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NYC Finally Gets Bikesharing (for a Fee)
I'm still getting used to the fact that New York City, once a global leader, has fallen so far behind other cities in keeping up with the times. On a trip to Copenhagen in 1995, I marveled at that city's system of public bikesharing, and many of you live in places where that's old hat; but I'm still excited to see that New York is finally getting something similar in a couple of months.
Like many other things in New York, it won't be free. Citi Bike is something like ZipCar for bicycles, though the pricing model is a bit different: You pay a $95 annual fee and then get as many 45-minute bike rides as you can take, from station to station, throughout predetermined locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Another difference with Citi Bike is that tourists can take advantage of the program by paying for 24-hour access or 7-day access (30-minute riding intervals). Thus far the map looks pretty comprehensive for downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, though some of these may change:
"Bike share systems only work when bikes are used and re-docked so that others can use them," Citi Bike writes, explaining why overages are charged if you exceed the 45-minute limit. You can get around this on longer trips by relaying from station to station, but NYC is geographically small enough that I can't see myself having to do that often.
I'm curious as to how they'd work out the logistics of keeping each bike station balanced between having enough supply and enough empty slots to dock incoming bicycles; there's no word on how they plan to solve the former, but Citi Bike has solved the latter as follows: Should you get to your destination station and find it full, a screen at the station awards you a 15-minute credit and directs you to the nearest station with an empty slot. The stations appear close enough that this will hopefully not be a hassle.
What will be a hassle is if you're unattentive enough to have the bike stolen out from under you; that will incur a $1,000 fine. Ouch.
Citi Bike launches this July with 10,000 bikes in 600 locations. (And as the name implies, yep, it's sponsored by the bank.)
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Comments
Rabidchi: I hate how my e acutes always turn into something else too!
Bike systems: I prefer how these systems are implemented in other cities over Montreals. In Montreal, the stations take up street parking, which is already difficult to find. Because they are in the road, they need to be removed every winter and put back in spring. Lastly, as stated, the bikes tend to be taken from all over the place to the downtown in morning and then returned in the evening (as a form of commuting). This leads to the problem of just hiring a few people to stand around and collect bikes in downtown, rather than use the fancy bike stands. I would list that as a fail.
On the social side, the bikes have promoted very bad behaviours. Typical riders don't wear helmets and more often than other bikers, ride on the sidewalk. I really wish the city had invested in a few bike garages in downtown where bikes would be securely stored during the day than get into this really complicated half-a**ed solution.
@ rabidchi, then I'm currious to know, how is it improved from the other formulas such as Paris' ?
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Besides, to come back on the "rebalancing" question, I think they added a system, in Paris, where some stations are considered "high rated" or something: when you put back a bike to such stations during rush hours, for instance, you earn extra credits (especially if you bring back a bike to a station located near a lot of office buildings). And indeed, they have workers and trucks that move the bikes around to ensure a fair spread over the city. ----
Another issue that justifies quite important fees is the maintenance: in Paris, I know that a lot of bikes where vandalized, even while just staying at their stations. ----
It is actually a great system, I just hope that it will force NYC drivers to be a little more aware of bikers in the way they drive around the city.
I also question the longivity of the bikes and stations in NY.
- This is a new license of Montreal's BIXI system
- BIXI is an improvement upon other computerized bike PSSes around the world, particularly Paris' Velib
- Velib was built upon the pioneering groundwork of Velo a la Carte in Rennes, France, credited as being the first computerized bike PSS. Then came Lyon's Velo'v which was the biggest until Velib came along.
PS: Your CMS won't let me post French characters like e acute.
To answer your concern about bike redistribution... We have the bikes loaded on special pick-up trucks when a station is full. They are then delivered to empty stations around the city.