The Power of Bicycle Parking
UPDATE: Since the release of this report, the New York City Department of Transportation has promised to increase bike rack installation over 15x, to 10,000 additional racks by the end of 2022. You may request a bike rack from DOT here. Although Transportation Alternatives is pleased by this announcement, the DOT must install these racks based on equity and need and progress on the broken promises outlined below surrounding secure bike parking.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
To encourage more people to choose bicycling, cities around the world have introduced bicycle share systems, installed networks of protected bicycle lanes, and built secure bicycle parking facilities. Like access to bicycles and safe spaces to ride them, secure bicycle parking is a critical utility that makes cycling a real transportation option for people. In New York City, access to secure bicycle parking is the number two reason determining whether someone chooses to ride a bike or not. In transit deserts and neighborhoods with overcrowded housing, bicycle parking can make biking to transit, and biking in general, a viable choice. Bicycle parking also encourages stopping and spending at local businesses, and by encouraging more people to ride, makes cycling safer.
However, while New York City has taken some of these steps — introducing a bicycle share system and building a limited number of protected bicycle lanes concentrated in its wealthier neighborhoods — there has been hardly any bicycle parking built in New York City. Even though bicycle ownership outpaces car ownership in the five boroughs, there are over 100 times as many car parking spaces as bicycle parking spaces in New York City.
New York City needs more bicycle parking. However, in just the last eight years, the City of New York has failed to deliver on 11 separate plans to improve bicycle parking, including one to add 1,500 new bicycle parking racks a year. With bicycling booming, traffic fatalities and speeding on the rise, and bicycle theft up by more than 27 percent in 2020, the time to meet these promises is now. Fixing New York City’s bicycle parking problem must complement the expansion of Citi Bike, and the construction of a connected and protected bicycle lane network. This work should be prioritized in low-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color, where streets are most dangerous due to historic and modern disinvestment, and utilities like bicycle parking, bicycle share, and bicycle lanes are largely absent.
Transportation Alternatives analyzed the current state of bicycle parking in New York City and its potential to encourage increased cycling, prevent traffic crashes, and reduce the barriers for communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color, to choose cycling. Findings include:
Bicycle owners are at a significant disadvantage to car owners in New York City. Comparing parking availability per bicycle and per registered car in New York City, there are 1.5 free on-street parking spaces for every car registered in New York City, but there is only one bicycle parking space for every 116 bicycles in New York City.
There is not enough bicycle parking in New York City. There are more than 100 free car parking spaces for every bicycle parking space. That contributes to why 95 percent of cyclists say more bicycle parking is a priority. While electric car-charging ports have been piloted and implemented, similar facilities for the newly legal and growing e-bicycle segment are missing, and should be advanced.
The lack of bicycle parking discourages New Yorkers from riding bicycles. When people choose not to bicycle, or choose to bicycle less often, lack of parking is the number two factor in their decision. Fear of bicycle theft may also deter cyclists from using a bicycle to travel to public transit or shop at local businesses.
The presence of bicycle parking encourages New Yorkers to ride bicycles. Just as Citi Bike stations act as a visual landmark inviting New Yorkers to consider biking as an alternative, bicycle parking serves as ambient marketing to encourage more cycling in the city. The DOT has advocated for more visible bike parking with the goal to encourage biking since at least 1999. Studies have shown that the presence of a guaranteed car parking spot is what turns a New Yorker into a car commuter, and bicycle racks and corrals are proven to send a signal to cyclists that a location is bicycle-friendly. Placing bicycle parking near transit, businesses, schools, and on every block will send a strong signal that biking is safe, effective, and available for all New Yorkers.
The City of New York has failed to deliver on at least 11 separate plans to build bicycle parking in just the past eight years. These include failing to meet the agency’s own goals for building bicycle parking near transit hubs, adding 1,500 bicycle parking spaces annually, piloting secure bicycle parking in shipping containers and other bicycle lockers, and creating an interactive map of bicycle parking.
Secure bicycle parking is especially critical for low-income people and people of color in New York. People of color and low-income people are significantly more likely than white people and high-income people to ride a bicycle if bicycle parking is available, and a lack of bicycle parking has a significantly greater effect on people of color and low-income New Yorkers, because these New Yorkers are more likely to rely on a bicycle for transportation over recreation, live in transit deserts where biking is more of a necessity, live in areas not serviced by Citi Bike, and live in overcrowded housing where indoor bicycle storage is not possible.
