05 Oct A description of your target organization? An existing policy or program in that organization; Background about the current state of your policy/program; what are its accomplishments,

Alec Bardey NYU CUSP

Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence 10/4/2021

Research Plan: Bike Parking

Problem Statement

New York City relies on its ability to provide effective transportation across its dense urban landscape. Public transit has been extremely slow to recover from the pandemic as ridership today is around a quarter of pre-pandemic levels1. As cars continue to dominate the city’s streets perpetuating congestion, pollution, and roadway casualties, it is more important than ever to provide infrastructure and resources for the fastest growing mode of transit5, biking. However, in a city with 1.6 million bike riders, there are only 56,000 bike parking spots3. This leads to the question: how can New York City use technology and data to facilitate providing accessible, convenient, secure, sustainable, and equitable bike parking in New York City?

Background

Core Issue

· There is a dearth of bike parking spots in New York City with 1.6 million riders and only 56,000 available spots3. In NYC there are 1.5 free on-street parking spaces for every registered car in the city, but only one bicycle parking space for every 116 bicycles in the city7.

· This is a growing problem. On a typical day there are about 510,000 cycling trips made in NYC, a rate that is growing more than twice as fast as American “peer-city averages.” 24% of adult New Yorkers have ridden a bike at least once in the past year5.

· As ridership grows, bike thefts are growing into an epidemic like problem. Bike thefts from March 2020 to September 2020 were up 27% relative to the same time period in 20196. A survey conducted by the NYC DoT reported that more than 1 out of every 4 NYC households have had a bike stolen from them9.

· A lack of secure bike parking presents a key barrier to entry for a great deal of bikers and potential bikers. In a survey of 8,000 New Yorkers, 51.4% reported bike storage as the primary reason not to ride a bicycle12. In another survey, 95% of NYC cyclists report that more bike parking should be a priority7. This is critical as more biking increases bike safety through a safety in numbers effect21.

· This is also an issue of equity. Fatality rates are 23% higher for Hispanic bike riders and 30% higher for African Americans riders relative to white bicyclists. People of color are also more likely to indicate that more bike parking would increase their ridership8.

· Bikes are treated as motorized vehicles with a mere fraction of the protections and infrastructure. The New York State law indicates that “bicyclists are subject to all rights and duties applicable to the operator of a vehicle.”

Present solution

· New York

· New York City’s resource for bike parking maps and requests is hidden on their website. It is difficult to find and not mobile or user-friendly2.

· NYC has failed to successfully implement more than 11 separate plans to build bike parking in the past 8 years7.

· The lack of bike parking has been known in NYC since a survey of New Yorkers in 1999 found that 51.4% of cyclists reported bike storage as the primary reason not to ride a bike12.

· New York State Law says that bicyclists are granted all the rights and duties applicable to cars13. What explains the lack of parking?

· The New York City Administrative Code and Zoning Resolution state that garages should be equipped with 1 bike parking space for every 10 cars15 and all residences other than single family homes are required to provide 1 secured spot for a bicycle for every 2 dwelling units16.

· International

· Outside of mandated bike parking ordinances, international cities are investing and building bike storage facilities. Earlier this year, London invested 1 million Euros to create 2,000 parking spaces for bikes across the city4.

· Netherlands recently finished the world’s largest bike park facility built in Utrecht Central Station built by a private firm that stores up to 12,656 bikes11.

Proposed Solution

Better application, maps, and management system

· The existing infrastructure is completely insufficient. It is difficult to find and difficult to use. By updating what exists, however, this resource can be valuable.

· There needs to be a streamlined, easily accessible, and mobile friendly application and map indicating bike parking facilities across the city. Secure Bike Parking Shelters should be equipped with sensors to count the number of available spaces, which should be integrated into this map and application2.

· This application may be equipped with an option to create a profile and provide key demographic features that could illuminate the populations most impacted.

· There should also be a readily accessible link either through this application or front and center on a website to report intersections and locations throughout the city ideal for bike parking corrals. This will be instrumental in locating new locations for bike parking facilities as it has been internationally4.

Better reporting metric to evaluate state of the problem and success of solution

· Need to require the NYPD to record and present accurate figures on bicycle theft. This is done solely on a volunteer basis between precincts.

