NYC First Bike-Only Parking Lot, With Attendant, Is Planned for Midtown

A private-sector solution, the city’s first bikes-only parking lot complete with attendant, may be on its way to midtown Manhattan soon. According to the New York Times, the executives with the plan

have cleared the high hurdle of finding available space in Midtown, on West 33rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. All they need is a corporation willing to pay as much as $200,000 a year to sponsor the idea.

Regular users would pay a fee, but some spaces would be free, for short-term use by visitors to the neighborhood. Those fees will depend on how much the partnership can raise from a sponsor. A similar concept has worked in Chicago where McDonald’s became the long-term sponsor of a bike parking lot that charges $149 a year. As the article notes, parking indoors or at an attended lot is critical in New York because otherwise you run the risk of having your bike stolen or vandalized -- and I should know as I found out the hard way a few years back: even a Kryptonite lock can't insure that your ride won't get pinched -- damn you liquid nitrogen! *dramatic repeat sotto voce* damn you...

via: New York Times