While bike commuting has taken a big jump in recent years, that’s just the beginning to Mayor Bloomberg’s Department of Transportation, which is looking to double the number of people pedaling to work by 2015. DOT policy director Jon Orcutt spoke to @work about the city’s efforts to get workers on wheels.
Why do you want to see people biking to work? In most places it would get cars off the streets, but here bike commuters would more often be using the subway.
Yeah, but here, unlike most places, we have congestion issues both above and below ground. So we see this developing into a great auxiliary mobility network. And if you look in places in Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx where there isn’t tremendous subway coverage, it’s a great way to get to the subway. In Williamsburg, for example, you see a lot of bikes around the subway stations. We’ve put in racks there, and they’re completely inadequate to the demand. You’ll see the same in Long Island City around the 7 train.
Beyond things like bike lanes that generally make this a better place to ride, what issues concern bike commuters?
Parking is a big one. It’s like driving — you have an individual vehicle and you need to do something with it when you get there. So that’s got to be part of the system. The part that’s easiest for us to implement is to put racks on the street, and we’ve expanded that severalfold in the last year. But a lot of people would like to park in buildings, and that’s going to be a longer-term prospect of breaking down cultural barriers. I think it’s on the horizon as something that’s going to be more accepted.
Is the department involved in outreach, in terms of getting employers to let workers bring bikes in?
Transportation Alternatives has been doing it for quite a while, but I think we want to create more of an official drumbeat on that. Part of the promotion is to start spotlighting some of the businesses that are friendly to bike commuting, so we’re going to be doing that.
How many people at DOT ride to work?
I don’t know, but it’s pretty high. We have bike racks in the basement and outside around the doorways, and they’re always full.