John Liu

Flickr via Ed Yourdon

It's official. The long-coming bike access bill, which at one point last month sparked some infighting between city councilmen and comptroller candidates David Yassky (the bill's author) and John Liu (who was criticized for stalling the legislation), has cleared the Council's transportation committee and is headed for a vote by the full City Council tomorrow, July 29.

We've been following the bill, which is designed to encourage bike commuting by requiring commercial building owners to provide bicycle access and storage, for the past few months, and you can find our full coverage here.

In anticipation of the bill's passing in committee, Mr. Yassky, Mr. Liu, D.O.T. Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Transportation Alternatives' Paul Steely White and various other officials and bike/sustainability/public health advocates gathered on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge this morning to celebrate.

Read the release Mr. Yassky's office sent out after the jump:

It looks like the bike access bill--legislation that would require commercial landlords to allow bike storage in buildings--will finally be voted out of the Council's transportation committee.

We got a call this morning from a spokeswoman for John Liu, who chairs the committee, saying that he was prepared to move on the bill now that two key changes have been made. One is a rewording of language that Mr. Liu said created a loophole for building owners who might seek an exemption from the new rules, and the other is to put the bill under the purview of the Department of Buildings. It was originally going to be the responsibility of the Department of Transportation, which Mr. Liu has said is ill-equipped to enforce it.

The bill, which was first introduced 2003 and has resurfaced in various incarnations since then, will come up for a vote during the transportation committee's meeting tomorrow, July 28.

A few updates on the now controversial bike access bill since we filed our report before the holiday weekend:

Azi Paybarah spoke with Councilman John Liu, who bicycle activists are accusing of stalling the legislation that would require commercial-building owners to allow bikes to be stored in their buildings. (The bill was expected to be voted out of Mr. Liu's Transportation Committee last Tuesday and subsequently passed by the full City Council.)  

Mr. Liu spoke to Mr. Paybarah about the problems he has with the legislation, which happens to have been authored by one of his primary opponents in the race for city comptroller, Councilman David Yassky. Mr. Liu echoed concerns he raised during a public hearing on the bill last month. From PolitickerNY:

Transportation Alternatives

Tensions surfaced this week between members of the city's cycling community and Councilman John Liu over a piece of legislation—the Bicycle Access to Buildings Bill—that has yet to make it out of the City Council Transportation Committee, which Mr. Liu chairs.

The bill, which was first introduced back in 2003 and has resurfaced in various incarnations since then, would require office buildings to let tenants store bikes in the buildings, hence encouraging more people to commute to work by bike, hence advancing the bike-friendly, semi-car-hostile transportation agenda being pushed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn.

The bill was expected to be voted out of the transportation committee on Tuesday afternoon and passed by the full City Council the following day. But that didn't happen. A spokesman for Councilman David Yassky, a co-sponser of the bill and one of Mr. Liu's opponents in the 2010 city comptroller race, told Streetsblog on Tuesday: "The bill has been laid on council members' desks for eight days, which is typically what is done before a bill comes before the full council. That was done with the anticipation that it would be voted out of the transportation committee today."

Now, supporters of the bike bill are coming down on Mr. Liu because the bill remains stalled.

Flickr via Ed Yourdon

Since last fall, the City Council has been developing legislation that would require office buildings to let tenants bring their bikes into work. This morning, June 15, the Council’s transportation and consumer affairs committees jointly held a hearing on what has come to be known as the Bicycle Access Bill, and on a corresponding piece of legislation that would create tens of thousands of parking spaces for bikes in some city lots and garages.

Since the idea behind the bill is to encourage more people to bike to work, it’s no surprise that Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn, a fervent—and, some might say, autocratic—bike advocate, worked with Council members on drafting the bill, and showed up to testify about it this morning.

“Given the costs associated with traffic congestion, both economic and environmental, and the fact that transit fares and costs are on the rise, cycling is needed now more than ever,” Ms. Sadik-Kahn said. Bike ridership in New York saw a 45 percent increase between 2006 and 2008, she said, citing a 2007 D.O.T. study that found more than half of the city’s non-cycling commuters don’t ride their bikes to work due to a lack of secure bike parking.

“The benefits are crucial to a more sustainable and vibrant city,” Ms. Sadik-Khan said.