Thursday, June 19, 2014

Taking Citi Bikes for a bike ride



Spotted on Avenue D this morning... We've never noticed this more environmentally friendly way to transport bikes from one station to the next... via @artisanmatters

14 comments:

Giovanni said...

These new bike movers are a cost-cutting measure that CitiBike is experimenting with, since driving the bikes around with trucks sitting in traffic all day to rebalance docking stations didn't work out so well, and is costing them a fortune.

Question: Since riding on the sidewalk is illegal, will the NYPD also ticket these new CitiBike mover contraptions when they ride on the sidewalk as they do in the picture, or do the rules just not apply to them?

Anonymous said...

@Giovanni, look at the picture, there's not curb there, that's not the sidewalk. It looks the concrete road portion used in front of bus stops.

Anonymous said...

I need something like this for my trips to the Kips Bay Fairway.

xootrman said...

Giovanni, excellent question!

Anonymous said...

Giovanni:
The banks own the police, own the mayor, own the government. I would be amazed if they got a ticket.

Anonymous said...

As anon@1:04 pointed out, he's not on the sidewalk. Seriously though, when is someone going to do something about banks using their political muscle to get out of paying bike tickets?

A. said...

These carts are great, and I see that the rebalancers add more bikes than the carts are built for in an effort to make their trips more efficient. Each bike weights 45lb so the rebalancers must have great quads.

My pet peeve with Citi Bike is that they could be using the carts to make very quick trips that would solve a lot of under- and over-filled stations, but they refuse to. I never see the carts in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.


http://nocitibikesat54and9.blogspot.com/2014/04/simple-citibike-rebalance-solution.html

THE NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N. said...

Sidewalks? We're talking about CitiBike. Don't be surprised if you see him driving these things around on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

Anonymous said...

Citibikes are great. Once the city takes over the operation, they'll be even better.

Big Brother said...

Yes, CitiBikes cut down on so much traffic. Oh, wait.

Anonymous said...

Giovanni: The NYPD will only hand out tickets *after* something happens. So, in order for them to hand out tickets for riding on the sidewalk, a cyclist will have to kill a high-ranking official's kid for the NYPD to do anything about it. Speeding cars running red lights? Someone's gotta get killed. Never follow the money - always follow the bodies.

Anonymous said...

Like most commercial cyclists, they know the shortest route is the fastest route, so who cares if it's a one-way street? I frequently see those sad-faced rebalancers riding against traffic to get to the mid-block docks.

As far as the city taking over, I'm cool with that, as long as the kiosks take metro cards and everyone pays $2.50 a trip, or $112/mo. for a pass. I mean it's another form of 'public transit', right Janette?

Anonymous said...

Until they use a Metro card like system, these bikes will never be public transportation. And that won't happen because they can't charge you for the bike if someone steals it when it fails to lock properly.

Anonymous said...

Yes, CitiBikes are great, for the tourits and young white affluent.