In New York City, the need for secure bicycle parking is growing more dire. One in four New York City households have had a bicycle stolen. More than 4,400 bicycles were stolen between March and mid-September, a 27 percent increase from last year.
TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES RECOMMENDS
Adding bicycle parking to New York City streets will pay dividends in the number of people who choose to ride a bicycle — and those decisions have the potential to make all cyclists safer and all transportation more efficient. “Safety in numbers” theory demonstrates that more people riding bicycles makes all cyclists safer. Because the lack of bicycle parking and the threat of bicycle theft is a major deterrent to biking, building bicycle parking will encourage more people to ride and make cycling safer. Further, building bicycle parking can also encourage people to choose cycling over driving for short trips, inspire people to shop at local businesses by bicycle, and help alleviate the burden of transit deserts by allowing multimodal commutes. To that end, Transportation Alternatives recommends that the City of New York:
Start in low-income communities and communities of color to pair the expansion of bicycle share and the installation of a protected bicycle lane network with new bicycle parking.
A bicycle share system, a network of protected bicycle lanes, and ample secure bicycle parking are utilities that work in tandem, and should be constructed as such. This is especially important in low-income communities and communities of color, where public transit can be further from peoples’ homes, streets are more dangerous after decades of disinvestment, and housing is more likely to be overcrowded. Starting in these neighborhoods, the City of New York should build an integrated network of utilities for cycling that includes bicycle parking.
Significantly increase bicycle parking by meeting past plans to build bicycle parking, expanding bicycle parking capacity to match current needs, taking road space from cars, and using bicycle parking to make intersections safer.
Deliver on Past Plans
In the past eight years, the City of New York has made, and failed to deliver on, at least 11 plans to improve bicycle parking, including plans to build 1,500 bicycle parking racks annually. Meeting the significant number of unmet plans for past bicycle parking installations should be a priority.
Expand Bicycle Parking to Match Need
Despite there being significantly more bicycle owners than car owners in New York City, there are more than 100 times as many car parking spaces as bicycle parking spaces. The City of New York should aggressively install on-street bicycle racks until this inequity is corrected. Two ways to accelerate this process would be to make bicycle parking a part of all new street furniture by attaching bicycle racks to new tree guards, street signs and lamp posts, and as more coin-metered parking is converted to digital muni-meters, restarting the parking-meters-to-bicycle-racks program. Efforts should be made to not just expand current bicycle parking, but to improve bicycle parking quality, building protected bicycle parking that is secure for long-term use.
Take Road Space from Cars
In our road network, the City of New York has the largest contiguous public space in New York City. More than three-quarters of that space is currently dedicated to the storage and movement of cars. By swapping car space into bicycle parking — not just by turning traffic lanes into bike lanes, but by also converting car parking spots into “bike corral” style on-street bike parking, ample bicycle parking can be made immediately available.
Use Bicycle Parking to Make Intersections Safe
Cyclists and pedestrians are most at risk from drivers at intersections because intersection-adjacent car parking dramatically limits visibility of crosswalks and bicycle lanes. “Daylighting,” or removing parking spaces at intersections, would allow drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists to see one another, while adding on-street multi-bicycle parking racks (known as bicycle corrals) to those spaces would maintain visibility and provide parking for ten cyclists in the space of one car. Although rare, this street safety practice is already in use in New York City.
Update New York City’s 12-year-old bicycle parking laws, which have remained unchanged through a surge in cycling including a triple-digit increase in East River bridge bicycle counts.
Track Bicycle Theft in a Uniform Manner
Despite being common and on the rise, bicycle theft in New York City is not tracked and reported publicly by the NYPD. Some precincts report bicycle theft on a voluntary basis, but even these reports are not uniform and are difficult to compare, obscuring how many bicycles are stolen and disincentivizing New Yorkers from reporting these crimes. Stolen bicycles belonging to working cyclists, many of whom are undocumented, often remain unreported to police for fear of retribution based on immigration status. The NYPD already tracks bicycle theft internally. The City of New York should require uniform reporting of bicycle thefts from all NYPD precincts as is customary for almost every other type of crime.
Pass a Law to Allow Developers to Swap Car Parking for Bicycle Parking
Current zoning requirements mandate a minimum number of car parking spots for nearly all types of residential construction and conversion in New York City, requiring developers to build car parking even when the market does not demand it. The City of New York should pass a law to allow developers flexibility to react to market demands and replace car parking with bicycle parking. This could usher in lower housing costs, reduce reliance on private vehicles, and encourage more sustainable transportation. Such a proposal was briefly considered at the City Council in 2009 and widely supported by housing advocates.
