defending their obnoxious behavior? Really? Really?

    Ok.

  • Joe A

    Lol. Don’t be ashamed of wearing a bikini MO, you look quite fetching in your own way.

  • Joe A

    Birds becoming a problem in BBP. I was sh’t on by one the other day.

  • MonroeOrange

    well not even the birds like you!

  • mucow

    I think we all know you’re against :)

    Fortunately, this is something that’s easily quantified.

    Citywide, the aggregate stats for “winter” cycling traffic (Dec – Feb) were about 58% of the “in season” traffic levels (Apr – Oct) [1]. Right now there are about 37,000 Citibike trips per day [2]. If the Citibike ridership drop is commensurate with the overall citywide drop, then we’d expect a daily winter ridership around 22000 rides per day, which works out to roughly 70 rides per station or 5 rides per bike (assuming 330 stations, ~ 4200 bikes), which we both can agree isn’t “idle”.

    Citibike keeps good stats of the how the system is being used (see [2]), so come March, we can quantify the difference between the winter and the summer and see how correct you are [3].

    As for the trash, that’s handled by a private company. Unless Citibikers have been taking it upon themselves to keep things extra clean, I don’t see why it being cold outside would change the general level of cleanliness in any significant way.

    Wouldn’t it be something if your gloomy predictions didn’t come to pass, though? If it turned out this was actually working as an addition to the city’s transportation network, and helping relieve congestion on the subways, enhancing mobility in neighborhoods with poor transit access, and freeing up more cabs for longer journeys? I sincerely hope that you hope you’re wrong!

    [1] Same source as above. Note that that 40% figure I mentioned earlier was comparing the most trafficked
    month to the least — the spike during the summer is pretty big, though,
    so on average the drop isn’t as severe.
    [2] http://citibikenyc.com/system-data
    [3] Of course, the system is still growing, so we should try to normalize
    the numbers based on the number of users at each point, so the winter
    numbers aren’t bigger due to additional members, and the summer numbers aren’t smaller due to fewer members.

  • mucow

    I’m just waiting until the winter, when all the birds go south (or as some call it, “idle”) and leave behind trash-strewn nests as eyesores, which I for one am AGAINST.

  • mucow

    Statistics aside, I don’t think you’ve given a reason why Citibike ridership would drop more in the winter compared to overall cycling traffic citywide, and for a longer period.

    I guess the simplest argument is that tourists would be unlikely to want to ride in the cold, but Citibike’s system stats show that the number of daily and weekly users is small compared to the yearly users — a drop-off in ridership there doesn’t seem like it would impact the overall numbers that significantly.

    Economically, yearly users have an incentive to ride during the winter, since it makes the purchase a better value. I could also see people who own their own bike being *more* inclined to use a Citibike in the winter, to reduce wear-and-tear on their personal bike. (This definitely holds true now, when it’s drizzly out — the proportion of Citibikes to private bikes goes up a lot)

  • MonroeOrange

    no im not defending their behavior, but bc there behavior was wrong, doesn’t mean your behavior is justified…ever hear the expressions two wrongs don’t make a right?!

  • Joe A

    What behavior? I just assisted building management with their cost/benefit analysis of placing garbage on other people’s property.

  • Greg

    The bike racks are *increasing* parking, not reducing it.

    Given how heavily used the system is, this is clearly a far better use of street space serving more people than the equivalent auto parking space would be.

    The average bike station serves 100+ trips per day. That’s a far more effective use of parking space than that serving ~10 cars per day? (3 spaces with 3 turnovers over the day).

    One could argue this disproportionately benefits tourists over residents, but this is provably not the case. You observe anecdotally by watching how many people withdrawing bikes use key fobs (and are thus annual members). More thoroughly, you can examine the official numbers and easily show that < 7% of a day's trips come from non-annual members.

    All that said, this ideally shouldn't be a zero-sum game. I strongly support your proposal to site more bike stations on accommodating sidewalks (but not in parks, which are too far away to suit commuter needs). It's clear that the current supply of stations is woefully inadequate and needs major expansion. While it's obviously unfair / inefficient to dedicate all our street space to automobile needs (as we've historically done), a reasonable balance is ultimately best for everyone.

  • Greg

    I want to make clear, MonroeOrange, I respect your opinions and consider them carefully, even if I disagree with some of your conclusions.

    This is a nuanced issue with all sorts of consequences to the different users of our city space. There are certainly grey areas and risks going forward.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    MO You are a bald faced liar. I remember your post a couple of months ago when you claimed to have tried a Citi Bike. It was during the first week of the program, which you didn’t know at the time was only available to annual members. We all know you didn’t pay $100 for an annual membership. When I called you out on the carpet, you claimed the pass belonged to a friend However, in a previous post you claimed “every one you knew was totally against the CB program”. Again I called you on that and you said, “your friend hated the CB system but bought a pass just to try it out”. Really, someone you know, paid $100 to try something they didn’t believe in, a week early? Total BS.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    I ride year round. True I’ll not ride when it is extremely cold (below 20), raining (except summer) or snowing. but it’s no biggie riding in the winter, you just have to dress properly for the occasion. I see plenty of others riding year round as well.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    Cross at the Green not in between.

  • David on Middagh

    There has to be a Disqus comment setting that limits a person to three responses per thread or something.

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Just to change my subject — here’s a video from my cousin Lia and her group, Broken Darling ..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRZcB_PUVdc

  • slyvester

    Put some Citi bikes across the road, and let the car speeders run over them. Citi bikes are cheaper than speed bumps. And they will slow traffic down.

  • Heightsman

    In front of my house….

  • Peter Pan

    LICH on Hicks and Pacific Streets. Still open.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    Oh. My. God. I love that song. I’m going to re-post it on my blog soon. This is a very talented group, and Lia is a darling indeed. It also helps that I’m a train buff.

    Watching the video, one thinks “Appalachia,” which it really is, but Wikipedia points out that Hunterdon County is considered part of the New York metropolitan region.

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Claude, thank you so much for your enthusiastic review! I will pass your comments over to Lia.

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