Between drivers preventing buses from making turns by parking in crosswalks, parking at designated temporary bus stops, and rampant double-parking, the lack of designated space for shuttle buses forces them to move at a snail\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n
Faced with no subway service and unreliable buses, many Greenpointers have turned to Citi Bikes, but the neighborhood\u2019s increased dependence on them is sparking commuting chaos.<\/p>\n
Not enough docks<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have so many people using [Citi Bikes] and we don\u2019t have the infrastructure to actually make that useful for everyone during the shutdown,\u201d said Emily Gallagher, the neighborhood\u2019s state assembly member.<\/p>\n
Somewhat counterintuitively, full stations consistently indicate<\/a> that Citi Bikes are very popular in the surrounding area. They are the result of cyclists docking their bikes during peak hours. In Greenpoint, however, those peak hours simply never end during G train shutdowns.<\/p>\n \u201cI expected this dock to be completely full because the G train is down,\u201d said Lizzy Berdoff as she looked for a spot at a full docking station next to McCarren Park. She added that she would have preferred to ride the G train into the neighborhood.<\/p>\n Another cyclist said that he noticed the problem worsened this summer. \u201cFinding a bike is never a problem,\u201d said Dennis Green, who lives in Greenpoint. \u201cIt\u2019s docking it.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the issues with docking stations in Greenpoint are inherent to their design. Every station contains a relatively limited and static number of docks, while the number of open docks fluctuates by the minute. The station locations are also subject to change: Citi Bike can move them, and remove them entirely, without warning. These circumstances, combined with an influx of G train riders, make open docks incredibly scarce<\/a> during peak hours.<\/p>\n Lyft, which owns Citi Bike, removed six Greenpoint stations for construction this summer, according to Citi Bike spokesperson C.J. Macklin. Lyft reinstalled five of them by the time last weekend\u2019s train shutdown rolled around, when Streetsblog spoke with these cyclists.<\/p>\n Macklin said Lyft is collaborating with the Department of Transportation to add more stations. He added that Citi Bike has already increased \u201crebalancing\u201d runs in the neighborhood \u2014 where the company uses vans to relocate bikes from stations with few empty docks to stations with a lot of them.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first summer that G train closures have sent Brooklynites out on two wheels. The MTA partially shut down the G train throughout the summer of 2024 and on four summer weekends in 2025, when usage at the 21 stations surveyed<\/a> by Streetsblog increased by an average of nearly 14 percent.<\/p>\n So what can be done? <\/p>\n Apart from the MTA finally finishing the seemingly endless modernization of the G train, and Lyft adding more stations throughout Greenpoint, Gallagher and Restler offered a few solutions \u2014 some more realistic than others.<\/p>\n Gallagher underscored the need for more rebalancing runs, and encouraged city agencies to more proactively assist Greenpointers during shutdowns. She wants entities like Lyft and the city\u2019s ferry system to work together more effectively. \u201cThere should just be more coordination across all forms of transit to fill the gaps,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Restler, meanwhile, called for two unrelated policies: \u201cDuring G train shutdowns, not only should there be reduced prices so that it\u2019s accessible, but Lyft should add valet parking so that we\u2019re not constrained by the limited dock capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n It is not clear why temporarily lower prices would ease the Citi Bike dock shortage in Greenpoint, because the entire problem is that too many people are paying for Citi Bikes but not finding enough docks to end their rides. Further reducing the cost of Citi Bikes would worsen<\/a> the dock shortage, not alleviate it. Citi Bikes would be less accessible, not more so.<\/p>\n Valet parking is a different story. Employed by Citi Bike at high-traffic stations<\/a> throughout the city, valet parking allows bike-share riders to leave their bikes in a designated space \u2014 unconfined by the number of docks available \u2014 where Lyft picks them up and brings them to an empty station further away.<\/p>\n Calvin Thigpen, who leads the mobility practice at Toole Designs, said bike-share operators beyond New York frequently incorporate valet parking for planned, temporary events, which could include train suspensions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat New York City DOT and [Lyft] can do for this situation in Greenpoint, and elsewhere in the system too, is essentially develop these \u2018event plans\u2019 for these commonly recurring situations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Thigpen said that these \u201cevent plans\u201d would follow the same formula implemented by other bike-share systems and city agencies during big events. He pointed to Seattle, where the city\u2019s Department of Transportation set up valet bike-share parking<\/a> and more than 200 extra \u201ccorrals\u201d<\/a> for bike-share users to park their wheels during this summer\u2019s FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n The fundamental issue with these fixes, however, is that they do not address the source of the problem: The present inability of the MTA to run reliable shuttle buses parallel to the route of the G train, because the city refuses to ban private cars from the route. If the MTA were able to run fast and frequent shuttle buses, significantly fewer Greenpointers would resort to Citi Bike.<\/p>\n \u201cThe MTA is committed to working with community members and local businesses to minimize impact,\u201d said agency spokesperson Kayla Shults, who added that the agency increases shuttle service based on demand, monitors signage that mark temporary bus stops and works with the New York Police Department to resolve reports of double-parking.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GP-Full-Citi-Bike-e1786479227115.jpeg\")
A full Citi Bike station outside of McCarren Park. Photo: Emily Smith<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GP-Citi-Bike-Berdoff.jpeg\")
Lizzy Berdoff and other Citi Bikers search for another dock next to the completely full dock outside of McCarren Park. Photo: Emily Smith<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Closed-G-Train-e1786479336770.jpeg\")
The Nassau Avenue G train stop during August 9\u2019s suspension. Photo: Emily Smith<\/p>\n