· New York City should allow anonymous reporting of bicycle theft (many neglect reporting due to fear of deportation) and require the NYPD to provide official data on bike thefts. This would permit the use of CrimStat to track spatio-temporal information on bike thefts. Using this data will be fundamental to helping locate ideal locations for secure bike parking of all types.

· This should be accompanied by a timely rollout of new bike parking facilities every 6 months, followed by a 6-month evaluation window assessing new and old reports, complaints, and queries to determine effectiveness.

Permit the partial privatization of bicycle parking

· While the city implements these infrastructure and management changes, they should give a partial greenlight to certain private companies to construct bicycle parking in the public domain.

· The largest existing bike storage facility in Netherlands was constructed by a private entity who won the contract via a competition11, something NYC can consider.

· Private groups like Oonee are successfully building secure bicycle storage facilities across New York that are cheap to build and free to use. They are facing their greatest difficulty in getting approval from NYC to build more of these facilities.

· After implementing the changes including the reporting metric and application outlined above, the city should build public bike parking facilities in addition to permitting Oonee to build facilities. This presents itself as an opportunity for a natural experiment as the city could use the reporting metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of each type of bike storage.

Benefits of solution

· Beyond addressing the slew of issues presented above, bike parking is sure to increase safety and ridership. Trip-end facilities like bike storage are shown to support cycling and increase ridership17. Conversely, free car parking is associated with 70% smaller odds for bicycle commuting18.

· After the construction of a bike parking facility in Zutphen, Netherlands, researchers observed the percentage of all commuters that travelled by bike to the station increase from 41% to 58%19.

· Along BART lines in the Bay Area, the presence of bike parking facilities was statistically associated with an increase in bicycle access trips to BART20.

Next Steps: Interviews and Research

Interviews

· Shabazz Stuart, CEO/Founder of Oonee

· Danny Harris, executive director of Transportation Alternative

· A delivery bike driver and/or daily bike commuter

· A bureaucrat or representative of the NYC Department of Transportation

· Reporting specialist at NYPD

Future Research

· Deeper dive into international and domestic solutions –

· Applications, maps, and portals

· Use of data and survey research to locate good locations for facilities

· Clearer evaluation of the use of private bicycle parking facilities in public space

Annotated Bibliography

1. Penney, V. (2021, March 8). How Coronavirus Has Changed New York City Transit, in One Chart. New York Times.

This article details the how ridership rates changes in New York City across several different modes of transit. As of March 2021, public transit ridership is less than a quarter of pre-pandemic levels, while car ridership has nearly returned to pre-pandemic rates.

2. Bicycle parking. NYC DOT – Bicycle Parking. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bicycleparking.shtml.

This website on the NYC DOT page is the sole municipally sponsored resource for bike parking available. In has a map of all bike corrals and a form to submit requests for parking. According to the site there are more than 28,000 CityRacks, 83 BikeCorrals, and 20 Bike Parking Shelters.

3. Hu, W. (2021, January 26). N.Y.C.’s Bike Parking Problem: 1.6 Million Riders and Just 56,000 Spots. New York Times.

This article by New York Times contributor Winnie Hu outlines the problem at the core of this research. As of the writing of the article, there are fewer than 56,000 bike parking spaces in NYC to provide parking for over 1.6 million of New York City’s bike riders. This figure does not include CitiBike which has 38,000 spaces for their bikes at 1,100 docking stations. For context, London has three times as much bike parking with 150,000 spaces on streets and 20,000 in rail stations.

4. TFl press release – tfl investment to create up to 2,000 much-needed new cycle parking spaces across London. Transport for London. (2021, January 12). Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://tfl-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/tfl-press-release-tfl-investment-to-create-up-to-2-000-much-needed-new-cycle-parking-spaces-across-london.

This article touches on the 1 million Euros in funding that London just received to create up to 2,000 parking spaces for bikes. They predominantly used a combination of local and national surveys to receive their estimations.

