Astor Place gets the neighborhood's first electric charging docks for e-bikes

Last week, an electric charging dock for Citi Bike's e-bike fleet arrived outside Wegman's on Astor Place, the location of a previous docking station. (Thanks to Jacob Ford for the photo and tip!) 

This marks the first docking station in the neighborhood specifically for charging e-bikes. (These docks also accept the first-gen bicycles.) The DOT and Lyft unveiled the first two in May, with Hell's Kitchen and Greenpoint locations. 

Notably, the Astor Place station is electrified on the street, a unique feature compared to the first two stations, which were on the sidewalk. (Streetsblog has a comprehensive background on this here.)

According to DOT and Lyft officials, electrified charging stations will allow Citi Bike e-bike batteries to be charged while parked in stations instead of manually swapped out, making e-bikes more available to riders and reducing vehicle miles traveled by operations vans. 

Most e-bike batteries are charged in a warehouse and shuttled back and forth for manual swapping at the station in an often cumbersome manner...

Citi Bike riders might not realize most docks don’t charge e-bikes. It’s a surprisingly labor-intensive operation: A crew of 170, on four shifts and 69 specially equipped cargo vans, ferries the batteries to a Long Island City warehouse and back. https://t.co/FJ3Xndf1pY

— Curbed (@Curbed) June 29, 2024

According to May figures, Citi Bike has about 15,000 e-bikes in its fleet. In the first five months of the year, Citi Bike riders have taken more than 7 million trips on e-bikes.

Lyft recently announced that starting on Wednesday, Citi Bike e-bike rides will become more expensive for the $219.99-per-year annual members, rising to 24 cents per minute from 20 cents per minute. Back in January, the price went from 17 cents to 20 cents per minute.

Citi Bike dock swap along Avenue A

EVG reader Newman points out that Citi Bike crews have removed the docking station on Third Street at Avenue A ... and relocated it to Fifth Street at Avenue A...

The Third Street dock arrived in February, and a Citi Bike rep told us that it was permanent. Citi removed the docking station on Fifth Street last fall to accommodate the (recently completed) Con Ed transformer work. 

We reached out to Citi/Lyft to learn more about this As the Docking Stations Move. 

Sunday's parting shot

Photo by Derek Berg 

Doubling-up on St. Mark's Place today...

A Citi Bike docking station for 3rd and A

A new docking station has arrived on the SE side of Third Street at Avenue A. (Thanks, Newman, for the photo!) 

The station isn't listed on the system map yet, though a Citi Bike rep confirmed this is a permanent dock (and not, say, relocated here from another spot during construction). 

Citi Bike, now in its 11th year, reportedly saw record-high ridership numbers last fall. Citi Bike also announced that the current number of e-bikes in the system will double by the end of this year, per Streetsblog.

Meanwhile, the docking station on Fifth Street at Avenue A is still MIA (since October) due to the Con Ed transformer work.

Tuesday's parting shot

Photo by Derek Berg 

Aspiring Citi Bike of the day... as seen near Seventh Street and First Avenue ...

Saturday's opening shot

New Citi Bike docking station on the Bowery...

Saturday's parting shot

Citi Biker of the day... 14th Street near First Avenue ...

Thursday's parting shot

As seen on Second Street and Avenue C. EVG reader Patty Rat shares this photo, asking: "Maybe Citi Bike is rolling out a new/old model for their 10-year anniversary?"

Today in Citi Bike docking station news

After a week-plus absence, the Citi Bike docking station has returned to the SW corner of 14th Street at First Avenue. Workers removed it for planned utility work. 

Thanks to Vinny & O for the photo!

Citi hike? Docking station vanishes on 14th and 1st

Updated 5/22: The docking station has returned.

We've heard from a few readers (starting with Pinch!) about the now-missing Citi Bike docking station on the sidewalk on the SW corner of 14th Street at First Avenue (outside the incoming Panda Express). 

Don't have any answers at the moment... though someone did ask if maybe it was stolen and sold on the block to the east...

Thanks to Steven for the photo...

