Course Helps Inexperienced Cyclists Prepare For NYC Bike Share
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A week from today, Citi Bike stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn will go online, and thousands of inexperienced cyclists rolling out.
WCBS 880 reporter Alex Silverman took a look at what it might mean for safety on our streets.
"I am terrified of riding a bike in the city," a rider named Jessica told Silverman, but her open mind brought her a bike shop on Myrtle Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
That's where Dan Suraci set up a classroom for a recent evening.
Course Helps Inexperienced Cyclists Prepare For NYC Bike Share
"To give them some street skills so they know when they're riding the Citi Bikes in the street, here's how you do it safely," he said.
Bike New York is offering these lessons once a week ahead of the launch of the massive bike share system.
"Just pay attention to what's going on around you, you're going to be perfectly fine," he said.
LINK: Citi Bike (Official Website)
It might seem like a fair assumption that more inexperienced bikers will mean more accidents.
"But what we've seen is in cities across the country and across the world," NYC Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said. "...the streets are actually safer when you have bike share."
In fact, the DOT stats show as the number of bikes in the city shot over up the past ten years, serious injuries were actually down by almost 75 percent.
You May Also Be Interested In These Stories
