Which City Council Member Will Call for Bike-Share Expansion Next?
Council members whose constituents live beyond the reach of bike-share’s first 330 stations are already clamoring for the system to expand. Capital New York’s Dana Rubinstein spoke with Steve Levin about expanding the system in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Melissa Mark-Viverito about stations in East Harlem and the Bronx, and Jimmy Van Bramer, who wants the program in western Queens.
Levin, who joined Citi Bike before it launched, sees the potential for using bike-share to connect with other transit services:
“There are certainly cyclists in the Northside and Greenpoint that are jealous… As a Greenpoint resident, I am jealous. It would be great to have those right next to McGolrick Park so I could get over to the Nassau G stop.”
Mark-Viverito also wants it in her district:
“Given how El Barrio/East Harlem has embraced protected bike lanes on First and Second Avenues, I of course would welcome seeing the bike share program extend to my district… I would hope as the program grows, that we can see consideration for communities above 96th Street and in the South Bronx.”
And Van Bramer, who like Levin is a bike-share member, also wants the program expanded:
“I think that not having western Queens be a part of this at the beginning is definitely a loss for the program… I definitely think there are some people who feel left out.”
The council members join Ydanis Rodriguez, who also wants bike-share expanded to his Upper Manhattan district.
DOT has said it’s aiming to roll-out bike-share to Long Island City, Greenpoint, and the rest of Williamsburg and Bedford Stuyvesant by the end of the year. Future expansions to bring the system to 10,000 bikes and beyond will require additional funding. Although the Bloomberg administration has committed to running bike-share without taxpayer dollars, council members working with future administrations might not face the same restrictions.