Oh dear

St. Mark's Place earlier today.

Updated:

Oh, a reader emailed to say that this is happening at other docking stations... is this a thing now? Or is this a way for Citi Bike to let people know not to use this particular bike? (I have no idea.. just asking...)

Updated:

Apparently I need to start reading Wired. They reported yesterday:

If a bike is suffering from mechanical issues, courteous riders have begun turning the seat around to face the wrong way, a signal to other Citi Bike users to avoid that particular bicycle. There is a built-in wrench button on the bike racks that alerts Citi Bike that maintenance is needed, but turning the seat around is a nice way to give rushed riders a quick heads-up to skip that bike and grab the next one.

Today in The Wall Street Journal not liking Citi Bikes

Well, this piece is actually from the paper's weekend edition... in which reporter Anne Kadet bought a 24-hour access pass... She wasn't a big fan:

The trip home was worse. Upon docking in the East Village to avoid overtime charges, I discovered the station's kiosk screen was cracked; it wouldn't give me another bike. The station at First Avenue and Third was down. The kiosk at Houston and Allen wouldn't read my card.

That's when it started pouring. I cursed the system: "I hate Citi Bike! I hate Citi Bike! I hate Citi Bike!"

The nice lady who answered the Citi Bike hotline was sympathetic, but couldn't direct me to a functional station. Finally, after trying one last kiosk, I gave up and took the F train home.

I hate to say it, but if Citi Bike were NASA, there'd be a lot of dead astronauts. Of the 10 trips I took, eight had significant snafus. Yes, the system's launch was initially delayed due to software issues; perhaps they should have delayed a bit longer.

The whole article is here ... though you may need a subscription to access it... A few weeks back, Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz ripped Mayor Bloomberg and the entire bike-share program. Ripped it good.

And now, a post about Citi Bikes

Item!

EVG regular Pinhead spotted this attempt at Citi Yuks over on Sixth Avenue and 18th Street...



Item!

EVG reader lukeavC spotted this trash piled up on a docking station on Fifteenth Street and Five Avenue...



Item!

DNAinfo published an article yesterday titled "East Village's Citi Bike Stations Are Often Empty."

True!

Per the article:

If you want to ride a Citi Bike in Alphabet City, you'd better get up early.

Stations around Tompkins Square Park and along Avenues C and D are emptying by 8 a.m. — and they're staying that way through much of the day, Citi Bike data shows.

A rainy afternoon look at a Citi Bikes docking station

First, we promise not to post about a docking station every day.

Meanwhile! EVG reader Dan Scheffey noted the docking station on East 10th Street along Tompkins Square Park this afternoon ... one bike remaining on a shitty rainy day...

Several people have told us that this docking station has been a little buggy (or, "wildly dysfunction," as one person put it) ... For instance, on Saturday, when you tried to return a bike, the green light would not go on signaling that it was locked into the rack.

One Citi Bike user thought that he had safely locked his rental back in place here ... only to learn later that someone took it for a 7-hour joyride.

Random Sunday afternoon Citi Bike docking station check

Zero bikes available at East 13th Street and Avenue A ... and two on East Ninth Street at Avenue C....

At least 1 participant in the World Naked Bike Ride took a Citi Bike

So today was the annual World Naked Bike Ride day... and EVG contributor peter radley took a few shots of the riders on Second Avenue ... and at least one pants-clad participant took advantage of the Cite Bikes bike share program for the ride.





Oh, and there's video too... via EVG reader Kevin...

[Updated] Full week one observations: No, really — how is the Citi Bike bike share doing?

On Sunday, 24-hour and 7-day passes became available at Citi Bike kiosks... opening up the program to everyone (with a credit or debit card) who didn't buy annual memberships.

Sure, there have been plenty of glitches (as the New York Post is so quick to report).