Saturday's opening shots

Hop on this limited-edition pedal-assist Citi Bike on First Street! Be the envy of your fellow Citi Bikers...

Tuesday's parting shot

Photo on St. Mark's Place by Derek Berg...

2 new Citi Bike docking stations for Avenue A

The Citi Bike expansion in the East Village saw the arrival of two new docking stations on Avenue A this past week ... with 41 docks between 11th Street and 12th Street outside Steinerville (above) ... and 41 docks between 13th Street and 14th Street...

In November, DOT reps told a Community Board 3 committee that "demand shows 1,804 docks [are] still needed in CB3." The proposal calls for an installation of 683 docks for now, with more capacity coming by extending existing stations. (Find the presentation here.)

Other new Citi Bike locations include Fifth Street at Avenue A, Fourth Street at Avenue B, Seventh Street at Avenue B, Sixth Street at Second Avenue and 14th Street at First Avenue (SW corner) and 10th Street at Second Avenue. 

And for anyone keeping tabs on parking around Avenue A, the removal of the abandoned dining structure Thursday outside the former August Laura gave back four spots on Sixth Street ...

Wednesday's parting shot

As seen on Seventh Street today by Derek Berg ...

Citi Bike docking stations arrive on 5th Street, 7th Street

As a follow-up to our post yesterday... a reader shares that workers have installed the new Citi Bike docking stations on Fifth Street at Avenue A (48 docks) and Seventh Street west of Avenue B (47 docks) ...

According to a DOT presentation last month, "demand shows 1,804 docks [are] still needed in CB3." For now, though, the proposal calls for an installation of 683 docks ... with more capacity coming by extending existing stations.

The presentation showed 11 new stations, with an "equipment swap" on 10th Street between A and B and an expansion of the existing station on 13th Street at Avenue A. This EVG post has a map of where the docking stations are due.

Let us know if you spot any other new docking stations in the neighborhood. 

New Citi Bike docking stations on the way in this week

Looks like the Citi Bike expansion in the East Village is happening sooner than later. 

A few No Parking notices have gone up on several side streets where new docking stations are arriving... we've seen announcements for today and tomorrow on Seventh Street west of Avenue B (thanks, Dave on 7th!) as well as on Fifth Street at Avenue A (thanks JG!) for tomorrow and Thursday ...

In November, DOT reps gave Community Board 3's Transportation, Public Safety, & Environment Committee an update about Citi Bike's expansion in the East Village and Lower East Side. 

That presentation is online now right here. (The DOT made presentations to other Community Boards, and find those via this link.)

According to the presentation, "demand shows 1,804 docks [are] still needed in CB3." For now, though, the proposal calls for an installation of 683 docks ... with more capacity coming by extending existing stations.

The presentation showed 11 new stations, with an "equipment swap" on 10th Street between A and B and an expansion of the existing station on 13th Street at Avenue A. At the moment, we don't know how many of the 11 new stations will be installed this week.

Here are the proposed locations for new Citi Bike docking stations in the East Village

Admittedly overdue on a follow-up on this story... last month, DOT reps provided Community Board 3's Transportation, Public Safety, & Environment Committee an update about Citi Bike's expansion in the East Village and Lower East Side. 

That presentation is online now right here. (The DOT is making presentations to other Community Boards this month, and find all that via this link.)

According to the presentation, "demand shows 1,804 docks [are] still needed in CB3." For now, though, the proposal calls for an installation of 683 docks ... with more capacity coming by extending existing stations.

The maps below (click on the images for more detail) show where the infill is slated. The green dots are extensions at existing stations (the only EV extension on the map is at 13th Street and Avenue A) ... while the red circles denote new stations (11 in total, with an "equipment swap" on 10th Street between A and B) ... 

A study by the DOT and Citi Bike found that the ride-sharing service was falling behind in keeping up with the cycling demand of New Yorkers.

As Streetsblog reported on Nov. 2:

Citi Bike announced that it needs the DOT to provide it with sites for an immediate Lyft-funded infusion of docks and bikes because the system is under "added stress [in] its original service area, which serves a disproportionate number of the total rides."

