To: Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City
Subject: Action Memorandum Regarding New York City’s Bike Master Plan
Date: April 16, 2018
Recommended Action
New York City has been actively promoting bike usage through offering bike share programs like Citi Bike and increasing the mileage of bike lanes. Although such bicycle plans have proven to bring many benefits to the city, only supplying bicycle facilities is not enough to safely and effectively increase bicycle ridership; New York City still has the lowest bike share of commuters, the highest cyclist fatality and injury rate, and the lowest rate of cycling by women, children and seniors. I recommend that New York City should increase parking docks for both Citi Bikes and personal bikes at or near public transit stations such as subway stations, bus stations and train stations to better encourage bicycle and public transit usage.
Issues
Recognizing the success of bike-share programs implemented in Washington D.C. and Paris, NYC launched its own bike-share program to better and more conveniently serve both its residents and tourists. However, a program like this posed a challenge for a city as congested and densely …show more content…
Regardless of the difficulties, the city has benefited from this lane expansion in multiple ways. Firstly, clearly marked new bike lanes are effective in moderating the speed of traffic, increasing street safety for all travelers on the street. Secondly, bike usage has gone up, which brings health benefits to riders and contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the city. Thirdly, increasing bicycle lanes is beneficial to local business growth. For example, the construction of the Ninth Avenue bike lanes has resulted in an increase in retail sales of local businesses by a great 49 percent. Lastly, bike lanes connect the city’s neighborhoods and helps cyclists get around more quickly and