Report: Lackluster Bike Parking Reduces Cycling and Undermines Public Safety

A report from Transportation Alternatives blasts the de Blasio administration for failing to meet its bike parking goals for New York City. Gersh Kuntzman, writing for Streetsblog NYC, reveals that the city failed to deliver on many of its plans to improve bicycle parking and vastly underperformed in all aspects of its bike parking promises. As more New Yorkers choose bicycles in what amounts to a "historic cycling boom," the lack of adequate bike parking has led to a 27% increase in bike theft, and, the report argues, an overall drop in cycling.

According to Transportation Alternatives, the lack of secure parking also undermines local businesses. In a 2010 study on spending done by cyclists, the space taken up by one car generated more than three times as much local spending when converted to bike parking. In that study, "even when the bike parking was less than 30 percent occupied, it still generated the same spending as the missing car spaces."

The report's recommendations include—most obviously—building more bike parking with a focus in low-income communities, more bike corrals at intersections (where they provide more visibility than parked cars), allowing developers to build bike parking to meet parking requirements in new buildings, and promoting more public and private options for paid secured bike parking, which can help raise revenue and provide safe parking for cyclists.