Citi Bike station at Jackson Avenue and 46th Road in Long Island City (Queens Post)
Jan. 15, 2021 By Allie Griffin
More than 50 new Citi Bike docking stations will be installed in Astoria in coming weeks as the bike-share company expands its network deeper into Queens.
The expansion will extend Citi Bike’s service area north of Ditmars Boulevard and east of Steinway Street. There will be 52 docking stations in the new coverage area that will cover 2.11 square miles.
Citi Bike first came to Astoria in 2017, after getting a foothold in the borough when it installed stations in Long Island City in 2015. The bike share company also has plans to install stations in Sunnyside and Woodside this spring.
The 52 new Astoria locations were chosen based on public input collected by the Department of Transportation (DOT) through virtual town halls, its online portal and community board meetings.
Four of the 52 Citi Bike stations are already in place. They are located at 38th Street & Northern Boulevard; 42nd Place & Northern Boulevard; 43rd Street & 35th Avenue and 30th Avenue & 41st Street.
More stations will come online throughout the remainder of January and into February.
“With more and more New Yorkers choosing cycling as a sustainable and healthy form of transportation during the COVID-19 crisis, we are thrilled to ring in 2021 with this expansion of Citi Bike in Astoria and Steinway,” said NYC DOT Queens Borough Commissioner Nicole Garcia.
Several of the new docking stations will be in areas of Astoria that are far from public transportation options.
“Many of these new stations are in parts of the neighborhood further away from the subway, and our bikes combined with upcoming in-app transit information will make it even easier for riders to get to the N, W, R and M trains,” said Laura Fox, General Manager for Citi Bike.
The Astoria expansion 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.
The DOT is currently in the midst of Phase 3 of the Citi Bike expansion that involves doubling the service area across the city to 70 square miles and tripling the number of bikes to 40,000.
The 52 new docking stations in Astoria are part of this phase.
The DOT is also planning to install Citi Bike stations in Sunnyside and Woodside this spring under Phase 3. The number of docking stations has yet to be determined.
A map of the incoming Citi Bike stations in Astoria is below.
Citi Bike expansion in Astoria (Lyft)
