Where Might Bike Share Stations Be Coming To Bayside?

There's been a big push to get New Yorkers pedaling in the past few years.

Patch community blogger David R. Yale in January posted a Dept. of Transportation spots for bike share hubs. The responses can be viewed in the adjacent PDF map, taken from the DOT Web site.

Separate from the issue of bike share stations—Patch was told last year by the DOT—are designated bike lane locations.

The City plans on , Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during his January State of the City Address.

“Now, I realize the debate over bike lanes has ," Bloomberg said during his speech, adding, "But the reality is more and more New Yorkers are biking, and the more bike lanes we put in, the fewer deaths and serious injuries we have on our streets."

In a survey taken by the office Councilman Mark Weprin, D-Oakland Gardens, 60.6 percent of respondents said "yes," they do "support the network of bicycle lanes that the New York City Department of Transportation has installed on City streets." The question was answered by 383 constituents of his district, which encompasses parts of Bayside, Oakland Gardens, Fresh Meadows, and other parts of Northeast Queens.

Similar statistics for the district of Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, were not immediately available to Patch, but Halloran told us last winter; "The last thing we need is to put up bike lanes —which nobody is going to use— to stifle business and take up parking spots."

With at least the expansion of bike lanes to the Bell Blvd. Bayside Village District, or on 26th Ave. near Bay Terrace, Halloran has support from an unexpected source.

Joani Emerson, whose husband Jerry Emerson owns in Douglaston, also said last year that Bell Blvd. would be one of the most dangerous spots on local streets to paint in a bike lane.

“To me, my worst nightmare is somebody opens the car door,” said Emerson, adding, “Somebody opens a car door and you go flying.”

And of 26th Ave. in Bay Terrace, she said that busses going in and out of lanes would post a danger.

But according to a current DOT Web map, about a dozen Baysiders have suggested that the agency place bike share hubs in locations across Bayside and Bay Terrace—including 26th Ave. and Bell Blvd.

"This location [the entrace] is near the many shops at Bayside, also allows commuting too and from the LIRR station," said one of the DOT's site users. Dozens of others agreed.

The same user suggested a hub on 26th Ave. near the Bay Terrace Shopping Center. "A station at Bay Terrace would allow people to shop as well allow Bay Terrace residents to commute back and forth to the Station at Bayside LIRR without using their cars," he said. At least 15 users indicated that they agree.

With the bike stations come a difference in the way both drivers and cyclists will use roads.

In March of 2011, after Patch to putting in bike lane routes on 26th Ave. and Bell Blvd., a high ranking DOT official said that the maps provided to Patch by members of Community Board 7 were outdated.

The plans the CB7 Transportation Committee were reviewing had been dropped years prior, the official said, and there were no plans at that time to put in bike lanes at those locations.

A spokesman for the agency confirms that no new plans have surfaced since last year.

Patch wonders if all these recommended bike share stations will put Bayside area bike lanes back through the cycle of public debate.