New York Today: Testing Dockless Bikes

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/nyregion/new-york-today-dockless-bikes-slow-buses.html

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Good morning on this stillrainy Wednesday.

Among the ways to get around this city — rickshaw, subway, scooter, ferry — we now have one more option: dockless bikes.

Over the last week or so, more than 300 free-standing bikes were rolled out in the Rockaways, and more are on their way this weekend.

The bikes are part of the city’s dockless bike-share pilot — think Citi Bike without the parking spot — and they will be installed in the Bronx, southern Brooklyn and Staten Island in the coming months.

Using the bikes is a breeze. We spent the day yesterday testing them out at the beach.

When we stepped out of the Beach 90th Street subway station at Rockaway Beach, we found one of the bikes waiting for us. There appeared to be one on every nearby block — parked in front of bakeries, playgrounds and up and down the boardwalk.

To ride, we downloaded separate apps from Pace and Lime (the two operators), signed up for accounts, flipped up kickstands and off we went. The bikes are much the same, but Pace bikes require that you lock them to a designated bike rack or pole, while Lime bikes must be left in designated zones. Both Pace and Lime’s bikes cost $1 every 30 minutes.

If you want to try them out, we suggest this weekend when Lime will be adding 100 pedal-assist bikes to its fleet. (Legislation allowing them in the city goes into effect on Saturday.) The bikes make pedaling easier and allow riders to travel faster and farther with less energy.

“There’s a moment when people try them for the first time and you can see in their face,” said Evan Thies, a spokesman for Lime. “It’s like whooooa.”

(We can attest they’re a blast.)

With more than 3,000 rides logged by New Yorkers on the dockless bikes already, there have only been a few hiccups.

Some residents in the Rockaways have complained that they’ve found them in backyards or hanging from fences. Vandalism has occurred, but on a small scale. (Two Lime bikes have been damaged since last Friday, according to Mr. Thies.)

The pilot program will last six months, and then the Department of Transportation will review it.

In the meantime, here’s how you can try Lime and Pace.

Here’s what else is happening:

Pedaling to work may have to wait until Friday.

That’s when the clouds should finally part and the sun will return. Until then, it’s more of the same. Thunderstorms. Heavy rainfall. Dark clouds. Meh.

Today’s high is near 80.

• Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has made a series of policy announcements and political moves that have thrust her toward the front and left of the Democratic Party. [New York Times]

• Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the city’s practice of sending young inmates to jails outside the city, where solitary confinement restrictions don’t exist. [New York Times]

• As officials in New Jersey are pushing to legalize marijuana, the state’s attorney general is calling for prosecutors to put a pause on marijuana-related cases. [New York Times]

• Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor fortune, was arrested Tuesday and charged with conspiracy and racketeering in connection with her role at Nxivm, a self-help group that former members have called a cult. [New York Times]

• A federal judge freed Pablo Villavicencio Calderon, a pizza deliveryman, from immigration detention, saying he could stay in the country and pursue a green card. [New York Times]

• The mayor is trying to avoid being questioned in a lawsuit over city housing policy and segregation. [New York Times]

• Eight former members of a group of rogue Democrats, the Independent Democratic Conference, were ordered to return hundreds of thousands of dollars in politicals donations, less than two months before they face stiff primary challenges. [New York Times]

• Through photography, two longtime residents of the Lower East Side captured closing storefronts. An art instillation in Seward Park is now showcasing them. [New York Times]

• The documentary “93Queen” tells of the creation of Ezras Nashim, an all-female emergency service in a strictly observant Jewish community in Brooklyn. [New York Times]

• Debris contaminated with asbestos from the steam pipe explosion in the Flatiron district of Manhattan was found inside 12 buildings. [am New York]

• The actual cleanup of the infamously toxic Gowanus Canal isn’t expected to begin until 2020. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

• Today’s Metropolitan Diary: “Independence Day, Queens”

• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Morning Briefing.

• The Asian-American International Film Festival screens movies by Asian-Americans, and it has panels and discussions at various times and locations. Through Aug. 4. [$16]

• An evening of classical music, part of the Carnegie Hall Citywide series of performances, at Bryant Park in Midtown. 5:30 p.m. [Free]

• Stop by “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York,” an exhibition of photographs of small businesses in the city, at the Storefront Project Gallery on the Lower East Side. 6 p.m. [Free]

• During Uptown Bounce, enjoy dance lessons, music, performances and free admission to the Museum of the City of New York and El Museo del Barrio on the Upper East Side. 6 to 9 p.m. [Free]

• Enjoy French music and food before a screening of “The Young Girls of Rochefort” at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens. 7 p.m. [Free]

• Yankees at Rays, 12:10 p.m. (YES). Mets host Padres, 12:10 p.m. (SNY). New York Red Bulls at D.C. United, 8 p.m. (MSG).

• Alternate-side parking remains in effect until Aug. 15.

• For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.

Subway riders aren’t the only ones hobbled by sluggish service. Buses can also be excruciatingly slow.

To highlight just how bad bus service in the city can be, the Straphangers Campaign, an advocacy group, handed out its annual “pokey” and “schleppie” awards on Tuesday.

The “pokey” award for slowest bus in the city went to the M42 in Manhattan, which has an average speed of 3.2 miles per hour, according to the campaign.

The group noted that the speed of the bus is slower than that of a running chicken, which can top out at 9 m.p.h.

Runners-up in each borough include the B63 in Brooklyn, the Bx19 in the Bronx, the Q20A in Queens and the S48 in Staten Island.

The group’s “schleppie” is awarded for the route with the worst service. It’s based on the percentage of buses in a line that “bunch” — when two buses arrive at a stop at the same time — which indicates they’re not on schedule.

The winner was the B12 in Brooklyn, which had a bunching rate of about one in every five buses.

Our condolences to the riders of the “winners.”

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