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Read the press release here.

Citi Bike Wants to Know Where to Put Docking Stations in Harlem

By Gustavo Solis | October 14, 2015 12:15pm
 Citi Bike wants to get community input before installing docking stations in Harlem. They'll host two meetings in November.
Citi Bike wants to get community input before installing docking stations in Harlem. They'll host two meetings in November.
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DNAinfo/Shaye Weaver

HARLEM — Citi Bike is coming to Harlem and they want you to choose where to install their docking stations.

Two meetings will help bring the city's bike sharing program to the neighborhood next month. The first will go over the expansion into the neighborhood and the second will give residents a chance to say where they want the stations.

Citi Bike plans to put docking stations south of 130th St. as part of their second phase, which should be done by 2017. They hosted a similar workshop in East Harlem in July.

“People have to opportunity to learn about the project at the presentation and also be part of the feedback at the workshop so you should probably come to both,” Community Board 10’s Transportation Committee Chair Maria Garcia said.

The presentation will be November 10 at 6:30 p.m. the date of the workshop has not been set but it will be after the presentation, she added.

Members from Transportation Alternatives, which promotes cycling, walking and public transportation, were excited about the expansion but noted that it’s unfortunate Jersey City got the bike share program before Upper Manhattan did.

Installing docking stations in Harlem should make the neighborhood more bike-friendly and give residents more options when it comes to getting around, member J.P. Partland said.

“Most of the people in Upper Manhattan and Harlem don’t travel by car, they travel by public transportation,” he said. “Citi Bike offers more options for travelers.”

At least one member of the Transportation Committee forecasted some possible tension between Harlem’s drivers and cyclists.

“So the question becomes — because our community is so populated with cars — the options to have or not have [docking stations] is going to pit bike riders against drivers,” CB 10 member Barbara Nelson said.

Drivers are not going to want to lose parking spaces to docking stations, she added.

Annual membership for the program costs $149. NYCHA residents get a discounted rate of $60.