Transportation

DOT already maps NYPD crash data for all streets citywide, albeit by intersection, so we know the streets where crashes occur. What the public doesn’t know is whether police are concentrating enforcement in areas where it’s most needed to prevent crashes. In 2014 Council Member Ben Kallos introduced a bill to require the city to release and map data on all moving violations — including date, time, and latitude and longitude coordinates — to be published at least once a month. Though Rodriguez is listed as a co-sponsor of the Kallos bill, it went nowhere.

Councilmember Ben Kallos, who represents the Upper East Side, also has tracked improvement on the issue, thanks to a summer of work to address what he sees as one of the most pressing issues in his district.

Kallos said a renewed focus from officers in the 19th Precinct has resulted in a 52% increase in enforcement actions against bikes and a corresponding 18% drop in bike and vehicle collisions.

Working with his office, the Department of Transportation has given away 10,500 bells and 10,100 lights to bikers.

“This is something we’ve taken very seriously,” Kallos said in an interview. “A lot of this revolves around residents feeling empowered to do something.”

Yet while numbers from police and the new survey show improvement on the issue, it has yet to filter down to how people feel in the street. The September meeting of Wallerstein’s group, for instance, was dominated by the issue, with a number of speakers expressing frustration that bikers who break traffic laws or ride the wrong way seem rarely get punished.

Wallerstein said the emotion surrounding the issue springs from fear, particularly among older New Yorkers, few of whom are riding the bikes that are now crowding the streets.

“It’s very, very frightening,” she said. “The biker knows he can easily get around. But elderly people can’t do that.”

Wallerstein said her group is planning another bike survey in the neighborhood next month.

Kallos welcomed the input. “Unless the community steps up to the plate,” he said, “there will never be an end in sight.”

DOT, Citi Bike and other city officials marked the program’s expansion with an inaugural bike ride this morning, beginning at the new Upper East Side station at 67^th Street and Lexington Avenue, then biking across Central Park to the new Upper West Side station at 63^rd and Broadway.

“Uptown felt left out when the initial roll out came out. We were supposed to be a part of it, and now we are,” city councilmember Ben Kallos told the Observer.

Prior to the expansion, 59^th Street was the Northernmost location for Citi Bike stations, with the exception of a single Westside station at 61^stand Broadway.

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“The Upper East Side is a place where you can be the furthest from any form of public transportation,” Mr. Kallos said. “You can be living a half mile from the nearest subway station, and that subway station is overcrowded, and so are uptown buses. This will provide another form of public transportation.”

While many of us are somewhat dreading the forthcoming winter snowstorms—and ridership in the program has, not surprisingly, dropped off every winter—Mr. Kallos isn’t worried about the impending winter weather putting a damper on Citi Bike use.

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“The winter isn’t as cold as people make it out to be, and for the couple of days that it’s snowy and icy out, most people don’t even want to get in their car. Citi Bikes aren’t really something people use for longer than half an hour or 45 minutes, so you have the choice between walking half an hour or taking a bike ride.”

Following the Upper East and Upper West Side locations, Citi Bike will expand into Long Island City, Astoria, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, Prospect Heights, and Park Slope, among other neighborhoods.