Rockfish

I think the idea with the time limits, however inconvenient they may be, is to keep bikes in circulation. Also, the time limits aren't carved in stone, so they can adjust them in the future - shorter if bikes aren't being kept available, longer if too many people get hit with overtime fees and usage drops off. The key to success for this program is for anyone to have a bike available whenever they need it. I think a bigger problem is going to be the commute "surge" - it's possible that every bike within 10 blocks of Grand Central and Penn Station will be gone by 9:00, and that bikes returning there at 5:00 will find no empty docks to park in.

As for the NYPD, they must investigate every bike accident - how else could they confirm the car driver is never at fault!

Leisesturm

Insanity. For $75/yr. and $9/hr you can rent CARS! from ZipCar here in Portland. Gas and insurance included. I don't know of any late model automobile running much less than $20K but somehow ZipCar can cover the wear and tear, damage or loss inherent in such a venture with that pricing plan. Both the ZipCar and the CitiBike model FAIL in my opinion because of the naked expectation of user non-compliance with usage mandates. Come on, you all know how we do. 30 minutes? 45 minutes? Who rides a bike like that? No one. Especially not a newbie or a tourist. I can go to a garage sale and find a bike that is 20 times more bike than one of those CitiBike things for ~$30. I can also rent a car from Enterprise from a local office, i.e. NOT from an airport counter for $27/dy (or $9.00/hr but c'mon... who are we kidding you will go over your time if you opt just to rent for one hour) and no yearly subscription needed. I pay for gas but they don't tell me where to buy the gas and I only buy as much gas as I used. I don't buy insurance because my credit card provides rental car insurance. For every predatory business model there is a competitor that isn't (or is less so). Sometimes you have to wait for them to come along. In NYC the wait has just begun.

H

tjspiel

The idea isn't to profit from non-compliance. It's to discourage you from leaving the bike for any length of time anywhere other than at a station. This keeps more bikes in circulation and makes them less likely to be stolen.

It is a different mindset. They're not intended to compete with traditional bike rental places catering to recreational use. They are transportation. It's about trips. With this system you don't rent "a bike" for the day. You pay for the right to use the system for a day. A single trip can last up to 45 minutes at which point the bike must be returned to a station. You can start another trip immediately by taking out another bike or the same one.

They're expecting that most bike trips will be completed in under 45 minutes. Again, I think that 45 minutes is probably pushing the envelope anyway for how long an average person will want to ride one of these on a single trip.

Look at it this way. I can buy a 6 hour bus pass. I'm not going to ride a train or bus for 6 straight hours and they're certainly not just going to leave a bus sitting where I got off of it. They're going to use it for other passengers in the meantime. There's not a single bus route that will take 6 hours to complete. At some point during that six hour period, I will have to get off that first bus and on to another.

Thomas Brock

I'm still concerned about the $101 hold. Who always has $101 available to ride a bicycle? That's crazy. They're killing the potential for the less-fortunate folks, kids, students, tourists, etc in NYC to ride a CitiBike.

AdamDZ

I think it also keeps them distributed evenly so they don't get too far from stations.

Does $75 a year include free rides under 45 minutes? How much will it cost me if I drove 45 minutes two way every single day?

Are you serious? I know people are broke but this is hard to believe. Every time you rent something they put a hold on your credit card.

You have to be 16 years old, kids can't use the system.

alan s 

The bikes are so heavy they'll only hit 10 mph downhill with a tailwind. As far as being an obstacle, they are more like pedestrians. So now you'll have pedestrian-like bicycles in the mix. Woohoo!

PatrickGSR94

If you live and work in the areas covered by those stations, it seems like a great idea. For $95/year you have instant transportation where ever you need to go in the vicinity. Who spends less than $95/year on a car? No one. Who even spends less than $95/year on their personal commuter bike? Almost no one I'd bet if they ride almost every day.

I mean really, for $95/year to have this instead of having to keep and maintain a commuter bike AND another bike for longer, recreational rides, it sounds like a great idea. It's like having a weekend recreational sports car and using public transit for work, instead of keeping and maintaining your recreational car AND your daily driver commuter car.

*edit* also it may well get more people interested in bike commuting that maybe weren't so much before. Some people may not even own a bike, but then try this, like it, and then go out and buy another bike for their own longer, recreational rides. Nothing wrong with getting more people interested and involved in living a healthier lifestyle.

lostarchitect 

You seem to have fundamentally misunderstood how the system (and NYC) works. For example:

-Your yearly membership covers your riding--there is no hourly fee like with the cars.
-You cannot rent a car for $27 a day from Enterprise in NYC. If you are very lucky, you can find one for 3 or 4 times that.
-Parking a car in NYC is a nightmare. Very few people drive cars to work. These bikes will have stations where you can pick them up and drop them off.
-30 and 45 minute time frames will not be a problem. My commute to work is about 30 minutes, for example. If you have a longer commute, you just drop off your bike at a station somewhere in the middle, and get another one. No big deal.
-Have a good time trying to find your excellent $30 garage sale bike in NYC. It ain't gonna happen. Plus, you have to buy a good lock and worry about that bike getting stolen. Not so with these bikes.

The system may or may not work out, but you are fundamentally wrong on most of your points.

mikeybikes

Works well in Denver. Hopefully, it will scale wel to NYC.

Pretty soon, any decent size city worth its salt will have bike sharing.

tjspiel

This is one reason why I've had an annual pass even though I own my own bikes. I can grab a bike from the station located outside our office building and go to another part of town without having to worry about my bike.

tjspiel

They're not quite that bad.

