Bike, Don’t Drive, City Tells Its Workers

The city has drastically cut the number of free parking permits it gives to city employees, including teachers. So how else are civil servants supposed to get to work?
On Wednesday, city officials said they would expand secure bicycle parking for employees at five municipal buildings in Lower Manhattan in the fall. Three existing bike parking facilities will be enlarged, going to 110 spaces from 46, and two others will be added, creating 24 new parking spaces.
“Bike commuting in New York has grown more than 75 percent since 2000, but one of the most frequent complaints we hear is that there’s nowhere to put your bike once you get to work,” said the city’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan. “As our bike network expands and more New Yorkers make their commutes in this sustainable way, we need to do more to provide City employees a safe, secure place to lock their bikes.”
Martha K. Hirst, the commissioner of citywide administrative services, said, “We will be enhancing the indoor bike rooms we opened last year, and, just as before, the new spaces will be open to any city employee working anywhere in Lower Manhattan.”
The expanded bike parking includes:
Indoor parking at 280 Broadway, the headquarters of the Department of Buildings, where capacity will expand to 36 bikes from 12.
Indoor parking at 100 Gold Street, the headquarters of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where capacity will increase to 22 bikes from 10.
Outdoor parking at the southern archway of the Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street, where capacity will increase to 52 bikes from 24.
A new parking room at 125 Worth Street, the headquarters of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Health and Hospitals Corporation, and the Department of Sanitation, with capacity for 12 bikes.
A new parking room at 22 Reade Street, the headquarters of the Department of City Planning, with capacity for 12 bikes.
At the Department of Transportation’s own headquarters at 40 Worth Street — a building not managed by the city — bike parking already was increased from 15 to 27 spots earlier this year.

Source: The New York Times