5. Cycling in the City: Cycling Trends in NYC . (2020, July). Retrieved October 11, 2021, https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/cycling-in-the-city-2020.pdf

This press release from the NYC DOT provides bike related statistics through part of 2020. It indicates that on a typical day there are about 510,000 cycling trips made in NYC. Cycling in NYC is growing more than twice as fast as “peer-city average”. The survey conducted found that about 24% of adult New Yorkers have ridden a bike at least once in the past year in NYC. Nearly 800,000 New Yorkers ride a bicycle at least once a month.

6. Freytas-Tamura, K. (2020, October 14). Bike Thefts Are Up 27% in Pandemic N.Y.C.: ‘Sleep With It Next to You.’ New York Times. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/nyregion/bike-thefts-nyc.html.

This article from a New York Times reporter and contributor reports that the number of bicycles stolen from March 2020 through September 2020 was 4,477. This number represents a 27% increase in theft relative to the same time period in 2019.

7. The power of bicycle parking. Transportation Alternatives. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://www.transalt.org/the-power-of-bicycle-parking.

This report from advocacy group Transportation Alternative indicates a series of critical New York City bicycle parking statistics. In NYC, there are 1.5 free on-street parking spaces for every registered car in the city, but only one bicycle parking space for every 116 bicycles in the city. As a result, 95% of NYC cyclists say that more bike parking should be a priority. They also report that the City of New York has failed to successfully implement more than 11 separate plans to build bike parking in the past 8 years.

8. National Association of City Transportation Officials. (n.d.). The New Majority: Pedaling Towards Equality. NACTO. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LAB_equity_report.pdf.

This report for the National Association of City Transportation Officials reports on inequity in biking. They find that fatality rates are 23% higher for Hispanic riders and 30% higher for African-American riders relative to white bicyclists. People of color were also significantly more likely than white to indicate that more bike parking would increase their ridership. The report indicates that immigrants are twice as likely as US-born Americans to travel by bicycle and those earning less than $35,000 and living in dense residential areas are more than 10 times as likely to travel by bike.

9. NYC Department of Transportation Citywide Mobility Survey. (2018, November). Retrieved October 11, 2021, https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/nycdot-citywide-mobility-survey-report-2018.pdf

This report is the most recent reporting for the NYC DoT that indicates bike storage statistics. Of note, the survey indicates that over 1 out of every 4 NYC households have had a bike stolen from them.

10. Getman, A., Gordon-Koven, L., Hostetter, S., and Viola, R. Safer Cycling: Bicycle Ridership and Safety in New York City. (July 2017) New York City Department of Transportation. Retrieved October 11, 2021, http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/bike-safety-study-fullreport2017.pdf

This report details detailed bicycle crash rates and fatalities in New York City. They indicate that between 2011 and 2015, there was an average of 12.8 fatalities per 100 million bike trips, compared to 44.2 per 100 million in 1996-2000.

11. Lizzie Crook (2019, September 14). World's biggest bicycle park built below Utrecht train station. Dezeen. Retrieved October 12, 2021, from https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/12/worlds-biggest-bike-park-utrecht-central-station-ector-hoogstad-architecten/.

This publication discusses the implementation of the world’s largest bike park built in a train station in the Netherlands. It permits the storage for 12,656 bikes below Utrecht Central Station. It was built by a private firm and allows riders to seamlessly ride from street level into the parking facility.

12. New York City Bike Parking Needs. (1999, May). Retrieved October 11, 2021, https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/plans/transportation/bicycleparkingneed_1.pdf

The publication from the New York Department of Planning covers biking parking needs in NYC in 1999. In a survey of 8000 cyclists, 51.4% reported bike storage as the primary reason not to ride by bicycle. While parking has increased, the problem persists as the number of bikers outpaces the available number of parking spaces.

13. New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law, New York State § 1231 (2014)

This New York State law indicates that “bicyclists are subject to all rights and duties applicable to operator of vehicle”

14. 2012 Building Decree, Netherlands § 4.5 Article 4.30 (2012)

This building decree in the Netherlands declares that newly constructed residential buildings must have “a storage space to store bicycles protected from weather conditions.”

15. New York City Administrative Code, New York City § 20-327.1 (2021)

This source presents the actual New York bike related laws. It indicates that garages should be equipped to securely store 1 bike for every 10 cars. If the parking facility stores more than 100 cars, however, it only needs to store a single bicycle for every 100 cars.

