Jim Burke frequently travels the bike lane at 34th Avenue and says he feels safer leaving his bike parked in a designated space: “Much better, much faster. Before, you had to find a stick or something to put on. his bike but not there now, done”.
The space occupied by Burke’s bike is part of a campaign by the city to install 5,000 bike racks this year.
The first to be installed in Queens were along 34th Avenue, 69th Street, Travers Park, and 81st Street.
According to the Department of Transportation, there is an increase in cyclists due to the pandemic and riding a bicycle has served as an alternative mode of transportation.
The Department notes that the idea is to improve the streets for cyclists since they only have a total of 28,000 spaces for bicycles compared to 58,000 spaces for cars.
And it appears that bike racks are popular with many Jackson Heights residents, who say they agree with the installation of about 18 bike racks on the avenue.
Although some admit that this will cause problems for drivers of vehicles who seek to park: “For my part, it is fine, because I have a bicycle and I can use it; but if I had a car, I would be against it because I had nowhere to park.”
This is the case of Álvaro Quintero and his wife, who waited an hour to find a space to park their car. They had to park it on the cross street, a few blocks away from their home. This is because the new bicycle parking spaces on 81st Street have occupied three spaces for vehicles.
“Day by day it becomes more impossible to find parking. And moreover the providers of to pay are too expensive,” explains Quintero.
And now that they have started installing these bike parking racks in Queens, the Department of Transportation’s plan is to continue expanding this initiative until 10,000 more are installed across the city by the end of 2022.
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