[Photo today on East 4th Street by Derek Berg]
Turns out that the Citi Bike program hasn't been the death trap that some pundits predicted, according to Citi Bike.
The other day at Slate, Will Oremus took a one-year anniversary look at the program, with some number crunching provided by Citi Bike.
“Out of 8.75 million trips, we’ve had about 100 crash reports, of which about 25 warranted a trip to the ER,” Citi Bike spokeswoman Dani Simon told me. “To my knowledge there have been zero fatalities to date. I am keeping up my daily prayers that this trend continues.”
Meanwhile, the program has had its financial challenges. For instance, The Real Deal reported that Citi Bike owes NYC $1 million in parking revenue.
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Full week one observations: No, really — how is the Citi Bike bike share doing?
And we're off: 1st Citi Bikes spotted in the wild; world doesn't end
30 comments:
Most rapes aren't reported either...
Anybody got any numbers from someplace other than Citi Bike? I'm certain it's not the disaster I had hoped it would be, but stats from a disinterested party would be a little more, you know...credible....
There are no fatalities because they're the ones causing it to others -- whether they're pedestrians, motorists, bicyclists or other CitiBikers. It's like there are no muggees amongst the muggers.
And they're in financial turmoil because they keep spending their money on publicity stunts like this. Most likely they hired the same PR firm for them biscuit boys.
I'd be interested in knowing how many accidents there were in which people were hit but didn't want to go to the ER. More than 25 I bet.
Sit at any restaurant on 2nd Avenue between 11th and 4th Streets and you'll see plenty of bike on bike wreckage. BTW why is the tech writer covering a CityBike story?
This can't be true. Citibank must be hiding the bodies, probably in their super-secure vaults. Or, maybe the bikes themselves have turned carnivorous and are consuming the evidence.
The only fatalities were all the promises they made and broke, including not needing any public subsidies (now they want all those parking spaces for free) the promise to rebalance the bikes (empty and full stations are at an all time high) and the expansion to uptown Manhattan and the other boroughs (now on hold until they raise another $15 million.) At least no one got killed. Happy Birthday anyway.
I totally believe these stats... and they make me happy. I've seen some idiots on the bikes, sure, but for the most part they act just like every other biker.
Guys, it's really just not that big of a deal.
jeez. you are all super grumpy. citi bike has been great addition to the city. i use it, and i'd much rather see a bike friendly nyc instead of more cars, more exhaust, more congestion. it is public transportation like any other and it really works. i have my fingers crossed they can pull it out.
I heard 126 riders got a weird rash. #CoverUp
As much as I wanted this to work, it just plain don't.. I got a cheapo Huffy for riding local, shopping etc and have my Specialized for longer trips.
Just too many issues, bike share should work, but I guess NYC is just too big for it.
Maybe there are no official fatalities, but this data is of course completely self-serving!
No one bothers to note or tally how many pedestrians have been terrified out of their wits and/or nearly knocked over by a bike silently whizzing past them (the bike often enough going the wrong way in the lane).
A great many people over age 60 feel terrorized by the VERY carefree bike riders.
I hope I live long enough to see some of today's young bike riders become sufficiently senior that THEY become afraid of the young people riding bikes in the streets.
I've saved a hefty chunk of change in the past year using Citibike. Now if only they can fix the shortage in the EV, I'd have no complaints.
I'm not sure what they were supposed to accomplish, but it seems like these bikes have mostly just supplanted walking (no noxious fumes there, by the way, at least from most people, and it's better exercise)or people using their own bikes. There are just as many cars as always, there will always be as many trucks (unless they figure out how to deliver goods without them), the subways are still more crowded than ever and taxis are no easier to find. I guess life is a little more convenient for some people -- I read that the financial difficulties partly stem from thinking more tourists than residents would use the bikes, when the opposite has happened -- but aside from crossing the street twice (the bike lane, then the car lanes...then in some cases, another bike lane) where I used to cross once, this program has actually had remarkably little effect on anything (except frightened old people). The same is true of the bike lanes. In truth, more biking may be fine, but it's nothing more than an additional traffic element. It will not supplant actual public transportation, or taxis, or cars, or even reduce their use.
Bikes are a popular mode of transportation in European cities that don't have extensive public transport (or anywhere near the auto traffic we have). But here, bikes will always be just a choice, and really just a choice not to walk or take the subway. No higher purpose, no higher value, an annoyance for some and a convenience for a relative few.
For former bikers like me, who miss the Wild West aspect of NYC biking in former decades, it's all just a good reason to give up the pedals and hoof it. And a sincere happy trails to everyone else.
Citibikes have also been a boon for the bikeless kid population!
