DOT announces plan for 50 Citi Bike stations to come to Bay Ridge by end of year

BAY RIDGE — Representatives from the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that 50 Citi Bike stations are expected to be added to Bay Ridge this fall during Community Board 10’s monthly meeting by the Traffic and Transportation Committee on Thursday, May 15.

“We are currently in the plan creation space stage,” said Samuel Hope, planner at Bike Share and Shared Mobility Unit for DOT. “This is where we identify locations for Citi Bike stations. We do this by combining feedback we gathered throughout the outreach process with network considerations and on the ground conditions, and Lyft operational requirements to select our proposed sites.”

Citi Bike is the largest and most highly used bike share system in the country. It’s a private public partnership between the city of New York and Lyft. DOT is responsible for system planning and outreach while Lyft is responsible for the day-to-day operations and equipment.

No city funds are used to run the system. It is funded by sponsors and memberships.

During the presentation, the DOT identified 49 of the planned stations with the final one to be determined once MTA construction wraps up at Fourth Avenue and 95th Street.

Concerns were raised about the number of stations that are planned throughout Bay Ridge, including by President of Merchants of Third Avenue James Vavas.

“It just seems like we’re losing close to 100 parking spots throughout the community,” Vavas said during the meeting. “I can tell you that along Third Avenue and the corridor we represent, it’s roughly 15 parking spots in one of the most difficult areas to park in New York City, creating a significant concern for our merchants. People aren’t able to come to the street to the avenue and park and visit our operations and stores to shop and dine locally.”

An exact number of parking spaces that would be taken up by the stations was not provided by DOT.

The Merchants of Third Avenue is a civic organization focused on stabilizing the community and donating to and supporting other local community groups. It spans from along Third Avenue from 68th Street to Marine Avenue.

“I will tell you that the overall consensus of the Merchants of Third Avenue is that while we’re supportive of alternative modes of transportation, we have significant concerns with respect to the amount of docking stations along Third Avenue specifically but in the greater community,” Vavas said.

Board member Chris Cesarani also discussed his disapproval of the plan.

“What’s happening is you’re giving Lyft all these public parking spaces to create their success rather than in taking that investment or policy or encouragement to ride your car less and get on a bike in alternative ways,” Cesarani said. 

Lisa Morasco, a senior planner for Bike Share at DOT explained why the plan includes 50 bike stations, with many of them close to each other.

“As one of the other board members mentioned, he came to a dock that was completely full, but there’s another one block one block or two away,” Morasco explained. “That sort of redundancy allows reliability for the system and riders and users.”

She pushed back on Cesarani saying that he didn’t want DOT working for Lyft.

“We certainly don’t work for Lyft in this capacity,” Morasco said. “Lyft certainly is putting these stations on the ground at our discretion, so Lyft doesn’t really have a say other than in technically viable opportunities.”

Morasco also responded to a question if Lyft would turn a profit in the area.

“I’ll be honest, they won’t turn a profit in this neighborhood,” she said. “They’ll only turn a profit in high demand, high density areas so this likely will be a loss for them and DOT is pushing to make sure that this system is more accessible to all community members.”

The DOT stated they will now take feedback on the proposed locations and make adjustments to the plan where they can. 

“We will then conduct any further coordination needed and do additional technical screenings at the sites and follow up if we make any updates to the plan,” Hope said. “Then with some help from Lyft, we will conduct outreach to buildings and businesses adjacent to the stations prior to installation and then we will begin to install the stations this fall and will continue to do outreach, monitor the stations and if any operational concerns arise, we can coordinate any follow up actions.”

To see the different locations, visit nycdotbikeshare.info.