Situated in southeastern Westchester County, less than 30 minutes from Grand Central Terminal, Pelham, New York (which is comprised of Pelham Village and Pelham Manor) is compact, about 2.5 square miles and, compared to Westchester’s hilly Hudson River Towns, relatively flat. Visitors walking around Pelham’s well-maintained residential streets or stopping in for a slice at Pelham Pizza along Fifth Avenue, the Town’s main commercial street, might never realize that, according to a recent Journal News article, Pelham is plagued by a lack of available parking at its Metro-North station.
The article highlighted Pelham as having one of the longest waiting lists for train station parking: “The 446 people on the wait list for Pelham outnumber those with permits more than 2 to 1.” However, this does not mean that parking is not available around the train station; the article notes that the price of Metro-North-owned parking is considerably cheaper ($583 annually) than what the Village charges in its own lots ($1,500 – $2,000 annually), no doubt increasing the demand for the railroad parking spaces.
On a tip from a former resident, MTR visited Pelham to see if biking to and from the train station might be a good option for residents who commute to work by train and do not have a train station parking spot.
MTR’s findings: the two routes we tried, a Manor route (from near Four Corners to the Grand Central-bound side of the train station) and a North Pelham route (from 4th Street and Lincoln Avenue to the Grand Central-bound side of the train station) were quite bike-able. Each route took between five and ten minutes, and while both routes had some uphill portions, it was nothing that would cause a bicyclist to break a sweat on a late October day. Both routes had plenty of room for cars and bikes to share the road, and both were mostly un-congested during the time we rode (early afternoon — Metro-North’s strict bike regulations prevented us from riding during morning or evening rush hour because we were bringing a bike from TSTC’s Manhattan office to Pelham) except for a relatively busy stretch of Lincoln Avenue.
Videos have been edited to play at 2x normal speed.
My bicycle was stolen form the Pelham train station. What is not locally published is the number of bike thefts from the Pelham Station. Apparently it is bad for the lucrative buxiness of local Real Estate agents who leverage their advertising dollars for white Pickett fence only stories to be published – go figure?
Good point. I’ve counted over 40 bikes (on the northbound side alone) parked at Scarsdale MetroNorth station. Incredible how much money the village is saving by not building another parking structure.
[…] MTA’s Metro-North survey highlights the importance of pedestrian and bicyclist infrastructure that serves the safety of commuters and transit riders, as well as the economic […]