Eliminate barriers to bicycle parking and embrace the private market to build and map bicycle parking.
Remove Self-Imposed Barriers
Though it is not legally required, the City of New York opts to give veto power over bicycle parking corrals to local community boards and requires a private partner for the installation of these on-street multi-racks. While community input is critical, community board approval may not be the most effective or fair approach. The City of New York should recognize that these barriers to building bicycle parking are unnecessary and end these onerous internal processes by no longer requiring community board approval of bicycle parking installations (in keeping with the process for other small streetscape improvements like benches and tree guards) and eliminating the requirement for partnerships to build bicycle corrals.
Map Bicycle Parking
Though a wealth of digital tools and apps are available to car owners to identify and navigate parking spaces and laws, none exist for bicycle parking. To eliminate these barriers, the City of New York should make a formal request for Google Maps and Apple Maps to add bicycle parking as a layer in their mapping applications.
Embrace the Private Market
One reason that there is almost no sheltered long-term bicycle parking in New York City is that the City of New York has failed to welcome the private market for these services and allow parking providers access to city streets and sidewalks. Protected long-term parking systems like Oonee could house multiple bicycles, protected from the elements, at no cost to taxpayers or those parking a bicycle. So far, the City of New York has rejected this idea.
BICYCLE PARKING TYPOLOGIES AND LAWS
There are 30,000 bicycle parking spaces in New York City, the vast majority of which can be found at metal racks installed on sidewalks. This is what is known as class 2 bicycle parking. There are two tiers of bicycle parking: class 1 and class 2.
Class 1 Bicycle Parking is protected from the elements and secure for both overnight and long-term storage. It is typically limited to paying customers of a parking garage, residents of an apartment building, employees at an office building, or students at a school.
Class 2 Bicycle Parking is unprotected from the elements and less secure than class 1. It is typically outdoors, open to the public, and best suited for short term use by customers, messengers, and visitors.
In New York City, the vast majority of bicycle parking is built under three government initiatives, the City Rack program, the BikeCorral program, and the Bike Parking Shelter program.
City Racks are free, public class 2 bicycle racks installed on city sidewalks. These are located in commercial zones and near transit and municipal facilities. Nearly all of New York City’s 30,000 bicycle parking spaces are City Racks. The de Blasio administration had a stated plan to build 1,500 bicycle racks annually through the City Rack program, however the average number of installed bicycle racks per year has fallen short of this goal and is less than half of what the previous four year average was. Under the Bloomberg administration, bicycle rack installations increased 16-fold between his first and last year in office and averaged over 2,800 installations annually in his final term. Meanwhile, the de Blasio administration has reduced the installations to half the number installed annually by his predecessor.
BikeCorrals are free class 2 bicycle racks installed on city streets in former car parking spaces. These are located outside businesses that volunteer to maintain the BikeCorral and at locations where bicycle parking is available and demand outweighs the available sidewalk space. Even though it is not required by law, the City of New York insists on obtaining community board approval for all BikeCorral requests, and as a result, only 67 BikeCorrals have been installed since the program began in 2011, including only 24 installations in the past five years. The BikeCorrals are overwhelmingly located in North Brooklyn and in Manhattan. No BikeCorrals are located north of 65th Street in Manhattan, south or east of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, or in Staten Island. The Bronx has only two such corrals. Thirteen of the top 20 neighborhoods with the highest cycling rates in the city, such as Bushwick and Sunset Park, have no BikeCorrals.
Bike Parking Shelters are the closest that New York City comes to free public class 1 bicycle parking. These covered shelters resembling bus stops contain stainless steel bicycle racks for eight bicycles, but the sheltering is minimal, only covering the bicycles overhead and not on the sides, and the racks are no more secure than a simple Class 2 bicycle rack. The City of New York had a stated goal to install 37 Bike Parking Shelters by 2011, but only 18 were ever installed.
There are four laws that govern and regulate bicycle parking in New York City. Notably, three of these laws were passed in 2009, and only one has been updated. In the intervening years, and prior to the 2020 bicycle boom, the number of people bicycling in New York City rose 134 percent.
The Bikes in Buildings Law passed in 2009. This law provides a process for tenants of commercial office buildings with a freight elevator to request bicycle access to their workspaces. The law was amended to include residential buildings in 2016 and now allows for a process that includes office buildings with no available or accessible freight elevators.
