But progress progresses, so you all bicycle shelter enthusiasts should think about dealing with the situations that will arise when you get what you want.

Also, since it's clearly labeled "bicycle parking," I presume that you could get a sympathetic TEA to write tickets to motorcycles parked there.

look at the 3rd picture in the series. behind the bike shelter, look at the bikes askew in old school bike parking. notice the bike on the left, with rear tire missing. part of the reason why our bikes are cannibalized by theives/saboteurs is because, no-one notices them doing it. with the new shelters, there is enough light to illuminate our bikes and potentially keep these turds at bay.

not the greatest solution, but something. and certainly better than what we have now.

thank you new york.

Seriously unbelievable. Some of these comments are so miserable and self-defeating that they make me remember one of the reasons why I got out of bike advocacy as a profession.

As someone who has used the Vernon Jackson subway stop for bike-park + ride every day for the past 8 years, this is a huge improvement. 3-4 years ago there were NO racks of any kind at this station. It took months of requests to get a single rack. Now there's covered bike parking that's straight out of Berlin that went up in a week, and the first thing you do is complain?

Obviously, NYC still has a long way to go, but it's obvious that this new DOT is trying, and to me, the change of pace is staggering. This DOT has done in six months more than the previous DOTs did in 10 years. Give them a chance. NYC is not going to turn into Copenhagen overnight, no matter how much you scream at your computer screen.

Rather than lobbing marginal criticisms and ranting to the choir on a blog, why don't you go do something constructive and civic-minded...say join your local community board so these improvements can get through faster - and with your input? Because it's easier and more smugly satisfying for you to sit back and complain retroactively on the internet. I know. Good luck with that.

also, cemusa would probably throw one of these shelters over every parking meter if they could (wouldn't want to get wet while feeding the meter, right?).

The question is when is enough enough, and where do we want to invite it into our environment? How much advertising do we want to drape our buildings, bridges, subway entrances, scaffolding, sidewalks? Do we want commercial elements in all neighborhoods, or should there be some respite from them, say in our residential enclaves, grand streets, parks? I wonder how the businesses whose storefronts are obscured by the advertising are affected.

And yes Josh... I like the look of the Cemusa stuff too.

How good is it to see, in nice, large signage, the words "bicycle parking" on a solid streetspace fixture?

I agree that the open "bus shelter" design won't stop the weather, but the alternative is to enclose it on three sides, then just guess what would start to accumulate in the back corners!

One easy improvement would be to move it out into a parking spot, so it doesn't take up pedestrian space.

Thanx DOT, and Happy New Year!

(Yes, I do recognize that they're not going to do a lot against driving rain, I'm just referring to aesthetics.)

Maybe you don't like the whole Cemusa advertising thing, but please realize that they are guaranteeing properly maintained bike racks for 20 years... don't think the good old DOT would every make that promise.

Oh and when can we all get together and decide on the most aesthetically pleasing street furniture? I would love to be at that historic occassion when 8 million people agree on something.