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Bicycle Access to Buildings Law, New York City
"Bicycle Access to Buildings" Law is a short name for New York City legislation passed J
uly 29, 2009 as Intro 87, now Section 28-504 of the New York City Administrative Code. The law requires the operators of certain New York City office buildings to allow the employees and visitors of their commercial tenants to enter the building with a bicycle pursuant to an individualized "Bicycle Access Plan." Bicycle Access Plans are not automatically required under the Law and must be established on a building-by-building basis. Unless a Bicycle Access Plan is implemented according to the procedures below, a building operator has no obligation under the Law to allow bicycle access. The Law only applies to buildings that have a freight elevator available for bicycle access, and building operators can qualify for exemption from mandatory access in the two ways discussed below.
The Law takes effect 120 days after passage--on December 11, 2009. The interpretation of the Law appearing below is unofficial and merely reflects the collective authors' informal efforts to make sense of the legislative text. As the Law is implemented and the Department of Transportation or the Department of Buildings begin to get involved, greater clarity should emerge. Since this is a wiki, it should go without saying that it is subject to change, so make sure you are working with the most recent version!
What Office Buildings Must Do Under the Bicycle Access Law
What Buildings Are Covered
The Bicycle Access to Buildings Law (Section 28-504 of the Administrative Code) covers buildings, the main occupancy of which is offices, that have freight elevators meeting certain standards. "Offices," is not defined, so arguably any commercial tenant would qualify. "Main occupancy," is not defined, so it seems that either a qualitative or a quantitaive measure could be used. In other words, a building with one large office tenant that occupies half the building and ten non-office tenants could qualify, or a building with twenty tenants, eleven of which are office tenants, could qualify.
The building's freight elevator must either be compliant with standard number 17.1 published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers ("ASME 17.1"), or operated by an appointed elevator operator. You can search the building where you work to see what elevators it has here.
What Access is Required
The Bicycle Access to Buildings Law (Section 28-504 of the Administrative Code) requires only that the operator of the building (the owner, landlord, or property manager) allow persons that would ordinarily be entered to enter the building, to enter with a bicycle, and only to the extent and according to the rules provided for in an approved Bicycle Access Plan. If there is a Bicycle Access Plan approved for a building, it must contain, at a minimum, (1) the building entrances at which bike access is permitted, and (2) approved routes from those entrances to elevators approved for bicycle transport. If the building operator or a commercial tenant has allocated space for bicycle storage within the building, then that space must be listed in the Bicycle Access Plan as well. However, the Law does not require building operators or tenants to create indoor storage or parking space for bicycles. The Department of Transportation can require building operators to include more information in Bicycle Access Plans.
Bicycle access is required to be provided only during the hours when the building's freight elevator is in operation.
A Bicycle Access Plan provides access only to a specified tenant. Employees of tenants that do not have bicycle access plans, are not permitted to gain access under the Bicycle Access Plan of a tenant with whom they are not affiliated.
The operator of a building with an implemented Bicycle Access Plan must post, within 5 days of implementation of the Plan, either (1) the Plan itself or (2) a letter in the lobby of the building notifying persons that a copy of the Plan is available from building management.
The Plan may be amended to accommodate requests from other tenants or subtenants.
No Obligations for Commercial Tenants
Building tenants themselves do not appear to have any obligations under the Bicycle Access Law (Section 28-504 of the Administrative Code). They are not required to request a Bicycle Access Plan ("BAP"), even if some, many, or all of their employees wish them to request one. There is nothing in the Law that would prevent a building tenant from withdrawing a request for BAP that was already made. Building tenants are not required to create space in their leased premises for employee bicycle storage. Building tenants are not required to allow their employees to bring bicycles into their leased premises, even if there is a BAP in effect. Building tenants can set rules for bicycle access to their leased premises, or deny access altogether, and there is no provision in the Law for the Department of Transportation or the Department of Buildings to intervene.