The Bike Parking in Garages Mandate took effect in 2009. This mandate had the potential to create 20,000 bicycle parking spaces created at commercial parking facilities by requiring any parking garage with more than 50 car parking spaces to host one bicycle parking space for every ten car parking spaces, up to a threshold of 200 car spaces, and beyond that, one bicycle parking space per 100 car spaces.
The Bike Parking Zoning Law was also part of 2009’s package of bicycle parking laws and applies to new construction of residential, commercial, and industrial properties. Under this law, residential properties are required to build one bicycle parking space per two residential units and the requirements for commercial and industrial properties is tied to square footage.
The Foldable Bikes Allowed on Passenger Elevators Law, passed in 2016, requires residential and commercial buildings to permit “fully folded” folding bicycles on any passenger elevator in a residential or commercial building.
THE PROBLEM WITH BICYCLE PARKING IN NEW YORK CITY
Simply put, there is not enough bicycle parking in New York City, and this precludes more New Yorkers from riding bicycles. The lack of bicycle parking especially affects low-income New Yorkers and New Yorkers of color because these groups are especially less likely to ride when bicycle parking is unavailable, more likely to ride a bicycle for transportation as opposed to leisure, less likely to live or work in buildings that offer bicycle storage, less likely to live in an area serviced by Citi Bike, and more likely to ride the types of bicycles that are stolen the most often.
In New York City, people who own bicycles are at a significant disadvantage to people who own cars. And, New York does worse with bicycle parking than many of its peer cities. New York City has fewer bicycle corrals per 100,000 residents than San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, or Washington, D.C. (1) The absence of adequate bicycle parking and massive influx of new cyclists is a contributing factor to why 95 percent of cyclists say they want more parking.
Additionally, within New York City, bicycle owners are at a significant disadvantage to car owners. There are more than 100 free car parking spaces for every bicycle parking space on city streets. Comparing parking availability per bicycle and per registered car in New York City, there are 1.5 parking spaces for every car registered in New York City, with three million parking spaces, but only one bicycle parking space for every 116 bicycles in New York City. (2) This lack of bicycle parking precludes more New Yorkers from riding bicycles. When people choose not to bicycle, lack of parking is the number two factor in their decision. Lack of safe secure places to park a bicycle is a prime reason why current cyclists do not bicycle more and why non-cyclists do not start biking.
While New York City has attempted to address this challenge under the de Blasio administration, it has failed to deliver on its bicycle parking commitments. In the past eight years, the City of New York has failed to meet at least 11 of its own plans to build and improve bicycle parking. In 2016, the City of New York promised to build secure bicycle parking near major transit hubs and local commercial districts, starting with a pilot bicycle parking facility on the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg Bridge. None were ever built. In 2017, the City of New York promised to build three secure class 1 bicycle parking structures that could each hold 29 bicycles. None were ever built. In 2019, the City of New York promised to revamp the bicycle parking program with a community-based interactive bicycle parking suggestion portal and updated maps of existing bicycle parking; develop secure high-capacity class 1 bicycle parking structures using a shipping container design in both Brooklyn and Manhattan; install 1,500 class 2 bicycle parking racks and bicycle corrals annually, reaching 25 neighborhoods; seek private-sector bicycle parking operators to provide secure class 1 bicycle parking facilities citywide; and include high-capacity bicycle parking in major transit station projects, including the Port Authority Bus Terminal. None of these promises were kept. In one case, the City of New York actively rejected the offers of Oonee, a private-sector bicycle parking operator, to provide a secure class 1 bicycle parking system free to the city. In 2020, the City of New York announced that it had 10 applications for bicycle corrals and would be restarting the program. Zero bicycle corrals were installed in 2020.
These broken promises are not limited to the de Blasio administration. The Bloomberg administration promised to build 37 bicycle shelters by the year 2011. Only 18 bicycle shelters were ever installed. Additionally, since at least 1999, the City of New York had promised the widespread installation of “bicycle lockers” and “service stations.” Neither exist on city streets.
The inadequate amount of bicycle parking in New York City encourages pervasive bicycle theft and fear of bicycle theft. Bicycle theft is more common than car theft. Nationwide, a bicycle is stolen every 30 seconds, resulting in 1.7 million thefts a year. Cyclists are four times more likely than car owners to be victims of theft but receive significantly less attention from law enforcement. This enforcement bias leaves behind people for whom a bicycle may be the only viable transportation option.
