

Yesterday was an exciting day if you were a biking enthusiast in Western Queens. State Sen. Mike Gianaris announced that DOT had told him that Astoria would be included in Phase 2 of the Citibike expansion. “Citi Bike will be a great addition to Astoria, which has a growing cycling community and is already one of the most bike-friendly neighborhoods in the city,” said Gianaris in a press release. (Long Island City is still slated to be part of Phase 1, although implementation has been delayed by Sandy-related damage to equipment. It had already been announced that Sunnyside would be part of Phase 2.) The city agency that’s holding the reins followed up with a vague confirmation: “DOT will begin the planning process for Astoria’s future inclusion in the bike share system. No timetable has been set for this neighborhood or the others in Queens.” Interestingly, as Gianaris noted in his press release, a big part of the need for the bicycles is connectivity to the borough to Queens’ south. “The historical view was that the only transportation people needed was from the outer boroughs to Manhattan,” he said. “Now we need to provide ways for people to get from Astoria to Long Island City, or from Queens to Brooklyn.” See StreetsBlog and DNAInfo for related coverage.