Last year I did a little comparison of how long a 5 mile trip with few intersections would take me on one of those vs my "winter" bike. The bike share bike didn't come out too well, but I think I managed to get it up to 16 or 18 mph. They're not fun to try and ride fast though.

In any case, there are people who ride pretty slow even on regular bikes and you just past them when you can. Minneapolis is a much smaller city but I don't think the bike share bikes have slowed things down much for the rest of us.

Rockfish

Exactly. I've been thinking about a folder for the last leg of my multi-mode commute into NYC, but hopefully with bike share I can skip the hassle of carrying it on the train, etc and just pick up a bike at the station and ride it to the office.

AdamDZ

I have my own bike but I'm getting the annual pass as soon as the system is available. As I mentioned before, I often want to go somewhere during lunch, or just go somewhere else FOR lunch but it's too far to walk, or I have a doctor's appointment after work, or want to go to B&H which is on the other side of Manhattan but I don't feel like getting my kommuter out of the building and then I need to worry about locking it, I'd have to strip the lights, etc. With the bike share it'll be easy.

My Kommuter is 40lbs and I have no issues. This is not for racing bikes. This is for riding around the city. But I do agree they will become obstacles in the bike lanes.

apanos7

I've got a better idea - how about put up some car rental stations and have everyone switch to bikes?

I hope it does work out. I still wish they weren't such big clunky bikes, because then I'd be more tempted to use them in lieu of my bike.

cat0020

Thread revival..

How many in this thread still commute in NYC?

NYC wants to take 25% of its street space away from cars in favor of a walkable/bikeable city

https://electrek.co/2022/05/12/nyc-w...bikeable-city/

Leisesturm

Well, since this thread had its run the CityBike fleets in most cities are electric assist, and this seems to be the kick in the pants (literally) that was needed. Electric things of all kinds are zipping down the bike lanes and side streets of Portland, OR. I don't think NYC is that different. But NYC needs to turn 25% of its streets over to non-car use even if there wasn't any increase in bike commuting! So does Portland. If I was in control of any city with more than 1M in the urban core, there would be ZERO non-essential motor vehicle traffic in the city center! Drivers fume that bike lanes "aren't being used". Is that really the point? ALL the premature death and illness that you could name can be linked somehow to automobile proliferation. Knocking down the reliance on cars is a good thing. Period.

ascherer 

I do, on my own bike plus my Citibike subscription. Most efficient way around town (especially crosstown) and awesome to be able to grab one to go home when it’s been too wet/cold for the morning commute.

cat0020

IME, in the US, the more roads you build/have, the more cars you'll have to occupy the roads.
Maybe by reducing the amount of roads for motor vehicles,
and enforcing the law on offenders who park their motor vehicles on bike lanes, that would make folks think more before owning a car in NYC metro.

Anti-Idle Snitches Make Riches in NYC

In New York City, people can make money for reporting commercial vehicles left idling without a driver, according to an NBC4 New York report cited by BusinessFleet.

Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio's (D) "Citizens Air Complaint Program," which was publicized in his final days in office to push his climate agenda, a commercial truck or bus can be fined for idling for more than three minutes. That drops to one minute in a school zone.

Donald Blair of New York City has already made six figures from reporting idling vehicles, says the report. So far, he's been paid $55,000 and has another $70,000 on the way. Under the rules of the 2019 law, vehicle owners can be fined $250 or more, while the citizen reporting the idling gets $87.50 (or one-quarter of each issued fine).

Blair belongs to a group of watchdogs that calls itself the IDLE Warriors, according to the NBC4 story. There are approximately 60 New Yorkers involved in the group.

Last year, almost 11,500 idling tickets were issued, more than double the 5,000 given out in 2019 before the law took effect, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Check out the entire report here, including how the vigilante law works.

Source: BusinessFleet
https://www.constructionequipment.co...ake-riches-nyc

Leisesturm

OMG. That's almost worth going back for! Almost ... ...

cat0020

Nice day out yesterday.. not so much this morning..

Leisesturm

The only nice thing in that picture is the bike. Is that a Tern? Sweet. That bike lane looks like something temporary, but knowing NYC that is how they intend to leave it! I commuted between various parts of Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan for 15 years. For six of them bikes had to walk across with the peds and for nine more there were various attempts at making it possible for bikes to actually ride across the Brooklyn Bridge. Cyclists expected so little, it seemed we had it pretty good. And all this is before 2001. We have bridge deck bikelanes in Portland but they are not barricaded. I'm fine with that. Riding in a chute feels safe until it isn't. But thanks for the peek. Keep the rubber side down.

Daniel4

I've seen separated bike lanes with their bollards and planters knocked over, presumably by motorists.

Looks like concrete jersey barriers are the way to go.

cat0020

I've been pedaling across the Brooklyn Bridge since 2013, most of that time bicycles are mixed with pedestrians, tourists from out of town that are looking at their phones taking pictures than worrying about getting hit by bicycles.

During the pandemic the bikes were routed along with motor vehicle traffic, partially to reduce the flow of motor vehicle traffic, I feel it's safer than mixing bicycles and pedestrians (tourists).

My folding bike is just a $125 eBay purchase, been riding it for over 3 years, nothing fancy for my commute, don't mind if it gets abused, hit by car or stolen. Ideal for NYC commute.

https://www.bikeforums.net/21195956-post33.html