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Read the press release here.

East Village Pedal Pushers to Choose Where to Put Bike Share Stations

By Serena Solomon | November 8, 2011 7:18am | Updated on November 8, 2011 9:21am
The Department of Transportation is planning to launch the bike share program in the Summer of 2012
The Department of Transportation is planning to launch the bike share program in the Summer of 2012
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Department of Transportation

EAST VILLAGE — Pedal pushers in the East Village will have a say Wednesday on where some of the 600 stations for a citywide bike share program should be placed.

Department of Transportation officials will give a presentation and debate the bike share, scheduled to begin next summer, at Community Board 3’s Transportation and Public Safety Committee Wednesday night.

"The people who live in the community know more about the community than anyone else," said CB 3 district manager Susan Stetzer. "They may know something the DOT has overlooked."

The Department of Transportation is leaving positioning of bike share stations up to neighborhoods.

“We don’t care where the stations are as long as we achieve the density we need,” a DOT official told community board members on the Upper East Side last week. “We want you to tell us where they should go.”

Under the bike share, people will be able to buy an annual membership for roughly $100, a weekly pass for roughly $25 or a daily pass at an estimated $10, either at kiosks using their credit cards or online.

Participants can pick up the bikes at any of the solar-powered stations that will stretch from the Upper East and Upper West Sides down through lower Manhattan and into northwest Brooklyn.

Stetzer is encouraging locals to participate in the process because of the benefits a bike share program could bring to East Side neighborhoods.

"One thing I would say is Community Board 3 and the Lower East Side are under-served because we don’t have good public transportation," she said, predicting that the bikes will be popular with ferry commuters.

Another topic of conversation at the meeting will be how the program can employee local people from the neighborhood.

“This is something that is very important to the community,” said Stetzer.

The bike share will go on a hiring spree to maintain the bikes and the stations.

DOT officials said the stations can partially cover subway grates, be placed in park entrances (as long as they don’t block pedestrians) and can be placed on wide sidewalks. They can go in parking lanes and be put in privately owned public plazas, if the owners so choose.

The Transportation & Public Safety Committee meets on Wednesday Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at University Settlement, Speyer Hall, 184 Eldridge St., between Rivington and Delancey streets.