Business owners: Bike station driving away customers

Business owners are frustrated with a bike-sharing station that they say is driving away customers. Businesses on Graham Avenue in Williamsburg say the station, installed about three weeks ago, is

News 12 Staff

Sep 15, 2015, 12:56 AM

Updated 3,157 days ago

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Business owners: Bike station driving away customers
Business owners are frustrated with a bike-sharing station that they say is driving away customers.
Businesses on Graham Avenue in Williamsburg say the station, installed about three weeks ago, is taking precious parking spaces away from customers. Now they say there are traffic jams, double parking and delivery trucks with nowhere to go.
"It's chaos. My customers used to drive around once, find a spot, come in and leave. Now they drive around twice, they go home," says Phil Fontana, owner of Tony's Pizza.
Owners are also upset because this was not the original location for the station. One member of the committee board says it was supposed to be on Metropolitan Avenue. A DOT spokesperson says the department is "obligated to provide replacement sites when planned or existing Citi Bike stations are lost to changes in streetscape, even when these changes are unanticipated and occur with little notice."
The agency says it will work with the community to examine concerns about the station.


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