No Fair! NYC Gets Sweet Bike Parking Lot

New York City is going to be getting its first bike-only parking lot, with attendant!

City officials have been trying to create more places where New Yorkers can ride their bikes safely, but finding secure places to park them is an enduring problem.
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Now, a few business executives have dreamed up a private-sector solution: the city’s first bikes-only parking lot, complete with attendant. Already, they have cleared the high hurdle of finding available space in Midtown, on West 33rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.

All they need is a corporation willing to pay as much as $200,000 a year to sponsor the idea.

“We’re really looking for a big number to build something quite spectacular,” said Daniel A. Biederman, president of the 34th Street Partnership. “We want this to be the premier bike parking facility in the country.”

Stonehenge Management, a developer, has offered a 2,600-square-foot lot next to an apartment building it owns on the north side of 33rd Street, Mr. Biederman said.

The partnership, which is financed by businesses and property owners in a 31-block section of Midtown, has developed a preliminary design for the lot and has ordered up a prototype of the racks it would contain, Mr. Biederman said. Initially, it would hold 100 bikes, with room to expand if there is more demand, he said.

Regular users would pay a fee, but some spaces would be free, for short-term use by visitors to the neighborhood. Those fees will depend on how much the partnership can raise from a sponsor, Mr. Biederman said.(via)

Come on Boston, we should be leading the way in things like this, not limping along behind the pack.

Would you pay to park your bike in a place you knew it wasn’t likely to be stolen? What if it was pretty cheap?

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