Bicycle Parking

Starting June 27, 570 bus stops across New York City could disappear. Unless Congress delivers an 11th hour reprieve -- still a distinct possibility -- service cuts will axe or reroute dozens of bus lines, raising the question of what to do with all the curbside real estate at these potentially defunct stops.

On the eve of Bike to Work Day, the New York City Council released new stats today measuring the impact of the Bicycle Access to Buildings Law. Five months after taking effect, the law has made it easier for well over a thousand New Yorkers to bike to work. An estimated 1,764 bike commuters now have somewhere to store their bike safely at work, thanks to the implementation of 176 "bicycle access plans." 

Long Beach, Los Angeles’s neighbor to the south, has started to put some serious effort into making cycling an attractive and safe mode of transportation, and it’s already paying dividends. Bicycling Magazine’s 2010 rankings for bike-friendly cities ranked Long Beach a respectable 23rd. But the city has more ambitious goals, aiming to ultimately become the … Continued

Washington, D.C.'s Bikestation is one of the sleeker and more fully-featured bike parking facilities that Streetfilms has ever seen. Located at Union Station, the Bikestation provides secure parking for more than a hundred bicycles, offers repair, rentals, lockers, and a changing room. Members get 24/7 access.

The bicycle parking laws passed in New York City last year were important steps in taking the worry out of bike commuting. But many New Yorkers are still far from guaranteed a secure place to park their bike when they get to work. So this is welcome news: The 34th Street Partnership is looking to help cyclists who commute to Midtown by converting an empty lot on 33rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues into what they hope will be a state-of-the-art bike parking facility. 

You've gotta hand it to the Yankees. When they decide to do something, they don't go halfway.

Since the Bikes in Buildings Law went into effect last month, landlords and building managers have gone about complying (or not) in different ways. Some, like real estate mogul Larry Silverstein, are embracing bikes in the workplace. Others are dragging their feet and putting up obstacles for bike commuters who want to bring their rides inside. This story, courtesy of local blog Prolly is not Probably, falls decidedly in the latter category.

It's been about two months since the Bicycle Access to Garages Law took effect, requiring parking facilities with more than 100 car parking spots to provide bike parking too. So far, it appears, a lot of those garages are violating the law and turning away potential customers who want to park their bikes. How easily can they get away with it? As this video from reader BicyclesOnly shows (warning: turn down the volume until you see people in the frame), refusing to comply with the law is a piece of cake, because the Department of Consumer Affairs hasn't enforced the rules with any conviction.

Manhattan Community Board 7 voted last night in favor of converting 240 parking meters to bike racks on 40 blocks of the Upper West Side. The 23-12 vote (with one abstention) was the CB's closest of the evening, but the outcome was never really in doubt. Debate focused on board control over the placement of individual racks more than the broader merits of bike racks. Thanks in part to the strong support of the Columbus Avenue BID, momentum for bicycle infrastructure continues to grow on the Upper West Side.