As we know, Citi Bike will be expanding its blue bike service around north Brooklyn this year, with 53 more stations coming to Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Definitely useful for future L train apocalypses, so much appreciated. What about all points south though? Don’t worry, you can put your shaking fists down if they were up, because DNA Info is reporting that Citi Bike is planning a big expansion southward into Park Slope, Red Hook and other nearby neighborhoods.
According to DNA Info, Community Board 6, which covers Park Slope, Red Hook, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and the Columbia Street District, is going to included in Citi Bike’s ominous-sounding but actually quite nice Phase II. Of course, before the stations are placed, Citi Bike and CB6 will have to figure out where they want the stations placed, which even in the face of demand for Citi Bike can lead to some contentiousness.
Community board officials and Citi Bike already seem to have a couple of potential spots though, with the first stations being slated for Gowanus and Red Hook, west of 4th Avenue. There’ll also be public meetings to help determine where the rest of the sites go, so keep an eye out for those announcements so your favorite patch of sidewalk isn’t overrun by a docking station. Of course, the expansion will have to wait until Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Long Island City get their bikes too, so the odds are that Red Hook doesn’t get bikes until 2016. Even so, you’re going to have one less excuse to visit your friends in Red Hook soon. Not that you shouldn’t be trying to get down there anyway, it’s great.