NYC bike rack (DOT via Flickr)
Feb. 3, 2021 By Allie Griffin
The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) has pledged to install 10,000 bike parking racks throughout the city by the end of 2022.
The promise was made today by new DOT Commissioner Henry ‘Hank’ Gutman — whose appointment was also announced today by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Gutman said the bike racks will be added throughout the five boroughs in an effort to make the city more bike-friendly. There are currently more than 28,000 bike racks across the city and each rack can hold two bikes.
The new 10,000 bike parking racks will be installed over this year and next.
“At two bikes per rack — if you do the math — that’s 20,000 spaces for bicycles,” Gutman, a retired partner of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP, said.
The DOT wants New Yorkers to weigh in on where the new bike racks should be placed, Gutman said.
“We want you to tell us where they should be, so please go to nyc.gov/cityracks and give us your opinion,” he said. “We do want your input.”
Residents can suggest locations for the racks on the DOT website.
Along with public suggestions, the DOT will prioritize locations along bike lanes; sidewalks near subway stations and other transit hubs; commercial zones and shopping districts; and areas near municipal facilities like libraries, schools and hospitals for bike racks.
The bike rack expansion builds upon policies de Blasio announced last week in his “State of the City” address to improve bike and pedestrian infrastructure in the city.
The mayor promised to make Open Streets permanent, increase public space in neighborhoods hit hardest by COVID-19, expand the city’s protected bike lanes with “Bike Boulevards” in every borough and create additional pedestrian/bike lanes on the Queensboro and Brooklyn Bridges.
Gutman said the bike parking expansion will help New Yorkers to be greener.
- “The mayor and I believe if you give people more and better alternatives to car culture, they’ll us them,” he said. “Safe and equitable bike parking is a major part of that equation and this announcement today and what we’re doing in the next two years will help transform biking in our city.”
Gutman will head the DOT after former Commissioner Polly Trottenberg resigned to take a position within President Joe Biden’s administration.
Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris congratulated Gutman on his appointment and applauded the DOT’s promise to add more bike racks.
“Today’s announcement to build 10,000 new bike racks, on the heels of our report detailing the lack of bike parking across the five boroughs, is also a strong policy push by Commissioner Gutman, and a great indication of his priorities,” Harris said.
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Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new NYC DOT Commissioner, Brooklyn Navy Yard Chairman Hank Gutman has less than ten months to complete some unfinished work left behind by former NYC Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.
Under her watch, Trottenberg failed to secure approved grants for the following four old Federal Transit Administration discretionary funded project allocations that are worth a total of $29,483,183 dollars. They include: (Source – January 19, 2021, the Federal Transit Administration published Federal Notice of Available Funding for Federal Fiscal Year 2021). (1) FY 2018 — Table 14 Prior Year Unobligated Section 5307 Passenger Ferry Grant ProgramNYD2018-PFGP-012- NYCDOT ferry/vessel gangways replacement/upgrade ferry boat/environmental compliance upgrade – $6,302,200 (2) FY 2020NYD2020-PFGP-011 NYCDOT Staten Island Ferry St. George Terminal Roof Replacement – $4,180,982; Table 15 Prior Year Unobligated 5739(b) Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Allocations; (3) 2019 — NYD2019-BUS C-065 NYCDOT Safe Routes to Transit project to make infrastructure, pedestrian safety and accessibility improvements for transit riders along 86th Street in Brooklyn – $9,000,000 and (4) FY 2020 — NY2020-Bus C-163 NYCDOT South Bronx BZ 6 Select Bus Service – $10,000,000.
As each year goes by, the project costs tend to increase. The dollar value of the earmark does not. In the end, taxpayers, commuters, NYC Transit and Staten Island Ferry employees are the losers. With a multi billion dollar shortfall in the NYC municipal budget, every dollar counts. Will NYCDOT Commissioner Hank Gutman make this a priority and secure these four FTA earmarks?(
(Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight between 1984 – 2014 for over $1 billion in grants to NYC DOT. Most of these funds paid for capital and operating assistance to the seven franchised private bus operators along with the Staten Island Ferry including the purchase of several previous replacement boats).