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Citi Bike Coming to LIC, Bed-Stuy, Greenpoint and Williamsburg Next Month

By Jeanmarie Evelly | July 24, 2015 2:44pm | Updated on July 26, 2015 11:14pm
 Officials announce the expansion of Citi Bike in Queenbridge on Oct. 28, 2014.
Officials announce the expansion of Citi Bike in Queenbridge on Oct. 28, 2014.
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DNAinfo/Jeanmarie Evelly

LONG ISLAND CITY — Citi Bike stations will be rolling into new neighborhoods starting next month, with the bike sharing program set to launch in Long Island City, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bedford-Stuyvesant in early August, officials announced Friday.

The new stations are part of a larger expansion of the program planned for the next two years, during which officials expect to double the number of bikes in its Citi Bike fleet from 6,000 to 12,000.

Stations will also be installed on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, between 59th and 86th streets, starting this fall, officials said.

"This is the start of something big. Citi Bike is rolling into the outer boroughs like never before," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. "That means hundreds of thousands more New Yorkers will have a fast, sustainable, low-cost transportation option."

Long Island City is the first neighborhood in Queens to get the blue bikes, with a dozen stations to be installed in the neighborhood in August.

Bed-Stuy, which already has nine stations in its western end, will also be getting 26 more next month. Williamsburg is set to get 33 stations and Greenpoint will get 20.

Of the stations planned for the Upper West Side, 27 will be installed starting this fall between 59th and 86th streets. The Upper East Side will be getting 27 of its stations between those same boundaries, also this fall.

The Department of Transportation and Motivate, which runs the city's bike share program, chose the future station locations based on community feedback during a series of public meetings, officials said.

Motivate recently upgraded the software that powers both the bikes and their docking stations to existing bikes ahead of the program's expansion, and also added a thousand new, upgraded bikes to its fleet.

"This is the next step in our commitment to deliver a bigger and better Citi Bike with updated technology, a new and improved bicycle and now hundreds of new stations," Motivate CEO and former MTA Chairman Jay Walder said in statement.

For more about Citi Bike's expansion plans, visit its website.