The Safety Risk Exemption to Access
A building can be exempted from the requirement of implementing a Bicycle Access Plan if it can show that "unique circumstances exist involving substantial safety risks directly related to the use" of the freight elevator to transport bicycles. To establish this safety risk exemption, a building operator must provide reasons and provide supporting documentation, that will be evaluated by the Department of Buildings following an inspection of the elevator. There is nothing in the Bicycle Access Law describing the kind of reasons that might qualify for the exemption, the type of documentation the operator must provide, or standards by which the asserted exemption will be judged. The building operator must assert the safety risk exemption in a filing with the Department of Transportation within 15 days of receiving a request for a Bicycle Access Plan. Apparently, the Department of Transportation must coordinate with and “hand off” these requests for exemption to the Department of Buildings, which apparently will be solely responsible for determining whether the exemption will be granted. If the exemption is granted, the building operator must publicize the fact in the same manner provided for the publication of an approved Bicycle Access Plan, described above. There is no obligation to publicly post a pending request for exemption; that information is provided only to the requesting tenant, within 30 days of the date on which the request for a Bicycle Access Plan was received by the operator.
The Alternate Parking Facility Exemption to Access
A building can be exempted from the requirement of implementing a Bicycle Access Plan if it can show that there is sufficient secure sheltered off-street or secure indoor no-cost bicycle parking available in or within three blocks or seven hundred fifty feet (whichever is less) of the building. “Sufficiency” is gauged based on the ability of the alternate parking facility to accommodate all tenants or subtenants of such building requesting bicycle access. To establish this alternate parking exemption, a building operator must provide proof of the sufficiency of the alternate off-street or indoor parking and that these alternate parking facilities are "available to" or under the control of the building operator (this means that public on-street Department of Transportation parking facilities would not qualify). The building operator must assert the alternate parking facility exemption in a filing with the Department of Transportation within 15 days of receiving a request for a Bicycle Access Plan. The Department of Buildings and the Department of Transportation will jointly conduct an inspection of the alternate facilities and the Department of Transportation will determine whether to grant the exemption. If the exemption is granted, the building operator must publicize the fact in the same manner provided for the publication of an approved Bicycle Access Plan, described above. There is no obligation to publicly post a pending request for exemption; that information is provided only to the requesting tenant, within 30 days of the date on which the request for a Bicycle Access Plan was received by the operator.
How to Get a Bicycle Access Plan
Format of a Bicycle Access Plan
The Department of Transportation has the responsibility under the Law to prepare a standardized format for both a tenant’s request for a Bicycle Access Plan, and for a Bicycle Access Plan. Although the Law is not effective until November 26, 2009, specific provision is made for the Departments of Buildings and Transportation to begin work on implementing the Law before that date.
Applying for a Bicycle Access Plan
The Law sets a timetable for implementation of a Bicycle Access Plan. the Timetable begins with the tenant’s request to the building operator. The request is to be made by the tenant to the operator on a form to be provided by the Department of Transportation ("DoT"), and a copy of the request must be sent by certified mail (return receipt requested) to the DoT. (It would be wise to send the application to the building operator by certified mail as well--or to hand it to them with a follow-up letter sent by certified mail stating the day they received it by hand--because it may become necessary later to prove when the building operator received the application in order to enforce the other deadlines in the Law).
The day after the request is received by the operator, the timetable below starts to run. In the table below, the “day” reflects the number of days from day zero, the “event “ column describes what is supposed to happen. When counting days, do not count the day on which the request for a bicycle access plan was received by the operator—that day does not count! Also, if a deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, assume it gets bumped to the next business day.
Day Event
0 Tenant ‘s request for Bicycle Access Plan to building operator is received by building operator (must also be sent to DoT, but DoT receipt date does not affect timetable)
15 Building operator must submit all requests for exemption to Department of Transportation by this date
30 Operator must either (1) implement Bicycle Access Plan and provide a copy of it to the requesting tenant, or (2) provide a copy of its request for exemption that has been filed with Department of Transportation
35 Operator must post approved Bicycle Access Plan
? Department of Buildings must approve or deny request for safety risk exemption
? Department of Transportation must approve or deny request for alternate parking facility exemption
If the building operator does not either (1) request an exemption or (2) approve and implement a Bicycle Access plan within 30 days after the request for one, it may receive a “violation.”
ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK
Bicycle Access to Buildings Law, New York City
REFERENCES
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PICTURE REFERENCES
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