Thank You, John M. for articulating that and shedding rhyme and reason to this. (Or on what Citi Bike and Citi Bikers have been and still trying to beat, or bike, around the bush.)
Pro Citi-Bike, not sure why people would complain about it, other than the rush hour shortages.
I have been cleaned out twice by delivery guys going the wrong way down second avenue. My wife almost got hit last week by a delivery guy. But Citibikers generally obey the law and don't go fast enough anyway to do much damage.
The real problem is the delivery guys and people going against traffic generally.
IMO Citibikers tend to be more oblivious than bike-owners. Maybe it's just the way those high, wide handlebars promote such a dainty, haughty looking riding position. But I could swear that riding a Citibike somehow endows a rider with this inflated sense of immunity. I know it sounds irrational but I've been watching them closely since the start and I am telling you as a generally thing more Citibikers seem to be under a spell of blase entitlement than your typical rider. The bikes just seem to feed into this whole "YAY FOR ME, IM LIVING IN THE CITY TEE HEE" smug attitude. Again maybe it just appears that way. Any which way the sight of them makes me mental.
One thing however you cannot argue with me on is that Citibikers are way more likely to be wearing flip flops than regular riders, that is simply a hard fact.
Uh, John M, I realize this won't be true for a lot of people outside the lower Manhattan-and-periphery core of our current bike infrastructure, but I've basically stopped using public transit since I started biking a few years back. I put a hundred, two hundred dollars on my Metrocard max each year, and almost all of that is January through March. Depends where you live and work, but biking is an alternative to bus and subway for many. And that's probably part of why there are hugely popular bike share programs in cities like London and Paris with excellent subway systems.
And haters, sorry, but you were just wrong. So, so very wrong. It's kind of embarrassing. I mean, there's even Citibike Truthers now? Come on, just accept it. The tabloid hysteria took you for a ride.
@10:16 AM I agree with you 100%. You don't really "see" the people on CitiBikes, just the lame bikes itself. Like a group of sheeple who dress the same, squawk the same, and eat out at the same trendy places, they all become one, big, invisible douche.
John M, yours is the most accurate take on citibike, I would say. I also love anon at 10:16 you are so right.
There is a real and growing problem of so many people TextiBiking, which is people texting while riding a CitiBike. This behavior must have caused more than a few bad accidents by now. And it needs to stop.
Rarely do I see regular cyclists staring down like zombies at their phones, but last week I had to dodge a TextiBiker riding the wrong way down 1st Avenue, oblivious to everything going on around him. He barely even looked up, so enamored was he with the shiny magical little box with all those important words on it sitting in his hand.
The TextiBikers also take selfies and selfie videos while riding. Why? It's like they have to tell everyone on Facebook about their little life adventure every minute of every day. These people need to grow up before they kill themselves and everyone else around them.
hear that sound? it's the Curmudgeon Class eating crow. love it.
I'm sorry but I can't hear the Curmudgeon Class eating crow, I can only hear the self-entitled Narcissistic Class screaming "look at me, look at me, look at me, pay attention to me, it's all about meeeeeeeeeeee! Me, me, meeeeee!" Ahoy there! Can you hear that? Love that!
ahoy polloi did the CitiBike deliver your soy milk yet as you anticipate in your car-free city hallucination?
I have (thus far) NEVER had an issue with a CitiBike cyclist running me down or playing obstacle course at high speed. That behavior is very common with the delivery cyclists, and the Tour de France wanna-bes on their special speed bikes (and, of course, drivers who believe a red light does not count until it is red for at least 5 seconds).
- East Villager
Growing up in the city, I know to wait for the third car that's running the light. The bikes? No one stops. Period! Thanks Bloomberg. Mr. Mayor, Vision Zero is zero vision. Pay attention to the bikes!
CitiBike painted themselves into a corner and they know it. This program won't last more than another year.
"bikes are a popular mode of transportation in European cities that don't have extensive public transport"...um, this isn't the case at all--cities in Europe put our public transit to shame in many ways, and one is that they have applied 21st--yes 21st!--century design strategies to streets: the results are few pedestrian or traffic fatalities, a more pleasant, more pedestrian friendly and livable cityscape as a whole. And bikes are often seen as a key part of this.
We can do a lot to make our city a safer and more fun place to live, if we are open to changes that have been demonstratively successful for years in other parts of the world!
Oh, also, can I just point out the total ABSURDITY that there's lots of people being mowed down by those heavy-ass clunky blue bikes and it's either going unreported or being covered up by the vast bike-wing conspiracy? Having ridden them as hard as I can, I really can't imagine anyone getting up enough speed on one to do any but the oldest and frailest of pedestrians any harm.
Yes, there have been accidents involving cyclists, but probably not on Citibikes.
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