In light of the ever-growing popularity of city bike paths, which are commong sights in cities throughout the country and abroad, in cities like Paris and Dublin internationally and Chicago, Boston and Portland, Oregon domestically, New York is looking to join the ranks.
However, New York's bike program has been much delayed since it was first announced to begin in the summer of 2012.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) recently released a revised map showing the exact locations of the 293 bike stations that will be available when the program finally launches in May.
The bike stations will be released on a rolling basis. The initial rollout will include Manhattan south of Central Park and a portion of Brooklyn bordered by Atlantic Avenue to the south, with the exception of an outlier on Dean Street and 5th Avenue.
The second phase, which is shown by gray dots on the DOT map, will include Long Island City, Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy east of Nostrand Avenue, and two additional Manhattan stations at Pier 42 and 5th Avenue at 63rd Street.
The program suffered its first delay last July due to computer glitches occurred. The second set back occured when Hurricane Sandy caused physical damage to the program.
Additional bikes will be part of a "Bikes in Buildings" program, which has been created to implement the Bicycle Access to Office Buildings Law. The law aims to increase bicycle commuting by providing cyclists with the opportunity to park their bicycles either inside or close to their office workplace.
Tenants of office buildings will be able to request bicycle access for their employees as well. Building owners and managers must then either grant the request or get an exception from the DOT. The law regarding bicycle access will only apply to commercial buildings with freight elevators, and will not apply to residential buildings.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
