Prepping for July Bike-Share Launch, DOT Shows Prelim Station Sites to CB 3

After several months of public meetings and online feedback on bike-share station siting, NYC DOT is beginning to tour community boards with preliminary station maps in preparation for launching North America’s most expansive bike-share system this July.

Yesterday evening, NYC DOT Policy Director Jon Orcutt walked the transportation and public safety committee of Manhattan Community Board 3 through the current station siting plan for the district, showing roughly a dozen map segments with a handful of stations pinpointed on each. The agency will be making adjustments to the station plan based on feedback from community board members. A preliminary station map of the whole service area will be available online in the next few weeks, Orcutt said, and the system is on track to launch sometime in July.

In the CB 3 district, which encompasses Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and the East Village, DOT aimed to put most stations on the street in response to the board’s request to avoid taking up sidewalk space. The committee was pleased with the site selection, with District Manager Susan Stetzer saying the agency did “a good job” of locating stations. Community board members suggested a few places to add stations and one or two sites they’d like to see shifted elsewhere. Overall they seemed pretty jazzed about getting bike-share up and running.

DOT is waiting until they’ve completed the entire system map before posting station locations online, so I don’t have a map to share, but here are a few takeaways from last night’s presentation.

• Some of the largest bike-share stations will go near the district’s subway stations, including a 55-dock station next to the uptown 6 train entrance at Astor Place.
• Several stations on the east side of the district, which is home to lots of public housing, will be sited in the park areas of NYCHA properties.
• DOT avoided siting stations on some arterial streets, including Delancey and 14th. Instead the agency will put stations on lower-traffic streets nearby.
• Some stations in the street will be bookended by concrete stops, like you see at bike corrals, adding a bit of protection from motorists.
• There will be wayfinding maps for pedestrians and cyclists at each bike-share kiosk.
• DOT is working with contractors Alta Bikeshare and the Public Bicycle System Company to give the NYC kiosks a sleek look to match other street furniture like bus stops.