16. New York City Zoning Resolution, New York City Planning Article III Chapter 6 § 36-70 (2011)

This site provides an outline for the required land use in New York City including bike parking. The entire zoning resolution was confirmed September 23, 2021. Section 36-70 indicates the required bicycle parking spaces. For residential uses, all residences (single family homes exempt) are required to provide 1 secured spot for a bicycle for every 2 dwelling units. This legislation provides clear parking ratios for all types of building uses.

17. Hamre, A., & Buehler, R. (2014). Commuter mode choice and free car parking, public transportation benefits, showers/lockers, and bike parking at work: evidence from the Washington, DC region.  Journal of Public Transportation,  17(2), 4.

This study uses data from 2007/2008 DC Household Travel Survey encompassing 4,360 adult full-time workers in DC. The authors use multinomial regression to evaluate the benefits of transit facilities at places of work. They find that trip-end facilities at work like bike parking support cycling and increase ridership. However, providing free car parking stunts any increase in public transit ridership, walking, and biking.

18. Buehler, R. (2012). Determinants of bicycle commuting in the Washington, DC region: The role of bicycle parking, cyclist showers, and free car parking at work.  Transportation research part D: Transport and Environment,  17(7), 525-531.

In this study, Ralph Buehler finds that free car parking was associated with 70% smaller odds for bicycle commuting. He also finds that bike parking and cyclist showers lead to more bicycle commuting.

19. Van der Spek, S. C., & Scheltema, N. (2015). The importance of bicycle parking management.  Research in Transportation Business & Management,  15, 39-49.

This paper evaluates the significance of bicycle parking management in several international cities. The authors view bike-parking is a spatio-temporal issue with location and timing as significant factors. They report that almost half of Dutch train travelers cycle to the station. The authors do a case study on many bike parking stations across Europe. After building a station in Zutphen, Netherlands, for example, the percentage of all travelers that travelled by bike to the station increased from 41% to 58%.

20. Cervero, R., Caldwell, B., & Cuellar, J. (2013). Bike-and-ride: build it and they will come.  Journal of Public Transportation,  16(4), 5.

This paper by UC Berkley professors explores bike stations along BART lines in the Bay Area. They find that between 1998-2009 the number of bicycle trips to BART stations grew by 69%. Along the lines 42 stations, the presence of bike parking facilities was statistically associated with an increase in bicycle access trips to BART.

21. Carlson, K., Ermagun, A., Murphy, B., Owen, A., & Levinson, D. (2019). Safety in numbers for bicyclists at urban intersections.  Transportation research record,  2673(6), 677-684.

This study aims to evaluate the impact of a “safety in numbers” (SIN) effect among bike riders. They find that increasing the number of cyclists reduces the probability and number of crashes via a diminishing return to scale.

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Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence | Research Plan Pupul Bhoumick | pb2652

Optimally utilizing existing parking spots to meet the parking demand and supply gap in New York City

Overview

The research project will emphasize developing a technologically innovative parking management program for New York Department of Transportation (NYC-DOT), to address the overarching parking shortage challenges in New York City. The program will optimally utilize the existing private parking spaces and recommend NYC-DOT to develop web-based platform for New Yorkers to share private parking spaces.

Background

Parking condition in New York City

· New York has 1.85 million on-street and off-street (public-owned garages) parking spaces for 8.4 million population. In general, New Yorkers cruise about 15, 30 or even 45 minutes to find a parking spot near their residence, office or shopping areas.

· During the COVID-19 pandemic, a sharp jump of 76% in Manhattan and 45% in Brooklyn was seen in vehicular registrations. This suggests more cars are and will be on street than before, resulting into increased demand for parking space (both for residential and commercial areas) requirement.

Need for innovative thinking

· Parking demand will always grow but providing more parking space by sacrificing public spaces/ streets is not the solution. However, making optimal use of the existing parking space should be the approach.

· The pandemic has changed the workplace’s culture, making work from home an adoptable mode, while leaving offices unoccupied. More parking spaces at privately owned commercial buildings are left empty, whereas the on-street parking in residential areas are filled to capacity.

· There is an urgent need for NCY-DOT to shift from its approach of providing more on-street parking to an innovative model of utilizing existing underused private parking spaces.

