So once again I took the early train and and got out to the Citi Bike Station outside of Penn Station to find this:

That’s right, a line of about 10-15 people in front of me waiting for a Citi Bike. Now if you look at the picture carefully you’ll notice a few things:

1) There are no bike rebalancers. Now granted, I know the rebalancers work really hard and do a great job, but Citi Bike needs many more of them. There’s no reason those docks should not be full of bikes for people to take. How ridiculous is it to wait on line for 20 minutes when I can walk or take the subway and be at the office in that time?

2) There were plenty of bikes in the docks, but they all had their seats turned down, indicating they were broken. So why hasn’t someone taken them are repaired them?

3) There is plenty of room for more docks. Who’s the bright mind in Central Planning that decided to put so few bike stations all around Penn Station? And when they double the number of bikes shortly, are they going to have the same paltry amount of bike spaces around one of the busiest transportation hubs in the city?

Funny thing (for me, not for the people on line) is that right after I took this picture I turned around and walked to the other side of the dock, where right as I passed by the front someone rode his bike up and docked it. There was no one around me, so I just nonchalantly grabbed it. I guess the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but time and chance happen to all. Although this was like winning the lottery–more often than not if I come in on the 7:47 train, I’m going to be waiting on line.

I rode to 44th and 5th where I wanted to stop by the Best Buy, but ironically biking was so efficient I got there at 8:30 and realized they didn’t open until 9:00. Alas, I walked the rest of the way to the office.

Cost per ride: $95/33.5=$3.06/ride=$2.84
Aggravation level: 7 of 10
Stress level: 4 of 10