Happy Bike to Work Day! Did you do it? I tried, but the vehicle traffic between my bed and the desk in my bedroom was a bit more intense than usual today. Did you encounter the existential woe of working in a part of the city where there’s just no where to park your damn bike, like Conal did? The oppositie seems to be the case here in Brooklyn, where new on-street bike parking racks have been popping up in different neighborhoods. We spotted one in Fort Greene on Wednesday; yesterday the DOT installed a set in front of Gorilla Coffee on Fifth Avenue. Where once there was a vehicle parking space, you can now eight or more bikes.
But as Transportation Nation reports, this doesn’t actually eliminate a parking space: it’l be replaced with a new parking space across the street in a current no-standing zone. Gorilla requested the racks: the idea behind these is to free up bike clutter ont he sidewalk, tied to fences, trees, etc; leaving more room for pedestrians and triple-wide chrone-rimmed double-decker strollers.
Not everyone is happy with these: You’ll have the obvious car-owners apoplectic that they can’t pull their SUVs right up to the door and leave their engines running while they run in and grab a coffee; and other ninnies who complain about the Beijing-ification (a real thing we’ve seen people bitch about) of New York City. And then there’s this commenter at Transportation Nation: “As an avid cyclist, i’d hate for my bike to be the victim of a late night careless driver who’s new to the idea of bikes parked in front of the curb.”
So like or spike?
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In the hoodeth
it be all goodeth
In celebration, I’m double-parking my bike in front of the bike rack (or, I would if I actually went to gorilla coffee)
Wait until people see the new citibike parking stations.
But if they remove the no-standing zone, where will I be able to illegally stand? This is an affront to drivers everywhere!
don’t quote me on this, but that standing zone may be in front of a church. The bike war on religion continues!
Like it. There are still a bazillion spots up and down 5th, including one right next to this, so drivers can still pull up and run in for coffee.
Or they can pull into the hydrant space on the corner or block the crosswalk or double park like they do anyway, with or without bike parking. Besides, if someone was parking one car there, the spot would be blocked for other people anyway.
The good news for drivers is that there’s a new parking spot just across the street. This is one bikes v. cars battle where everyone wins, most of all the business owners on 5th who now have parking for 7 more customers than they had before.