Correcting Thursday’s MTA Bike Seizure Correction

Quick, easy, inexpensive on-street bike parking in Montreal. Why not Williamsburg, Brooklyn?

On Wednesday we posted Aaron Curran’s video of MTA workers seizing bicycles parked against the Bedford Avenue subway station stair railing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

On Thursday we posted a clarification noting that the subway station stair railing at Bedford Ave. and N.7th St. has a clearly marked sign stating, “Any property attached to these railings will be removed.”

Aaron Curran, however, tells me that the MTA workers were not clipping bikes from the N.7th Street subway entrance. His video was, in fact, shot at the Driggs Avenue entrance. Curran says that there is no warning sign on that particular subway stairwell.

Conclusions:

1. It’s obnoxious to lock your bike to subway stair railings. You clog the sidewalk, often at its narrowest spot, and your handlebars can poke through the stair railings and hit people on the head as the walk up and down the stairs.
2. DOT: Come on, people! What is taking so long with installing on-street bike parking in Williamsburg? While we’re waiting for new sidewalk extensions to be designed, funded and built, why not just bolt some bike racks into the asphalt, stripe a box around it and see how that works? We might just find that the installation of on-street bike parking doesn’t have to be a years-long, construction project.
3. If the MTA or any other government agency is going to be seizing commuters’ bike, they need to do a better job of posting rules, giving people fair warning and letting them know where their property has been taken.
4. Streetsblog reporters need to get off their tushes and do their own original reporting to avoid confusion as per above.

OK, I think everyone has now been properly chastised. Back to work.