Focus Area

Proposed Technological Solution- Shared Parking Platform

· Parking demands operate on a peak and off-peak schedule depending on the land use type. This offers an opportunity for the city to better use the parking and satisfy residents and commuters parking needs without increasing parking supply.

· Shared Parking will serve as a tool for sharing parking among land uses with different parking peak timings. It makes private parking space publicly available rather than reserved for single use. It can also reduce the minimum parking requirements for mixed-use developments or single-use developments in mixed-use areas, making buildings more affordable.

Example: An office building sharing parking with a restaurant since most of the office workers (and their cars) will be gone in the evenings when there is the most demand for parking in the restaurant.

Benefits for:

1. City Transportation Department- Reduction in the land given for parking; Manage sudden increase in parking demand; Utilize existing private parking spaces

2. Private Parking Owners- Additional income from their unused parking spaces

3. Parking Renters- Guaranteed availability of affordable parking space within a reasonable range from their residence/ offices/ recreational areas.

Web-Based Platform

The shared parking concept can be implemented on-ground through the development of a web-based two-sided online platform that connects people who have empty garage or car spot with individuals looking for affordable, clean and safe parking. The platform will:

At the User end:

· Allow private properties (residence, commercial building owners, etc.) to register their vacant/ not effectively used parking spot for renting and earn rental money.

· Allow renters to identify suitable parking spots, check available parking slots and parking charges.

· Provide opportunity to the users to create their profile, rate each other and write reviews about their experience (visible to all), ensuring safety and security of the place and vehicle.

· Allow parking space owners to select their choice of renter.

At the NYC-DOT end:

· Make NYC-DOT the transaction facilitator and potentially receive transaction fees upon every booking.

· Allow NYC-DOT to identify zones with high parking searches and registered private parking spots. This will help them understand actual parking requirement scenario for each land use, socio-economic aspect of the area and develop data-driven decisions.

Identify Organizations

· NYC Department of Transportation- Responsible for parking meter installation and maintenance, and municipal parking facility management.

· NYC Parking Authority- Provide web-based platform for finding, reserving and paying parking fees for publicly owned parking garages.

· Spacer- Private online platform for citizens to register their private parking spot for renting.

Key Challenges

· This platform will require coordination and involvement of multiple stakeholders.

· The success of the program will highly depend on public awareness about it and the benefits.

· This might reduce the off-street public parking revenue for the city transportation department.

List of resources reviewed

· PlaNYC 2030 released by Mayor Michael Bloomberg

· Zoning Resolution 2021 for New York City

· The working framework of SpotHero and Spacer web/ mobile based parking reservation application

· Quantified Parking: Comprehensive Parking Inventories for Five U.S. Cities

· Portland Metro’s Model Shared Parking Ordinance

· Shared Parking: Institute of Transportation and Development Policy

Way Forward

Plan for Additional Resources

· Conduct interviews with city officials within NYC-DOT, NYC Parking Authority and NYC Planning- Zoning Resolution, official representatives from Spacer and SpotHero and an official representative of Northwest Portland Parking and Transportation Programs

· Detailed review of Northwest Portland Parking and Transportation Programs Shared Parking Policy for Beijing, China and Montogomery County Zoning Ordinance, Maryland

· Interview with NYU Professor Dr.Zhan Guo to understand and discuss the challenges specific to New York City, anticipated challenges while developing the web-based application, financial implication and funding requirements and manage coordination between multiple stakeholders.

Implementation Roadmap

· Identify pilot project location as a testing bed for conducting and evaluating the feasibility of the program. Based on the learnings from the pilot project, the program can be improved prior to performance of a full-scale project.

· Feasibility study of PPP model (with private companies’ coordination) for implementing the program.

· Identify infrastructural requirement, policy and zoning reforms

· Recommend institutional framework for efficient formulation and implementation of the program and achieve envisaged outcome.

· Formulate Monitoring Framework to determine if the program is on track and is achieving its long-term goals of effective utilization of private parking spots.

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Must clarify focus tech/data office on key principles:

Efficiency

Effectiveness

Morale

Productivity

Satisfaction

Unified models

Federated models

decentralized models

cybersecurity, i team, innovation team