That's been a rare experience in the last three years commuting for me. Longest time was a week or so they sent us to the north sidewalk. The PA usually has us use the south sidewalk and there are no stairs there on the GWB.

OP, if you are open to used bikes, then you can do some more advanced searches on Craigslist like this one for japanese bikes:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/search...7C%20panasonic

But I agree with @lostarchitect above in that older Japanese bikes can give some decent quality for the money.