Thanks for some insight on Velib. Granted a lot of tourists would be more likely to use bikeshare across the Brooklyn Bridge which which connects two major transit cachements making it more suitable to the bridge and tunnel crowd. Also, traveling from Penn Station to Grand Central Station would probably make high use of the bikeshare program.

Advanced systems which increase the level of ease-of-use, speed, and range would be more suitable for the bridge and tunnel crowd.

Just check the New York Post. Do a search for “times square” or “broadway” on their web site, or review the archives of “Today’s Headlines” on Streetsblog. You’ll find lots of angry ranting about these closures. I think one headline described them as “Stupidest Idea Ever”.

Cheers,

–Ian

The MTA has a huge amount of street furniture in subway entrances, elevated lines, and bus shelters and it would be simply a question of making them dual-use to accommodate bikes.

Similarly underground, members of the Transit Workers Union (TWU) may find additional employment as bicycle attendants and other related services for subterranean bike parking. More advanced systems would allow workers do their jobs above ground with automated storage below.

It is likely that the showers issue is somewhat overblown. Probably something white collar workers who work in offices tend to feel is a big issue even though subway stations can be as much as 110 degrees and extremely uncomfortable and cyclists have a certain amount of natural airconditioning similar to having a fan blowing on them with winds often 10 miles per hour and more; and even then, this is largely only a summer issue.

Also, it is not really necessary to race to work and cycling at 3 to 4 times the rate one would normally walk would probably not cause people to build up much of a sweat unless they normally race walk.

Some of them might even install showers for a reasonable membership fee.

The new Street Redesign Manual makes this so! Crossings for pedestrians must be narrowed in the specs, with sidewalk extensions being the norm. My impression is that when any street needs repair, or is dug up, it will need to be replaced with these new standards. In our part of Brooklyn, it is happening everywhere, although I have a feeling that is part of the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming plan.

And because I’m the education geek I should say that there are actually about 1200 public schools in total – which makes it all the more important that traffic be slowed at as many of these schools as possible – it would have a large impact on city speeds in general.

Remove the barricades
Make sidewalk extensions standard
Summer Streets across the Manhattan Bridge
Widen Penn Station sidewalks
Loading zones on every block

I hope that the Manhattan Bridge is one of the “additional areas.”