Carlo Giurdanella sent this photo yesterday from East 11th Street at First Avenue ... pointing out that these two women, in town visiting from Holland, couldn't get the docking station to release a bike. The reader sent them to East 13th Street and Avenue A.



But. Hysteria aside. A reader sent this in an email:

I would love to see a follow-up story on Citi Bikes that looks at how they are being used in the neighborhood. I've noticed that many of the racks along Avenue B and C are completely empty in the mornings and full in the evenings, so it seems like there is a pretty sizable contingent of people using them to commute.

A quick aside: This person was vetted and found not to be a Citi Bike shill!

Bobby Williams took that above photo in the middle of the afternoon yesterday on East Ninth Street and Avenue C. (This docking station was out of commission all last weekend, as several readers noted.) There is one bike left.

People are using the bikes, yes? No?

Meanwhile, laat weekend, Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz ripped Citi Bikes, Bloomberg, et al.

Yesterday, Journal sports columnist Jason Gay provided his own take in a column after actually riding a Citi Bike:

The whole experience was rather simple. I believe this is the point of the bike. Somehow this act has become 'controversial' in New York. Sharing bicycles. …Some of the arguments against bike share are just confusing. I don’t know how to handle the argument that we don’t need bike share because everyone who wants to bike already owns a bike. That’s like saying that we don’t need restaurants because everybody has a kitchen.

I don’t know what to do with the argument that bike share stations take up valuable space on a public street. You know what is also taking up valuable space on a public street? Your car. My car.

And!

I don't know if it's actually controversial or it's just fun to make it sound controversial because that is what New York does. ... If anything, the 'outcry' about bikes sounds more like a last gasp, the same kind of gasp that always happens when a city is confronted with change.

Updated 9 a.m.:
Just saw these stats over at Fast Company...

The new Citi Bike program in New York seems to have proven hugely popular: In just 10 days, they have been ridden more than 100,000 times.

And you can find a heat map thing here that explains "the average change in travel time across the city when a commuter has access to a Citibike."

Someone continues to vandalize the Citi Bikes docking station on East 13 St. and Avenue A

[May 24 via EVG reader Mark]

The Citi Bikes docking station on East 13th Street at Avenue A continues to a source of anger for an unknown person or group of people.

On May 17, someone hung anti-Citi Bike flyers and slapped a large hunk of dog poop on the unoccupied docking station. (Later cleaned off.) The following week, someone taped photocopies of a Post article titled "Get the rack outta here" on the docking station ... with instructions to call 311.

Now, a reader on that block notes that the anti-Citi Bikes campaign has moved on from poop and colorful flyers.

"I spoke with Citi Bike workers about an issue I had docking a bike at the 13th Street station. The two workers explained that someone has been vandalizing the mechanism for docking a bike at the station .... and they found four bikes with punctured tires [yesterday] morning.

"They also said it this was not the first time this station has been vandalized."

Meanwhile, on Sunday, I saw a woman remove a bike from this station... she got about 50 feet down East 13th Street before realizing that the tire on the bike she selected was flat. It was likely flat when she backed it off from the docking station.

The Wall Street Journal does not care much for Citi Bikes

Several readers have pointed us to this video from The Wall Street Journal, in which editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz rips Mayor Bloomberg and the entire bike-share program.

Now everyone [with a credit or debit card!] can ride Citi Bikes!

[East 13th Street yesterday morning]

Bike Share launched last Monday for folks who bought the annual membership... and today, 24-hour and 7-day passes are now available at Citi Bike kiosks...



Here's info on pricing:



And this is happening today:

Celebrate Citi Bike!
@ Union Square
North Side of Union Square Park, Manhattan
Sunday, June 2
11 am - 3 pm
We'll have a DJ, food, a Citi Bike Street Skills
zone where you can test your urban biking
skills, NYC DOT will be fitting and giving away 500
free helmets (must be 18+ or have a parent or guardian
18+ accompany you), plus some other fun special surprises. It’s free and open to all.

