Ready or not — the DOT has launched the second section of its Bronx scooter pilot … and it’s not prepared.
The company, which has been piloting electrical scooter share within the northeast Bronx since August, unleashed the micro-two wheelers on the remaining of the East Bronx on Wednesday, solely to face the shortcomings of its personal infrastructure and its failure to enlist the assistance of its sister company, the Parks Department. Several essential protected bike lanes within the Phase II zone (see map) stay unfinished, plus riders will be unable to make use of their scooters to get to the ferry terminal inside Ferry Point Park as a result of the Parks Department doesn’t enable scooters in its inexperienced empire (which additionally explains why scooter followers can’t use the units to get to Orchard Beach, which is contained in the pilot boundary but off limits).
“[The ferry dock] is on park land, and we don’t technically have jurisdiction,” stated DOT official Keith Kalb at Wednesday’s Phase II launch on the Clason Point ferry terminal. Kalb stated DOT is in talks with the Parks Department to enhance the scenario. “We’re working together to make that happen. It’s not it’s not like we can just come in and asphalt the roadway into the park.”
And Rosedale, Lafayette and Soundview avenues are all imagined to get protected bike lanes, although Kalb couldn’t say when the infrastructure will likely be accomplished.
“I don’t know,” he stated. “It’s going to take through the summer.” In an announcement, the DOT stated solely, “DOT plans to install 10 miles of conventional lanes and is planning to build more cycling infrastructure in the expansion area in 2022 and 2023, including: Eastchester Road, Bronxdale Avenue, a new protected bike lane network in Throggs Neck, as well as extending lanes along White Plains Road. DOT will begin outreach soon at relevant community boards.”
DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez wouldn’t let any shortcomings wreck the launch, nonetheless, and highlighted the excellent news: The quantity of scooters being operated by the micro-mobility corporations Veo, Bird and Lime will double from 3,000 to six,000 over the approaching weeks, and the realm by which they are often rented would additionally principally double to now comprise the realm principally south of E. Tremont Avenue from the Bronx River to the Long Island Sound.
“We’re thrilled to build on our successful e-scooter pilot in the Bronx and offer this safe and efficient travel option to even more residents,” he stated. “This expansion will serve important first- and last-mile trips for commuters accessing the NYC Ferry and 6 train in the eastern section of the Bronx. Bird, Lime, and Veo [are] helping the city deliver a safe, reliable, and accessible service for Bronxites.”
He additionally stated there had been half one million journeys in the course of the first section of the scooter-share pilot and there had been no fatalities and only a few accidents. He credited the protection protocols that the company required of the three operators, together with limiting the scooter’s velocity for first-time customers, and in addition offering security programs and helmet giveaways.
In the “Beginner Mode,” a rider’s first three journeys are capped at 10 mph and so they can’t take out a scooter after darkish.
And the opposite excellent news: Despite the issues with connectivity at Ferry Point Park, scooter customers will simply be capable of attain the NYC Ferry’s Soundview line’s Clason Point Park cease as a result of Soundview Avenue terminates very near the dock.
That’s chilly consolation to Roy Smith, a City Island resident who hoped for full accessibility to the Ferry Point dock.
“Like so many different projects, what’s going on here is sort of an interdepartmental infighting between DOT and Parks,” he stated. “Meanwhile, the people that could use the service are kind of left out in the cold.”