New CitiBike Rack To Be Installed On Eastern Parkway, Across the Street From Oholei Torah

by CrownHeights.info

Wave goodbye to five more parking spots in Crown Heights, another CitiBike Rack is coming to town.

Crews arrived Thursday morning to put up no parking signs on the eastbound Service Lane of Eastern Parkway across the street the Oholei Torah. The reason was clear, it’s the new location of a CitiBike rack.

CitiBike, New York City’s bike share program first arrived in Crown Heights with the first bike rack installed on Eastern Parkway in November of last year. The bike sharing service provides residents an affordable way to rent a bike for a short period of time, and with hundreds of locations throughout the city, it was only a matter of time before they arrived in Crown Heights.

Now, more than 20 such future bike racks – from Eastern Parkway to Rutland, Nostrand to Utica – have already been stamped onto the online CitiBike Map.

As CitiBike allows you to borrow the bike from one rack and return it at another, the installation of the racks will provide a new way for many people to commute across Brooklyn and into Manhattan, where previously the options were either the subway or a cab ride.

Many residents are happy that CitiBike has arrived in the community, providing them a cheap and significant form of transportation. Others have voiced their complaints that the racks are removing coveted parking spots in an already heavily crowded area plagued with a parking crises.

Yet others have voiced another concern. No attempt was made to get community input regarding the location of these racks, with the decisions made instead by the DOT and CitiBike. For this reason, CrownHeights.info is giving the community a platform to voice their opinions regarding the new racks. Fill out the survey below and the responses will be published at a later date.

16 Comments

  • Dovid

    Why doesn’t our community council do anything about this?

    They should be proactive in taking care of the needs of our community.

    There are places in New York City where they’re installed on the promenade like on Eastern parkway walkway.

    It is really a shame that they do not advocate for our rights and for our way of life here in Crown Heights.

    • A chosid

      There needs to be elections for Vaad ASAP. ask anyone who the VAAD most will not know

  • Menachem Goldshteyn

    This is a plus. Not everyone can drive everywhere for a short trip that’s just too far to walk and just too close to drive and look for parking. A bike is a quick solution.

    Considering that most parked cars just squat and hold the spot, moving only weekly for street cleaning, the parking spaces with bikes will actually get used on a daily basis by bochrim and yungeleit.

    • Yossi

      The current parking crisis is caused by too many cars on the street. Replacing some spots with citibike racks makes it easier for people to decide that they don’t need a car.

  • Resident

    Great, now it will be even harder to find parking when coming to a wedding . Why can’t they move it on the sidewalk ? It’s already impossible to find parking when coming to a wedding , for the guests , vendors and even Baal simcha ! This not upper west side where we can put out wife on a bike! This is a family oriented community!

  • Shawn

    No!!! This cannot happen!! The one by Bank Of America is too much already!!!

    Why can’t they just put these things on the island?? There’s plenty room there …

    (Ps. Crownheights.info, I don’t see a link to the survey…)

  • Paco Abraham

    Incorrect about public input. There were multiple community board meetings about this expansion and there’s been an online map accepting input for more than a year.

  • Shoshanna

    Get rid of these bike parking muck. They are not wanted in Crown Heights. We need more car parking spaces immediately. I will park my car directly yet in front of these metal things and annoy the riders.

    • Menachem Goldshteyn

      Shoshana, how would you feel if someone put a dumpster in front of your car blocking your car from getting out of your parking space just to annoy you?

  • Doesn’t make a difference

    I don’t know if you people realize but the plan is to have all of crown heights the same way it’s all over Brooklyn and Manhattan

  • Amanda

    So glad that the bike network is expanding! Most Crown Heights residents don’t have cars, so this is good for our community.

  • Baylan Kruger

    Its a great idea to expand these bikes here in Crown Heights, I recently moved here from Austin TX and there are many options for travel there. Thank you!