Add Citibikes to Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil & Kingsbridge

Add Citibikes to Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil & Kingsbridge

Started
July 28, 2022
Petition to
Citibike Citibike and 6 others
Signatures: 291Next Goal: 500
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Why this petition matters

Started by Mark Wishnia

New York City's Citibike bikeshare program continues to expand and gain popularity throughout all five boroughs. Biking is a great way for people to stay in shape, a quick and efficient way to travel, and is much better for the environment than even public transportation or personal cars. 

Citibike is expanding more in outerboroughs including the Bronx but Spuyten Duyvil, Riverdale, and Kingsbridge are being largely ignored by this expansion. 

As a result, people who want to travel within the Spuyten Duyvil, Riverdale, Kingsbridge area either need to drive their personal cars which increases traffic and pollution, or they need to take a bus which could take an extremely long time in this very car-centric community, and on nights & weekends, it's almost not even worth waiting for the bus given how infrequently they run. 

This is actually HURTING businesses without people realizing. People don't want to have to bother trying to find parking with their cars (and losing the spot they were already in), they don't want to wait for the bus to get to a business, and as a result, people aren't visiting places that they otherwise would if they could quickly grab a citibike, and take it to their destination (where ideally another Citibike dock would be nearby).

In addition, most residents of Manhattan don't have cars, but many of them like riding their Citibikes. But guess what? None of those residents can ride their Citibikes past Inwood because there's no place to dock in Riverdale. Imagine if there was though! Some of our favorite restaurants and businesses in Riverdale could be patronized by people in Manhattan (or Brooklyn or Queens) who would otherwise have no idea that it even exists! Manhattanites often will ride Citibikes to Brooklyn or Queens to go to some popular spots in those boroughs. And they'll even go to the Southern part of the Bronx. But they can't come to Riverdale because there's no place to dock the bikes! Citibikes can attract a significantly broader clientele for our businesses here in Riverdale.

Some people will claim they don't WANT the Manhattanites up here and that's why they moved to Riverdale in the first place. But you can't say you want to help businesses in Riverdale while simultaneously saying you don't want to give them an opportunity to reach a much broader audience. (And let's not forget that more people biking up to Riverdale gives more exposure to the neighborhood overall. Not just the great businesses but the great parks, the greenery etc. It could make more people consider MOVING to Riverdale in the future. For people who OWN their homes/apartments in Riverdale, that means a major increase in your property value!) 

The same applies to traveling to other boroughs especially Manhattan. Right now, people either need to drive to Manhattan, which again can be a miserable experience given the traffic + finding parking or they need to take a bus to get to the subway which again depending on the day and time could take forever. Rather than people quickly being able to grab a citibike, ride to the train, and dock again, they have to wait for who knows how long for a bus which is just a complete time suck. 

Of course those who are able, may even have interest in biking to Manhattan directly which currently is not an option at all unless people have their own bike. Especially with plans for congestion pricing where tolls could cost up to $23 to drive to Manhattan (source: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/congestion-pricing-in-nyc-mta-sees-tolls-up-to-23-to-drive-parts-of-manhattan/3818137/) Citibike is a fantastic alternative to that!

The only argument against Citibikes is that it takes up parking spaces or sidewalk space. But there's no reason to prioritize single person vehicles to a bikeshare program which will benefit significantly more people. Often times, 10 cars parked on the street are used by just 10 people. Think about how silly that is. The length of a car is about 15 feet. That means 150 feet of space, being used by 10 cars, is serving literally 10 people. If we want to assume each car is supporting a family of 4, that's just 40 people. And those 10 cars may be literally sitting there having moved nowhere for an entire week or more. It's a complete waste of space.

Meanwhile, a 150 foot Citibike dock holds 59 bikes. Those 59 bikes can be used by multiple people 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Think how many more people a 150 foot Citibike dock serves compared to 150 feet of cars. (source: https://www.nycstreetdesign.info/furniture/bike-share-station)

And if put on the sidewalks, I'm sure people will learn to navigate around the Citibike docks just like people do everywhere else where there's Citibike docks on the sidewalk in NYC. This of course would also leave the so-called "precious parking spaces" available. 

Citibikes in Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil and Kingsbridge, will lessen traffic, lessen pollution, INCREASE patronage to businesses and public transportation and will no doubt be a net positive for the area. 

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Signatures: 291Next Goal: 500
Support now
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Decision Makers

  • Citibike Citibike
  • Vanessa GibsonBronx Borough President
  • Keith KalbInterim Bronx Borough Commissioner
  • Eric DinowitzDistrict 11 Council Member
  • Daniel PadernachtBronx Community Board 8 Chairperson