Bicycles will be bountiful, but not in the Bronx

A bike-share program is slated to begin in the city starting next summer. But the Bronx won’t get any bikes until after Brooklyn and Manhattan get theirs.

The Department of Transportation announced last week that Portland, Ore.-based Alta Bicycle Share will launch NYC Bike Share — a network of self-service bike stations across the city. For approximately $100 per year, participants will be able to borrow bikes from the stations and return them to any other station within the system. The kiosks will be open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. User fees and private sponsorship will fund the program.

When completed, the city will have the largest bike-share program in the country. Boston, Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis already have successful bike-share programs.

But Bronxites may be in for a long wait before the program comes to the mainland. 

The initial bike network will only include kiosks in Manhattan below 72nd Street, as well as in parts of Brooklyn. 

 A recently released Quinnipiac University poll shows that Bronxites are in favor of more bike lanes as much as Manhattan and more than Brooklyn, with 63 percent of Bronxites in support of increasing the number of bike lanes in the city. The Bronx and Manhattan yielded the highest percentage of pro-bike lane votes, at 63 percent. Brooklyn came in at 60 percent, Queens at 55 percent and Staten Island at 38 percent.

Despite the plan to shut  inManhattan and Brooklyn, all  the locations have yet to be determined. Residents can   have not yet been determined . Residents can go to www.nyc.gov/bikeshare to suggest spots.

Already, residents in Riverdale and Kingsbridge have made suggestions. 

The most popular spot, based on the number of people who clicked to support the idea, is at West 242nd Street and Broadway.

A user named Ozzzy wrote that this spot would give “people a green environment to go anywhere in Riverdale, even access to Westchester County for a bit and back!”

Angus Grieve-Smith suggested three spots in the area: Manhattan College, College of Mount Saint Vincent and Lehman College, each with the reason, “College campus!”

Other users suggested spots that they said help with their morning commutes. An anonymous user suggested a location at West 235th Street and Arlington Avenue to help commute to the No. 1 train, “which is so far away,” they wrote.

Other locations included Wave Hill, Marble Hill shopping center, every No. 1 train stop in our area, the tortoise and the hare statue in Van Cortlandt Park, Henry Hudson Memorial Park, Spuyten Duyvil Metro-North station and the future site of a greenstreet at Riverdale Avenue and West 236th Street.