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The cyclist explosion overflows New York

2021-03-02T02:07:20.558Z


There are only 56,000 spaces to park the 1.6 million bicycles in the city, which has 2,200 kilometers of lanes


Cyclists ride bikes in New York's Central Park.Noam Galai / getty

"These abandoned bikes haven't moved from here since at least 2006. How long does it take for a bike to disintegrate?"

The poster hangs from the saddle of a picture with a loose wheel and a basket that accumulates junk, on 15th Street in New York, courtesy of an environmentally conscious neighbor, or tired of seeing that relic crossed on a meager sidewalk, which It says very little, by the way, about the collection service for street equipment, but that is another matter ... In the time capsule that will reveal what the Big Apple was like in the future, there will undoubtedly be a badly parked bicycle.

Because the vast city park, with 1.6 million devices, only has 56,000 parking spaces.

Colossal figures that do not include those relating to Citi Bike, the city's rental service, with 38,000 seats in a thousand long stations.

The pandemic has spurred the use of bicycles as a safe means of transport, in a fairly flat city with 2,200 kilometers of lanes, but the

cycling

boom has

been around for a long time.

From the nineties, when the city designed the first program to encourage its use, expanded each year with the addition of new lanes.

Only in 2018 35 kilometers were incorporated;

in the last five years, 530, some for single use.

24% of adult New Yorkers cycle regularly;

of these, nearly 800,000 do so regularly, according to a 2019 City Council study. On a typical day in 2017, there were 490,000 trips on two wheels in New York (150,000 in 2000).

The increase in the number of cyclists in the Big Apple doubles that of the rest of the country's cities: an increase of 55% between 2012 and 2017, compared to 27% for the rest.

The pandemic has only multiplied the numbers: the demand for trips on Citi Bike went from 1,086,410 trips in March 2020 to 2,520,045 in September.

So, if the problem of parking is added to the velocipede fans of New Yorkers, and also the existence of a law that penalizes - but little - leaving them out there tied to a fence or any projection of urban furniture, the picture is complicated, and the rolling biped subspecies faces more difficulties on a daily basis.

Sasha, a 30-year-old dog sitter, always takes hers home.

"It would disappear in seconds if I left it tied in front of the portal, it is carbon fiber.

There is a lack of secure parking spaces, not only monitored with video cameras, but with sensors that block any attempted theft, but not even the discomfort of carrying it up to the fifth floor is a nuisance compared to the freedom and autonomy it gives me, "he explains. .

Municipal ordinances prohibit leaving a bicycle outside the official car parks, but the authorities' zeal when it comes to imposing fines is rather low, judging by the number of devices scattered at random.

Like Néstor, 27, Salvadoran, without papers and a delivery man.

“I always tie it to a post or a fence, I didn't even know it's forbidden.

And I am lucky, because it has never been stolen from me, perhaps because it is old, "he explains, alluding to the unwanted effect of the lack of parking: thefts on the rise.

“The bike is fast and cheap, it doesn't cost dollars.

Between us there is a circuit of parts and spare parts and if it rains or snows, we put sleeves on the handlebars to continue working, "he explains while waiting for the umpteenth daily order, next to a row of restaurants on the Upper West Side, the plastic handlebar stumps wrapped like the head of a bolted bull.

What do you think of the parking problem?

“What bikes?

From what cyclists? ”Asks Nestor, as if he lived in another city.

Because the use of bikes also reflects the city's division by class: from the ecologically conscious professional, the urban

honest

, the rigorous

poshpster

and the low-

income

student to the hard-working delivery men, almost all Latinos, who move what they have given. called

gig

economy

.

A whole rolling ecosystem, worthy of study.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-03-02

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