Gaining Indoor Bicycle Access

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Provided that approval has been secured from the employer or manager in the immediate work area, the question is one of access to the building itself. Many New York City building managements refuse to admit bicycles to buildings or elevators. Reasons vary, but typically include concerns over cleanliness, elevator capacity, obstruction, accidents and liability, fear of tenant complaints, and image. [2]

Under a common but by no means universal compromise, cyclists are given access to freight elevators (usually via a rear entrance) during normal business hours (generally excluding the lunch hour, when many close down), and are sometimes permitted to use passenger elevators during evenings or on weekends. While cyclists are almost always grateful for any such dispensations, these smack of second-class treatment and today must often be negotiated individually and even surreptitiously.

In addition, many building managers, particularly in high-rent districts in Manhattan, bar bicycles altogether, though they may permit heavy traffic in hand trucks and dollies in freight elevators, lobbies and hallways. [3] Many fail to realize that a bicycle's wheels, which travel the same turf as pedestrians' feet, are generally no dirtier than the bottom of the average employee's shoes.

Bike-banning building managers formerly included the Department of General Services (DGS), the city agency that owns, operates and leases buildings for the City of New York. City transportation officials prevailed upon DGS to open the doors of 39 city-owned buildings in four boroughs to bicyclists, beginning in April 1991. However, promotion by DGS has been lackadaisical, and it is not clear whether bike commuting to these buildings has increased.

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