Bicycle theft also has far-reaching consequences. Seven percent of bicycle theft victims never replace their stolen bicycles, and only two percent of stolen bicycles are ever returned. With each theft, a New Yorker who was already comfortable riding a bicycle may be lost to cycling forever. Each time a cyclist has their bicycle stolen, they are increasingly less likely to replace it. Fear of bike theft makes people less likely to ride a bicycle, travel to public transit on bicycle, and even shop by bicycle at local businesses.
In New York City, the bicycle theft problem is bad and getting worse. One in four New York households have had a bicycle stolen. More than 4,400 bicycles were stolen between March and mid-September of 2020, a 27 increase from last year. This rise in bicycle theft comes at a time when more New Yorkers than ever are riding bicycles and relying on bicycles for safe and efficient transportation. The lack of secure and plentiful bicycle parking and high theft rates slows New York City’s progress in achieving bicycle ridership goals.
THE POWER OF BICYCLE PARKING
Bicycle parking is a powerful encouragement to ride a bicycle, and its lack is a notable deterrent. While there is not enough bicycle parking to meet current and future needs, expanding access to bicycle parking has the potential to reduce crashes and fatalities, curb bike theft, expand public transit access, boost local businesses, and make New York City more fair.
Ninety five percent of New Yorkers agree that more bicycle parking is desirable. Meeting this demand could save lives. Based on Peter Jacobson’s seminal “Safety in Numbers” theory — which found that all cyclists and pedestrians are safer the more cyclists and pedestrians are seen on any given road — building more bicycle parking invites more people to ride bicycles and more often, which could result in fewer people killed and injured on New York City streets.
Meeting this demand for bicycle parking has the power to act as a boon to the local economy. Consider the fact that in New York City, the majority of bicycle trips are used for errand runs and connection to public transit and clock in at under two miles and less than 15 minutes. Given usage patterns, New Yorkers require ample and secure parking to avoid the challenges of moving a bicycle in and out of an apartment.
This tendency can be seen in widespread popularity of Citi Bike which, where it exists, is designed like a transit system — easy to use, relatively affordable, reliable, and parking guaranteed. Bicycle parking built to match New Yorkers’ travel patterns would have the power to boost the local economy. One car parking space can comfortably fit six to eight bicycle parking spaces, and space used by bicycles generally generates 3.6 times more expenditure than space used by cars. More New York City households own a bicycle than a car, and research shows that, per square foot, bicycle parking earns business more revenue than car parking. Since drivers are already provided ample parking space — 1.5 parking spots per registered car — adding bicycle parking would also have the potential to bring in new customers. In New York City, people on bicycles are much more likely to shop where there is secure bicycle parking. One study found that people on bicycles are actually better customers, spending more money than those who ride transit and significantly more than those who drive.
Meeting the demand for bicycle parking could also make New York a fairer city, because the connection between access to bicycle parking and the choice to ride a bicycle is especially relevant for low-income people and people of color. People of color and low-income people are significantly more likely than white people and high-income people to ride a bicycle if bicycle parking is available. In one survey, 32 percent of white respondents indicated that “plentiful, secure bicycle parking” would increase their bicycling, whereas 47 percent of people of color indicated the same. These disparities were also observed among low-income people. While 45 percent of those earning less than $30,000 per year indicated that access to bicycle parking would increase how often they ride a bicycle, only 30 percent of those earning more than $75,000 per year said the same.
Low-income people may be more likely to live in transit deserts, have difficulty affording transit fares, and ride a bicycle for transportation as opposed to leisure. This would also indicate that they may have fewer means to replace a stolen bicycle, are less likely to live or work in buildings that offer bicycle storage, are less likely to live in an area serviced by Citi Bike, and ride the types of bicycles that are stolen the most often. Streets are also especially unsafe for people walking and biking in low-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color because these neighborhoods have been historically left behind in terms of infrastructure investment. Building bicycle parking in these neighborhoods along with bicycle share expansion and the installation of a network of protected bicycle lanes would be a leap forward for cyclist safety citywide.
Bicycle parking also has the power to provide critical transportation options in transit deserts, which are especially common in low-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color. While only 56 percent of the Bronx is within a comfortable half-mile walk of a subway station, more than 95 percent of the borough is within an equally comfortable two-mile bicycle ride of a subway stop. Likewise, while only 21 percent of Queens is within a half-mile walk of a subway station, more than 70 percent of the borough is within a two-mile bicycle ride of a subway station. By creating secure indoor bicycle parking at subway stations, New Yorkers can bicycle to their closest subway with confidence that their bicycle will be protected from both the elements and potential theft.
