Bikes are allowed by law in New York City elevators. (Jack Phillips/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—Beginning Friday, people have a legal right to use freight elevators to bring their bikes up to their offices.

Local Law 52, signed in August 2009 is designed to increase bicycle commuting throughout the city, says the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT). The law gives riders a chance to park their bikes in office buildings, which would allow a secure spot for workers to place their bikes.

The law gives office tenants the option to formally request to take their bike up through a freight elevator, which must be honored by the building owner or manager. If not honored, the office owner must provide another space for bicyclists. The only exceptions are if there is no freight elevator or if the owner makes a special request to the city for exemption.

The DOT says that biking to work is an increasing trend, with a 26 percent increase in the past year. Since 2005, bike transit has “more than doubled,” according to the DOT Web site.

Probably the “biggest deal breakers” for bicyclists is having to park their bikes on the street, said Commissioner Sadik-Khan in a press statement. The commissioner acknowledged the increase in bicycle commuting and said the law will “launch a new era in bike commuting.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to increase the 2007 bike transit levels twofold by 2012, as a part of his PlaNYC initiative.

“This law will open the doors for bike commuting,” said Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives, a New York City advocacy group for bicyclists, walking and public transit.

In the past, office owners commonly had a “rejection policy” toward bicyclists taking their bikes up commercial elevators, said Norvell. There was a “sense of decorum” which held that bikes “were not accepted in the workplace.”

In recent years, however, Norvell said that when bicyclists ask if they can bring up their bikes, office owners “were more than willing to make their own space” for the “needs of their tenants.”

“The law will work in the flexibility that New York City and New Yorkers are known for,” he said.

Norvell expects the law will encourage tens of thousands of more New Yorkers to start biking to work next year.

“It will be a shot in the arm for green commuting,” he said.