Williamsburg Bike Parking Woes

A Streetsblog tipster writes in with a nice slice-of-life dispatch:

I was on North 7th street in Williamsburg this morning and I passed a young woman locking up her bike in front of a residential building. There were a handful of old-timers in front of their building complaining about the bikes — "pretty soon there’ll be no sidewalk left" etc. It struck me because it was about two blocks from the much-publicized NYPD bike-lock-cutting & impounding that happened outside of the Bedford Ave subway this past year. It’s clear that there are not enough bike racks in this area. It creates a hassle for cyclists and annoys longtime neighborhood residents. Again, the cyclists are viewed as the problem.

If only there were some place they could put those bike racks. Wait a minute–

montreal_709618.jpg200px_Bentham.jpg

Above is a picture that Aaron Naparstek took in Montreal, showing some two dozen parked bikes, most of them occupying street space that might otherwise have been land-guzzled by just two automobiles. To recap, that’s 24 bikes or 2 cars. Let’s put that to the test: Which parking space allotment would 19th-century British utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham say tended to promote the greatest good for the greatest number?

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An NYC First: On-Street Parking Spaces Replaced by Bike Racks

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The new bike racks have been installed at the Bedford Avenue L subway station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As the Dept. of Transportation announces in today’s press release, "The facility marks the first time car parking spaces have been removed to accommodate bicycle parking in New York City." DOT extended a 76-foot section of the sidewalk […]