In other words, too many people are either showing up at docks that are empty or trying to return bikes to full racks. Even as it is breaking its own records, Citi Bike estimates that it lost 4 million rides in 2021 because customers are getting frustrated. The company cited the ridership increases as well as "unpredictable commuting patterns as a result of the pandemic.

"An unbalanced system results in riders finding empty or full docks during periods of peak demand," a problem that cannot be totally mitigated through rebalancing or Bike Angels, the company said.

Stories of Citi Bikers wandering around for 30 minutes looking for an open dock — or just a bike — in the evening have become common in recent months. (East Village resident and cycling advocate Sophie Maerowitz wrote an op-ed on the topic for amNY on Nov. 15.) 

The Times checked in with an article on the topic as well the other day, reporting that through Nov. 17, Citi Bike had recorded 25.2 million rides in 2021, 4 million more than in all of 2019. (Citi Bike debuted here in 2013.) 

But!

[A]s the city has sought to accommodate the surge in both bike-share use and overall cycling by adding hundreds of miles of bike lanes, it has provoked a backlash from drivers and some elected officials who complain that parking and driving are now more difficult.

No word on when the infill might happen within the confines of Community Board 3. The DOT and Citi Bike said they plan to add 8,000 more docks and 4,000 more bikes by the end of 2022, mostly in Manhattan.  

Your chance to hear Citi Bike's expansion plans

Community Board 3's Transportation, Public Safety, & Environment Committee will hear from city DOT reps tonight about Citi Bike's expansion in the East Village and Lower East Side.

The meeting invite simply notes, "NYC DOT will present on Citi Bike infill stations for CB3."

As Streetsblog editor Gersh Kuntzman reported last week:

Citi Bike says it needs to add thousands of docks within its existing Manhattan service area to handle the ongoing bike boom, but so far, the Department of Transportation has not kept up with the Lyft-owned bike company’s requests — and millions of rides are not happening as a result.

In a bombshell statement that dropped extremely quietly last week, Citi Bike announced that it needs the DOT to provide it with sites for an immediate Lyft-funded infusion of docks and bikes because the system is under "added stress [in] its original service area, which serves a disproportionate number of the total rides."

Also:

Citi Bike docks currently occupy just .5 percent of curb space. But sitting those docks has proven to be a perennial challenge to the DOT, which seeks community board input for every single location. As a result, many are sited on sidewalks rather than in curbside spots, which has the double-edged problem of discriminating against pedestrians while also doing nothing to discourage car ownership. 

The East Village is among the neighborhoods experiencing the greatest need for infill docks, per a Citi Bike tweet from last week...

Citi Bike fam!

We're partnering w/ @NYC_DOT to add 8k new docks and 4k bikes in 2022.

Through the "infill" process, we will be adding/extending more docks to reduce the # of empty stations and keep you moving! 🚲💙

Check out this priority-area heat map based on DOT data. pic.twitter.com/17IuTu4pgj

— Citi Bike (@CitiBikeNYC) November 2, 2021

Tonight's virtual meeting, which starts at 6:30, will likely highlight where (and when) these new docks might appear.

You can tune in to the meeting via this Zoom link.

Tracking an abandoned Citi Bike on 6th Street

In the past month or so, a derelict Citi Bike (a hard-to-find pedal-assist ebike) has been seemingly abandoned over at the docking station on Sixth Street and Avenue B. 

EVG regular Salim started taking photos of it in its various states... 

Per Salim: 

It's chained to the station itself, which often has valet staff. It moved around over the weeks and gradually lost some parts (but not been stripped entirely). The bike fascinates me: why hasn't Citi Bike reclaimed it? Who chained it in the first place? 

All good questions!

For anyone else keeping tabs on this... as of today, the Citi Bike is no longer chained to anything...

Updated 5:30 p.m.

Someone had removed the Citi Bike carcass...    

Noted

An EVG reader shared these photos (thank you!) from last night around 10 from the Citi Bike docking station on Sixth Street at Avenue B...

Not sure why there's a pile of Citi Bikes here... this station has had a valet in recent weeks... perhaps the valet was off-duty? Or someone was sacrficing the bikes that don't work...