[File photo from Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]
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New York City Bike Share (NYCBS), the operator of the Citi Bike program, failed to both adequately inspect Citi Bike equipment and ensure stations were fully functional according to an audit of NYCBS’s compliance with its contract with the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) released today by New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer.
“New York City Bike Share’s management of Citi Bike left too many New Yorkers in the lurch,” Comptroller Stringer said. “While Citi Bike has become part of our urban landscape, auditors found that the bike sharing program’s spotty maintenance, poorly cleaned bikes and substandard docking stations inconvenienced riders and discouraged growth in the system. Moving forward, I hope that these findings will provide a road map for ways to improve safety and performance for this critical component of our transportation network.”
The Comptroller’s audit examined maintenance of Citi Bike equipment by NYCBS during the period of May 2013 through May 2014. The Citi Bike program has a fleet of approximately 6,000 bikes and 330 stations throughout the City. Bikeshare Holdings LLC recently announced an agreement to purchase Alta Bicycle Share — the parent company of NYCBS. With a promised infusion of additional capital, Bikeshare Holdings has announced plans to improve maintenance and double the size and geographic reach of the Citi Bike system by 2017.
According to NYCBS’s own maintenance data, 28 percent of bikes system-wide were inspected in November 2013, 34 percent in December 2013 and 38 percent in January 2014, despite contract requirements that 100 percent of bikes undergo a complete maintenance check at least once per month. NYCBS cited the layoff of 16 on-street bike checkers during the winter months as a reason behind the decline in maintenance checks.
By March 2014, following the re-hiring of inspectors, inspections rose to 54 percent of the fleet and to 73 percent by April. However, a sample of the maintenance records of 25 bikes from July 2013 through December 2013 found that NYCBS completed only 60 percent (84 of 141) of required monthly maintenance checks.
why am i not surprised by the findings?
ReplyDeleteI-)
Anonymous 9.18, the same reasons I'm not surprised.
ReplyDeleteThe problems with Citibike stem from it being run for-profit. So I'm not surprised either.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with CitiBike is FIGMENT runs it! ;)
ReplyDelete12:09 is right on. WaPo had a great story about why bike shares work (almost) everywhere they've been tried. It's certainly popular enough with NYers to be successful. Short answer, in those cities it is treated as a type of public transportation and isn't expected to be profitable. And they have turned out to be a MUCH better return on government money than buses and comparable to trains.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/01/why-dcs-bikeshare-is-flourishing-while-new-yorks-is-financially-struggling/
Do you think the city would do a better job running it? They do should a great job with the schools, subways, cops etc. Yes profits are evil I get it.
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