Citi Bike’s expansion surprises, Angers some

Several new Citi Bike stations have appeared on the Upper West Side above 86th Street in recent weeks, sometimes seemingly overnight. Some residents were surprised to see the stations installed, saying they had not been properly apprised, but officials with both Community Board 7 and the Department of Transportation insist that expanding further north has been in the works since the program’s start and that they have made considerable efforts to reach out to the community.

Andrew Albert, co-chairman of the board’s transportation committee, said the Citi Bike expansion north of 86th Street has been planned since the program was first announced.

“We knew about the ones that were going to be in the northern part of the district almost two years ago when we had [a] big workshop,” he said. “We knew that the ones above 86th Street were coming later in 2016.”

Jennifer Sta. Ines, a DOT representative, attended a July 12 meeting of the transportation committee to discuss so-called “infill” stations, where bikes from larger stations are relocated in order to make the other station smaller.

An excerpt from meeting minutes is particularly representative of the apparent disconnect between residents and the DOT, however.

“Many residents of West 87th Street between West End and Riverside Drive objected to the proposed Citi Bike station on their block. They said they weren’t notified, and were just finding out about it. John Frost, Director of DOT’s Citi Bike program, said they put flyers in each building, but most residents said they have never seen one,” the minutes note.

The wording — “Citi Bike expansion continues north of 86th Street” — indicates that the recently added stations have long been anticipated.

But Albert acknowledged that for those who haven’t been following the developments, including public discussions about Citi Bike, it could seem like the stations popped up without notice.

“If you didn’t follow anything and all of a sudden you saw them then you would think ‘wow, where did this come from?’”

Still, he said DOT officials have been “pretty collaborative” in response to concerns about the stations and their placements. He suggested that residents who are apprehensive or even critical of a certain Citi Bike station should bring it up at a community board meeting.

Gloria Baker, who has lived on the Upper West Side for 30 years, woke up one morning and found a Citi Bike station across the street from her building on Central Park West between West 101st and 102nd Streets. “We’re questioning two things,” she said. “Number one, why are there 50 bikes here, which makes it unusually large as opposed to locations further south. And second of all ... why aren’t [they] putting this huge station south of 100th Street so that when somebody wants to go into [Central Park] from the bike station they’re going to be riding in the right direction?”

Residents of her building were unpleasantly surprised to find Citi Bikes had moved into their front yard, she said.

“Unless you’re somebody who happens to have the time to monitor Community Board 7 you don’t know these things,” she said. Though she has reached out to CB 7 and the DOT, she said she hasn’t received a satisfactory answer as to why that location was chosen.

“I can’t fault them on their decision making until I know why they made the decision they did,” Baker said. But she said she thinks the decision to put a Citi Bike station near her was made in error.

On the Upper East Side, too, some residents are also upset about a new station with 39 bikes at East 91 Street between Second and Third Avenues. Councilman Ben Kallos has requested — though not for the first time — that the DOT move the station, which is located on a play street that has been closed to vehicle traffic for many years.

A DOT spokesperson said in a statement that the organization has a “rigorous set of technical siting guidelines that define what spaces could be appropriate for bike share stations” that takes into account such factors as “existing travel patterns, utilities, and building and subway entrances.”

At least one of the stations, on the west side of Central Park West between 99th and 100th Streets, is located on the sidewalk rather than in the street. According to Albert, this was done in order to preserve street parking, and was strategically placed by the DOT on a large sidewalk with little enough foot traffic to handle it.

For residents opposed to Citi Bike, the fight is far from over. A DOT spokesperson said that by 2017 the program will have doubled in size, to 12,000 bikes from its initial 6,000.

Madeleine Thompson: newsreporter@strausnews.com