On the 11th, I got into work late, which seems to be the secret to having a fantastic Citi Bike experience. Plenty of bikes at 8th and 33rd, and a very smooth ride to 47th and Park.
That evening was overcast and I was feeling a little tired, so I decided to forego biking back to Penn.
Similarly, morning of the 12th was a gorgeous day, but I had a meeting to get to at work and so I had to take the subway. But all day I was looking forward to biking to Penn Station on one of the most perfect days of the year.
Problem is, everyone else in the City had the same idea. This is what the bike docks looked like within a half mile of my office.
That’s right–NOT ONE lousy bike available, because again, Citi Bike is set up to reward people who leave work early and punish those who work their butts off for a living. They did a decent job of rebalancing bikes early in the morning, but it looks like they’re just ignoring the problem of empty stations during the evening rush hour.
The sad thing is, there’d be so many solutions. How about waiving the fee for people who want to bike from a busy station like near Penn Station or Port Authority back to empty stations during those hours? Or providing someone who rides a bike from a busy station to an empty one a free subway ride? How about adding more docks to the stations? Or adding more stations in places where the stations empty? Or getting rebalancers to work in the evening as well as they do in the morning? Fail to address this, and the annual membership riders who are keeping this program just barely afloat will likely stop renewing in droves.
- Cost per ride: $95/46=$2.07 per ride
- Stress: 2 of 10
- Aggravation: 10 of 10