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City abandons plan to for dockless bike share program in Coney Island
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
They’re dock-less!
The city has offi cially
abandoned its plan to bring
200 dockless bikes to Coney
Island, according to a spokeswoman
for the Department of
Transportation.
Agency honchos are instead
channeling all of their
energy into increasing the
number of untethered twowheelers
in the distant land
of Staten Island, according to
spokeswoman Alana Morales,
who added that offi cials plan
to keep Coney Islanders in the
loop as they continue on their
quest to make the Big Apple a
more bike-fi lled city.
“DOT is currently focused
on our request for expressions
of interest and plans
for a larger dockless bike
share pilot on Staten Island,
and have no immediate plans
for additional pilots at this
time,” Morales said. “We look
forward to continuing our
conversations with the Coney
Island community as we
explore ways to expand bike
share options throughout the
city in the future.”
Transportation agency offi
cials fi rst announced the
pilot program in the People’s
Playground last May, but
then delayed the roll out until
the end of last year, after
locals charged that the plan
would bring chaos to Coney
by allowing riders to drop the
bikes wherever they wanted
and exacerbate the problem
of allegedly reckless cyclists
careening down the crowded
Riegelmann Boardwalk.
Offi cials never brought
the bikes to Sodom by the Sea
NO GO: City offi cials have given up on a plan to bring 200 dockless bikes to the People’s Playground. File photo by Steve Solomonson
— which does not have any
other bike share services —
but they did roll out pilot programs
in the distant boroughs
of Staten Island, Queens, and
the Bronx. And the transportation
agency announced
this month that honchos are
seeking proposals to institute
an expanded, borough-wide
dockless bike share program
to likely launch this summer
in Staten Island following last
year’s trial.
Coney Island offi cials —
who last year sent a letter to
both the transportation commissioner
and the mayor outlining
their strong opposition
to the plan — rejoiced at the
news of the reversal.
The district manager of
the local Community Board
13 — whose members passed
a motion last summer rejecting
the plan — cheered city
offi cials for listening to the
concerns of his fellow board
members who raised their
voices in opposition to the
proposal.
“We told them no, so they
heard us loud and clear,” said
Eddie Mark.
The board’s chair was similarly
jubilant, and claimed
that the plan was illogical
from the start.
“Thank God,” said Joann
Weiss. “Canceling it out is the
right thing to do for the welfare
of the community, because
it would have only been
a hindrance and not a help.
Having these bikes and being
able to drop them wherever
you choose was just a ridiculous
situation.”
Reps from the transportation
agency never answered
this paper’s repeated inquiries
last year about where the
bikes would initially be distributed,
who would be liable
for injuries to riders, and how
the system would limit riders
bringing the bikes on the
Boardwalk, taking them out
of the neighborhood’s boundaries,
and abandoning them
in the middle of the street.
Statistics show that having
more bikes in an area
leads to safer overall conditions
for cyclists, transportation
agency reps told this
newspaper last summer, citing
a 17 percent decrease in
cyclists killed or severely
injured in bike-rental zones
citywide after CitiBike
launched in 2013.
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