BICYCLE PARKING BEST PRACTICES
Around the world, cities have found creative and low-cost solutions to provide ample bicycle parking. Many cities stock their streets and sidewalks with ample bicycle parking to encourage bicycling, and from their experiences come a wealth of best practice examples.
Best Practice: Maintain All Utilities
In contrast with its rules surrounding all other on-street maintenance, such as car parking and pothole repair, the City of New York requires a local business to be responsible for the upkeep of bicycle corrals, putting an extreme limit on their number. Seattle offers a better example. In that city, when a bicycle corral is installed, it remains the property of the city, which then maintains it. To help with maintenance, there is a hotline for calling in broken racks to be fixed at city expense.
Best Practice: Maintain All Utilities
In New York City, 95 percent of the three million on-street car parking spaces are free. London offers a better example. “CycleHoop Shelters” create bicycle parking for seven to ten bicycles in a car parking space and charge cyclists around $7 a month for a secure space. The flexible, smaller-than-a-sedan size and design allows installation in a single day and easy relocation throughout a city. The program helped increase bicycle parking in London to 160,000 bicycle parking spaces overnight. Reclaiming space from cars can also be part of future construction. Current New York zoning requirements mandate a minimum number of car parking spots for nearly all types of residential construction, meaning that developers must build car parking even when the market does not demand it. In New York, garage parking costs upwards of $35,000 per spot to build. California offers a better example. Allowing developers flexibility to react to market demands and replace car parking with bicycle parking could usher in lower housing costs, reduce reliance on private vehicles, and encourage cycling to help meet climate goals.
Best Practice: Empower Private Enterprise
In New York City, bicycle parking is unique among street furniture in that it offers no point of profit to the city, while advertising is permitted on bus shelters, trash cans, and Citi Bike stations. A New York City startup called Oonee offers an alternative. Oonee creates free, safe, secure, covered parking for cyclists that is accessible 24/7, and allows the hosting city to profit off advertising on the sides of the structure. Despite the success of initial pilots, the City of New York has hesitated approving new advertising in public spaces. This is a missed opportunity to generate revenue and create free bicycle parking space.
Best Practice: Create Secure Parking
In New York City, the limited bicycle parking available is vulnerable to theft and unprotected from the elements. Boston and other cities offer a better example.Bicycle parking cages are common at transit hubs around the world, allowing bicycle commuters to reach train and bus stations via bicycle and then securely store their bicycle in a covered cage accessible only by keycard. The large capacity storage facilities protect bicycles from the elements and from theft. According to the New York City Department of City Planning, there is opportune space for secure indoor bicycle parking in the unused mezzanine level space of many MTA subway stations, and under elevated subway tracks and station stairways.
CONCLUSION
Transportation Alternatives analyzed the current state of bicycle parking in New York City and the potential of bicycle parking to prevent traffic crashes, contribute to “safety in numbers” injury and fatality reductions, act as a boon to local business, and increase fairness between economically disparate communities.
Our findings suggest that there is not enough bicycle parking to meet current need, and this lack of bicycle parking prevents more New Yorkers from riding bicycles. The lack of bicycle parking is one of the most common reasons that people do not ride a bicycle, or ride more often, and 95 percent of New York cyclists agree that building more bicycle parking should be a priority.
Building bicycle parking is a simple and affordable way to increase the number of New Yorkers who ride a bicycle. Access to secure bicycle parking also has the power to encourage more low-income people and people of color to ride a bicycle. And, more people on bicycles makes all cyclists safer.
The City of New York has at its disposal the largest contiguous public space in New York City — the road network. More than three-quarters of that space is currently dedicated to the storage and movement of cars. By swapping significant amounts of car space for any new bicycle parking, the City can help to address this critical gap in our cycling infrastructure.
Moreover, the City must also make good on its past commitments. The City has failed to complete at least 11 plans to build bicycle parking in just the past eight years.
With the critical addition of more bike parking, New York can enable more people to ride bicycles, reduce dependence on cars, support local business, and help provide critical transportation options to our most vulnerable. Such benefits are especially important, as our city struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic crisis, and the looming threat of climate change.
METHODOLOGY
(1) Transportation Alternatives contacted the Department of Transportation, or their equivalent, in each city for the number of bicycle racks and data from the U.S. Census was used for the number of residents in each jurisdiction.
(2) The number of bicycle racks is based on the annual Mayor’s Management Report numbers and the number of bicycles in New York City is calculated by the number of households based on data from the U.S. Census and the number of reported bicycles per household in the 2019 DOT Mobility Report. The New York State DMV reports the number of registered vehicles in New York City.
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