A Citi Bike docking station was installed Wednesday at the intersection of Van Dam Street and Review Avenue at Veterans Memorial (Photo courtesy of Thomas J Mituzas)
June 23, 2022 By Christian Murray
Citi Bike has finally come to Sunnyside and Woodside.
Several of the 70-plus docking stations planned for the area have been installed and the remainder are expected to be up by the end of the month. Stations went up Wednesday in the southwest portion of the district in the vicinity of Greenpoint Avenue and Van Dam Street.
The DOT released its latest map showing the 70 locations planned for Sunnyside and Woodside last week. The agency says that it is able to install the docking stations quickly since they aren’t hardwired into the ground.
Each station will have approximately 20 bike docks, although the stations near transit locations are likely to be bigger. The DOT has not disclosed how many parking spaces will be lost as a result of the stations.
A Citi Bike station has been installed at Bradley Avenue and Greenpoint Avenue by Bantry Bay, the popular bar/restaurant (Photo courtesy of Thomas J Mituzas)
Lisa Morasco, a senior planner with the DOT, presented the plan at Community Board 2’s Transportation Committee in February.
She said at the time that the Sunnyside and Woodside locations were selected based on outreach conducted by DOT’s ambassador team as well as responses the agency had received from an interactive portal it had on its website.
The plan has been refined since following its February unveiling.
The DOT’s role with Citi Bike is to select sites and conduct outreach, with Lyft being in charge of the day-to-day maintenance of the service.
The DOT, Morasco said, aims to have a station every few blocks within a coverage district. The idea, she said, is to have a station within a 3-to-5-minute walk from one another.
A dock has been installed at Borden and Review Avenue (Photo courtesy of Thomas J Mituzas)
The expansion into Sunnyside and Woodside is part of the DOT’s plan to build out the bike-sharing network across New York City that began in 2013 with Phase 1 of its installation process.
Citi Bike first came to Queens in 2015 under Phase 2 with docking stations in Long Island City. The network was then extended into Astoria and the far reaches of Long Island City in 2017. It was extended once again into northwest Astoria and East Elmhurst at the beginning for 2021.
The Sunnyside/Woodside stations are part of Phase 3 that is extending into Maspeth, Middle Village, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Corona– as well as deeper into the other boroughs.
The DOT released a draft plan for the Maspeth/Middle Village area earlier this year and anticipates installing bikes in that area later this summer.
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Nobody used bikes so now the city will force you to use them. Get lost!