Today in the New York Post doesn't like Citi Bikes

Today's New York Post Citi Bikes Will Be the Downfall of NYC Feature highlights an East Village resident who got caught up in some stupid city bureaucracy.

Basically, here's what happened, torn right from the pages of today's paper!

An NYU grad student has finally won her battle with the city over $475 in parking fines racked up because a crew moved her car to an illegal spot to make way for a new bike-share station.

On April 30, Patricia Preston left her Honda Civic on East Second Street between avenues A and B, where she had to move it for street cleaning two days later.

When she went back, her car was gone — and a Citi Bike rack was in its place.

Anyway, among other things, the tow truck parked her car backward — handing her a $65 ticket.

The resident got all this dismissed yesterday in Manhattan Traffic Court.

Citi Bikes, work day 1

After yesterday's more leisurely Citi Bikes debut for riders with annual memberships... I decided to take a very unscientific look at the first working weekday for the bikes... I checked out the Docking Station at Astor Place (above) ... it was nearly empty the few times that I walked by ... (At the same time, docking stations near City Hall and Wall Street were reported full...)

An afternoon look at the docking station on East Seventh Street at Avenue A found a lot of bikes available ...


[Bobby Williams]

Crain's reported today that there were a few snafus in the system on Day 2, including that riders complained of problems docking their bikes.

Meanwhile today, WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show explored the question: Is the new bike share a practical – and fast — transportation option for congested NYC?

To find out, three WNYC employees left the same spot on Clinton Street and East Boradway, each taking different modes of transportation to get back to the station: bike share, cab and subway.

(Spoiler: the bike share won.)

You can listen to the segment here.

In other developments, there is already a Craigslist Missed Connection Post, per the Observer.

To date, more than 16,400 people have paid $95 for an annual membership, according to Crain's. BusinessWeek explores Citi's sponsorship angle in all this ("$41 million over five years is a rounding error for the company") ... while Motherboard explores who might be making money in all this.

Citi Bikes now making tired jokes about Williamsburg

The bike share is under way, of course ... and we're spotting more and more of them on the streets (people seem to be enjoying the experience, though we're terrible mind readers) ... Meanwhile, Ray LeMoine points out this Citi Copy® on East Second Street and Avenue B that we never noticed before ...

And we're off: 1st Citi Bikes spotted in the wild; world doesn't end

Have now spotted 4 people riding Citi Bikes in the last 10 minutes. Plus 1 van. twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…
— evgrieve (@evgrieve) May 27, 2013

Anyone with a Citi Bike membership want to share an assessment of your experience with the bikes today? (Anonymous or not.) Via the EV Grieve email ... or in the comments...

Meanwhile, the Post reports today that a Citi Bikes docking station was positioned "a mere 150 feet" from Frank's Bike Shop on Grand Street.

And the shop’s 68-year-old owner, affectionately known as “Dr. Frank,” is worried about his future.

"My biggest question is how did they come about to choose the areas where they put these bikes. Did they study the areas? Did they look at the businesses around them?" asked a flabbergasted Frank Arroyo.

He says his bike rentals comprise one-third of his income.

And did you see Marcellus Hall's New Yorker cover this week? (Read about it here.)


[Via Gothamist]

Week in Grieview — Citi Bikes edition

[Friday via EVG reader John]

Early verdict on Citi Bikes — kids love 'em (Friday, 26 comments)

And now, more complaints about Citi Bikes docking stations (Friday, 20 comments)

Trading places: Citi Bikes docking station making the move on East 11th Street (Thursday, 51 comments)

Report: 9th Precinct traffic safety sergeant worries about an increase in accidents with Citi Bikes (Thursday, 17 comments)

Countdown to Citi Bikes bike share in the East Village (Wednesday, 18 comments)

-----

... and a few people have said that the docking stations are positioned in a potentially dangerous manner; that people will have to pull the bikes from the docks out into the street ... Here's a shot from yesterday on St. Mark's Place ...


