A bike share program is coming to NYC in the summer of 2012, and the Department of Transportation is asking for suggestions on where to put the bike stations.
The city expects to put 600 rental stations and 10,000 bicycles from Alta Bicycle Share in convenient places around Manhattan and select areas in Brooklyn. Purchase of an inexpensive annual membership, or a more casual membership, lets you borrow a bike for about 45 minutes--they feel people will use the bikes for short trips only. However, according to the DOT's website, putting them in Windsor Terrace isn't a top priority:
Bike share will be established initially in the neighborhoods where travel demand for trips shorter than three miles is the highest: Central Business District and nearby residential areas, including Brooklyn neighborhoods of DUMBO, Downtown, Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Park Slope.
They note the stations would ideally be located every three blocks(!), so demand would really have to be high in the neighborhoods they select. Still, they have a map set up where anyone can suggest a bike share location, or vote on one that someone's already suggested.
So far, there are quite a few requests for ones around the subway stops at 15th St/Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Parkway, but also a few at key spots along Prospect Park (Vanderbilt Playground, for instance), a spot at Bishop Ford, and at spots in between subway stations in South Slope. So go forth and vote away, and maybe we'll get some bike stations in the future!
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