By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Bicycle rental outfit Bike and Roll has opened a new location in Riverside Park, and it hopes to cater to Upper West Side families.
"We want to be the place where kids on the Upper West Side learn to ride a bike," said Bike and Roll's Scott Cavanagh.
The new location is tucked beneath the West Side Highway near 72nd Street, just north of the basketball courts. Bike and Roll rents bikes for $14 an hour or $39 for half a day.
The company has a contract with the city's Parks Department to provide rental bicycles in five city parks. So far it's opened locations in Central Park and Riverside Park.
Bike and Roll already has outposts serving tourist spots like the Brooklyn Bridge, but the Riverside Park location will cater to neighborhood residents, Cavanagh said.
"What we're really excited with Riverside Park is that it will reach more locals," Cavanagh said. "There's a lot of people that live in New York and they have small apartments so they don't have a bike of their own. They can rent one and enjoy it for the day."
Cyclists who rent the bikes will be able to quickly hop on the nearby Greenway bike path, which currently runs up the west side from Battery Park to Dyckman Street and will eventually encircle Manhattan.
Cavanagh said the Riverside Park location will stock plenty of kid-sized bikes and helmets to serve Upper West Side families.
Next year Bike and Roll will expand to East River Park, West Harlem Piers Park and Highbridge Park. The Highbridge Park location will let riders take a crack at Manhattan's only legal mountain bike trails, Cavanagh said.