[Stephen Popkin]

...looks like enough room, yes?

Go Big blue

Seventh and A today ... via Bobby Williams...

And now, more complaints about Citi Bikes docking stations

EVG reader Mark White spotted a resident hanging these clips on the docking station on East 13th Street at Avenue A this morning...



... it's a photocopied article from the Post about workers removing a bike station on West 13th Street...

As for the resident with the flyers... Per Mark: "She was very upset and very concerned for safety, and let's just say she wasn't too pleased with Bloomberg. She want down the block taping them to buildings. Told me to call 311."

Now's a good time to repost the following from CB3 regarding complaints about Citi Bikes:

Bike Share will launch May 27. Issues that must be dealt with immediately, such as a blocked driveway or loading zone, should be emailed to the community board office (info@cb3manhattan.org) and we will work with DOT to have these sites inspected immediately.

There are other concerns regarding placement of installations or size of installations, or the number of installations in close proximity to each other. We are asking people to wait until bike share is in operation for a month to see what works and what doesn’t. What installations are not being used to capacity? What installations do not accommodate the number of bikes needed?

The Community Board 3 Transportation Committee will meet on Tuesday, July 16 to hear concerns. DOT will attend the meeting to note these concerns and address or inspect and follow up. Please check the CB 3 website for the meeting location or sign up to receive monthly agendas (join cb 3’s mail list on website).

Anyway, at least it wasn't dog poop.

Early verdict on Citi Bikes: Kids love 'em!

Students from (the middle school housed at?) PS 19 have discovered the Citi Bikes, which arrived on East 11th Street near First Avenue.

Look at those happy faces!

Video via MoRUS.

Trading places: Citi Bikes docking station making the move on East 11th Street; annoyance ensues

The Citi Bikes docking stations on the southeast corner of East 11th Street at First Avenue are on the move, as these photos by Greg Matherly of Reciprocal Skateboards show.



The docking stations are headed across First Avenue, to the northwest corner across from Veniero's on East 11th Street. No sooner than this happened did we hear that business owners on this stretch of the street are very unhappy with this move. "That is a serious business killer — especially on holidays and weekends," said one.

Of course, business owners at the previous spot of the docking station were unhappy too. Carlo Giurdanella of Bella Tile had complained that one of the new bike docks had taken away his loading zone.

"I don't know how we’re going to be able to operate really now effectively," he told CBS New York on May 1. "It's sad, dramatic negative impact."

Perhaps the move will mark the return of the longstanding Halal cart here. The made way for a truck after the docking station arrived on the southeast side of East 11th Street...


[May 4]

Report: 9th Precinct traffic safety sergeant worries about an increase in accidents with Citi Bikes

As the apocalypse© The Apocalypse® approaches with the arrival of Citi Bikes on Monday, there isn't any shortage of pros and cons to read out there about the bike-share program ... (This Curbed post from yesterday links to many of the various articles on the topic.)

Meanwhile, in an interview with DNAinfo's Serena Solomon, Amber Cafaro, a traffic safety sergeant stationed at the 9th Precinct, echoes what some people against the bike share have said: there will be an increase in accidents.

To the story.

Cafaro listed recent accidents in the East Village involving distracted cyclists talking on phones and running red lights, along with one biker who slipped on a wet roadway and wound up putting his hand through a car windshield.

"Bikers don't realize you can't do that," Cafaro said, describing behaviors that could endanger cyclists. "You have to stay off the phone, you have to stay in the bike lane and you have to stop at red lights."

The East Village recently saw a spike in reported bicycle crashes, with eight in the 28-day period ending May 19, compared to just four in the same period the previous year, Cafaro said.

Read the whole article here.

Meanwhile, at Slate, there's a "10-point resolution to end the decades-long conflict between walkers and bikers."

[Image via Citi Bikes]