DOT Confirms At Least 10 New Citi Bike Docks Are Coming To Bushwick

Ever since Governor Andrew Cuomo descended into the depths of the L train tunnel and returned with an entirely new shutdown proposal, New Yorkers have been left to guess which, if any, of the sweeping mitigation measures would survive the last-minute intervention. Already, the MTA has discarded the 14th Street busway, the HOV lanes on the Williamsburg Bridge, and much of the plan for increased subway service — against the advice of transit advocates and their own internal recommendations. Plans for increased ferry service have also been scrapped, while the fate of the protected bike lane and other traffic-calming measures on Grand Street remains unclear.

But what about that promised Citi Bike expansion, which was intended to bring a pedal-powered "bike shuttle" to the Williamsburg Bridge, while pushing the eastern boundary of the service into parts of Bushwick that are currently without any bike-share at all? With less than a month to go until the start of the partial nights-and-weekends shutdown, details are still hazy.

At the very least, however, we now know that Citi Bike will soon be expanding to Bushwick in earnest. Though the exact locations remain under wraps, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation told Gothamist that the agency will add 19 new stations along the L train corridor by April 27th, with the majority of those docks coming to Bushwick. And that's on top of the handful of already announced valet and temporary stations that are expected to be installed in the western half of the neighborhood in the coming months.

City Councilmember Rafael Espinal, a Bushwick rep who's long called for Citi Bike to expand into the neighborhood, told Gothamist he was "very excited" by the news. But he also noted the frustration around the delay, and the ongoing lack of communication about the rollout.

"We're welcoming the news, of course, but we want to know when and where these bikes are going to be located," he told Gothamist. "There are many Bushwick residents who have been eagerly waiting...there's been an air of frustration for a while now."

Espinal also called on the DOT to commit to bringing pedal-assist models to the neighborhood, which he said would further incentivize residents to commute by bike into Manhattan. While a spokesperson for Lyft, which recently bought Citi Bike, initially said that the "vast majority" of their expanded fleet would be pedal-assist, they've since walked that back, estimating that about 4,000 of the 13,000 bikes will soon be pedal-assist. Beginning on April 27th, those e-bikes will cost an extra $2 per ride for members.

Representatives from the DOT and Lyft would not say how many of the new bikes would be pedal assist, or what will happen to the promised e-bike shuttle over the Williamsburg Bridge. Additional questions about where the stations will be located, how many docking points will be available, and when exactly they will arrive were also not returned.

Over the next five years, Citi Bike will double their service area and more than triple the size of their fleet, thanks to a $100 million investment from Lyft.

Beyond the 19 new L train-corridor docks, the DOT hopes to install additional stations in L-train affected areas as soon as this summer, according to the agency's spokesperson.