Eyes on the Street: First Citi Bike Stations Hit the Pavement

On Saturday, a Citi Bike station was installed at Monroe Street and Classon Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant. Photo: ##http://paulsteelywhite.tumblr.com/image/47309019012##Paul Steely White##

Well this is an encouraging sign. Over the weekend, we received the first reports of Citi Bike station installations on NYC streets.

On Saturday, Streetsblog reader Ben Kintisch sent in photos of a 19-dock bike-share station at Monroe Street and Classon Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant. Workers said that eight stations were being installed that day. Other stations now on the ground in that area include ones at Lexington and Classon Avenues, Lafayette and Classon Avenues, and Fulton Street and Grand Avenue.

Further east on Monroe Street, at the intersection with Bedford Avenue in front of the YMCA, Kintisch says “no parking” signs have been posted in anticipation of a 23-dock station installation today. At the rate of eight station installations a day, it would take a little more than five weeks to put in the 293 stations that will form the first phase of the bike-share network.

Also over the weekend, Citi Bike relaunched its website. Membership sign-up isn’t available yet, but Citi Bike demonstrations will start up again shortly. The first is scheduled for Sunday, April 21 — Earth Day — at Union Square.

Crews install the pole-shaped solar array that powers Citi Bike stations. Photo: Ben Kintisch

For a closer look at the bike-share station at Fulton and Grand, head over to Brooklyn Spoke. If you come across any newly-installed bike-share stations in the weeks ahead, send us a note at tips@streetsblog.org.

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