Locals voice concerns about high number of Citi Bike stations coming to Bay Ridge

Many attendees feel that 50 docking stations are too many for the neighborhood 

A lengthy, and sometimes heated, Community Board 10 (CB 10) meeting was held June 10 on the plan by the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) to put 50 Citi Bike docking stations in Bay Ridge by the fall.

Board and community members showed up in person and via Zoom with their feedback.

CB 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann said over the last month, the board has received 30 phone calls and emails along with petitions from older adults which had 1,000 signatures and change.org, which had 862.

She said many of the messages stated the number of additional new stations is excessive and not necessary given the demographics of the neighborhood.

“A number of suggestions were received to reduce the number of bikes per station,” she said. 

Concerns were also raised about removing parking spots.

Citi Bike is 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.

Many community members were surprised when representatives from the DOT announced the high number of stations during last month’s Traffic and Transportation meeting.

“It’s really crowded along Third Avenue with all of our restaurants and businesses,” said 

CB 10 Chairperson Jaynemarie Capetanakis. “It’s not that we are against having Citi Bikes coming into the neighborhood, but we wanted to really make sure that it was placed in a way that really served the people of our community and not be an overload to our community.”

Some speakers from the meeting voiced their opposition to the plan.

“50 is insane,” said one attendee. “Start with five, and if it takes off, do 10 or 20. Go crazy if it is successful. Also, put them by the ferries, put them by the train stations, put them by libraries and buses. It just makes sense.”

“I mostly get around by foot or by subway, but I am very much against putting Citi Bikes in these stations and residential areas, specifically because we have a higher elderly population than any other neighborhood in Brooklyn, and people rely on things like Access-A-Ride,” said another Bay Ridge resident. “They rely on their families to drive them around, so if the stations are right in front of their house and their doorway is right there, they’re going to have to navigate around the Citi Bikes to get out, and that is not fair.”

However, the plan did receive some positive reactions.

“This will be an important step in connecting us to the rest of the neighborhood,” said CB 10 member Daniel Loud. “It will give people working in Brooklyn with families living in other parts of Brooklyn more options to get around besides just the subway or driving. It’ll improve access to the ferry, which is very difficult for people to get to, and it’ll improve access to the subway.”

Councilmember Justin Brannan wrote a letter responding to the Change.org petition.

“As it stands, about 20 of the 50 proposed Citi bike locations would actually take away any parking (most are on wide sidewalks and street areas that are already no parking),” he wrote. “Our office is working on getting that 20 down to zero, and we feel that we already have alternative locations for the proposed spots that would take away parking. I will add that any Citi bike docks, even ones on wide sidewalks, that are not used will be on our list to have removed.”

Towards the end of the meeting, Chairperson of Traffic and Transportation for CB 10 Jack Zhang proposed a motion, which passed, to write a letter to DOT and elected officials with points to consider.

One includes, “DOT assessing and addressing the specific station feedback as provided by the community and as gathered by CD 10 within this meeting as well as off-line to ensure that locations that are duplicative are consolidated per location.”

The second is that they keep pedestrian safety in strong consideration when strategically placing station locations. The third point is to encourage additional infrastructure to support the potential of bike ridership, such as on Fourth Avenue, protected bike lanes, stop and yield signs.

He added to minimize parking spot locations and consider using eight docks instead of 16 and to consider appropriate compensation of homeowners and business owners where there are Citi Bikes on adjacent property.