Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Power move: Citi Bike's new charging station lands on 1st Avenue and 14th Street

Photo by William Klayer 

Citi Bike crews yesterday swapped out the old docking station on the SW corner of First Avenue and 14th Street for a new electrified model. 

The DOT announced earlier this month an expansion of electrified Citi Bike charging station networks, with plans to electrify 13 charging stations in existing station locations across Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Per the DOT: 
Electric grid-connected stations allow Citi Bike e-bikes to charge on-site while docked, rather than requiring batteries to be manually swapped out by staff in vehicles. Based on experience deploying bikeshare charging stations in cities like Barcelona and Montreal, Lyft projects that a network of Citi Bike charging stations will both improve e-bike availability for riders and significantly reduce operational costs from manual battery swapping.
Lyft officials have said that electric Citi Bike ridership surpassed 29 million e-bike trips in 2024, some of them not even on First Avenue or Second Avenue in the East Village. 

FYI: Citi Bike's fleet features 15,000 pedal-assist e-bikes and over 20,000 traditional pedal bikes.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sure. Just put large, easily seen registration numbers on the bikes so we can identify the operator when they hit someone.

Anonymous said...

Cars are terrible! More bikes! Wait, no bikes are terrible! I can't stop complaining! I'm soooo New York!

Exterminator said...

the latest potential fire hazard. good thing there is a fire house near by

Anonymous said...

Great, more high-speed bikes to mow everyone down. I have no issue with bikes. I have issue with bikes going 20-30 mph.

Anonymous said...

Citi Bikes with pedal assist can go up to 18 mph with the motor's assistance. This is the maximum speed at which the motor provides assistance; you can go faster by pedaling without assistance. Glad you don't have issues with bikes.

Anonymous said...

All bicycle riders need to follow the rules of the road: YIELD for pedestrians, stop at red, go in the SAME direction as traffic and stay off the sidewalk. Citi Bike/Lyft and delivery apps ALL have the capacity to disable a rider's App when they break basic safety rules. They just choose not to and the City of NY allows it... It's election season - stop by all of the candidate's offices and ask what their plan is for this growing problem.