Tribeca Citizen | Broadway bike lanes going green as promised

The bike lanes deliberate just a few months again for Broadway are being formalized this month by town. (Because of Charlie Komanoff who received the portray in motion final week.) And simply in time: bike ridership is up throughout town by 55 p.c since 2012, rising to 49,000 commuters, with Citi Bike reporting greater than a 50 percent increase in rides in comparison with final yr presently.

The Downtown Alliance launched a report final week about ridership right here, and famous that greater than 20 p.c of Decrease Manhattan’s workforce already both walks or bikes to work. And 30 p.c of the residential inhabitants bikes or walks to work. (It additionally notes that 58 p.c of employees downtown are youthful than 40.) (And icymi, The Times has a narrative about different metropolis crises the place New Yorkers have taken to 2 wheels.)

The alliance additionally crunched some Citi Bike information from final yr to see who’s coming to downtown by bike — since one out of each 5 commuting journeys ended south of Chambers. Of us principally got here from the Decrease East Aspect. Seven out of the highest 10 most frequented origin stations have been from the LES.

The alliance additionally made some proposals to encourage biking downtown. Their plan:
• Develop capability at present Citi Bike stations and add further stations close to transit stops
• Add bike racks to publicly-owned non-public area (POPS)
• Make the most of vacant retail storefronts for protected bike parking
• Enhance bike infrastructure on the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges
• Encourage use of bikes for deliveries as an alternative of vans