One
of my Master's courses "Sustainable Transportation" required me to
work on Citi Bike as an assignment. As part of my assignment, I was asked to
take a ride around the city and blog my experiences and suggestions regarding Citi
bike and the bike infrastructure of New York City. Regrettably, I never got the
opportunity to learn how to ride a bicycle. Therefore, my alternate option was
interviewing other people about their experiences. Gladly, my younger brother
agreed to take the ride for me and share his experience. Not only that, a few
of his childhood friends who came to visit him at our place also agreed to
accompany him. It was like a bonus for me because I was able to write about the
Citi Bike not only from a student's perspective but also from the perspective
of tourists’ as one of my brother's friends is from North Carolina and the
other one is from Canada.
They
decided to bike around central park. After their ride, we all sat together and
discussed their experiences. They took the bikes from 53rd street and Madison Avenue,
and biked up to Lexington and 86th street. Then they biked through central park
all the way down to Columbus circle and docked the bikes there. It was about an
hour and 15 minutes ride. Though they were aware of the extra charge, they
would have to pay for not docking their bike every half an hour, unfortunately
they could not find any docking stations on their route, and paid the penalty
for it.
First
of all, Citi bike charges 9.95+tax USD for a 24 hours pass. If someone really
uses the bike for 24 hours, then it is worth it. But, local people of New York would
view Citi Bike as a mode to commute from the subway to college campus or work station,
back and forth. Now, it depends on the distance as well. If our destination is a
few blocks away from the subway station, we can just walk there instead of
biking. The New York subway system is very efficient and it is cheaper compared
to Citi Bike. Moreover, a security deposit requirement of 101USD makes it even
more discouraging. There will always be a certain group of people who will love
to bike and can afford to pay for it, but in order to attract all classes of
people, Citi Bike needs to come up with new ideas. If riders could get a
transfer with a metro card, or pay by metro card, then more people will be
attracted towards Citi Bike.
Secondly,
at certain areas, though there are designated bike lanes at certain routes,
they are not really separated from the pedestrian's lane. As a result, it not
only slows down the bikers, it also causes annoyance, undesired word exchanges
etc...
Again,
docking the bike every 30 minutes is not at all convenient, especially for new
riders who are unaware of the docking areas at certain routes. Even for people
who bike regularly, they need to design their routes keeping the docking
stations in mind, which seemed very inconvenient to me and my interviewees.
Weather
is another big factor. Only a few people will wish to ride a bike during a
chilly winter morning or on a rainy day, at least I will not . My interviewees
also have the same feeling. It keeps me wondering if its' worth spending
$95+tax for the annual pass when you cannot use it for a few months during the
year.
There
is no doubt that my brother and his friends enjoyed riding bikes in the city. They
said that they would love to do it again. But none of them really think that it
will be a good idea for them to ride a bike on a daily basis from home to
school or work. Since we live in the Bronx, we usually take the subway to
Manhattan, and then get transfers to another subway or bus to reach our
destination, which is quite efficient and comfortable.
Being
an advocate of environment friendly activities, I support the use of bikes over
motor vehicles as bikes do not emit any harmful gases (if we do a life cycle
analysis, then the production phase may emit some). Additionally, bikes do not
cause any noise pollution and these are very unlikely that collision with a
bike will result in death. Yet, considering all sorts of situations, biking in
the city as a mode of transportation on a daily basis is impractical. Biking in
the city is probably more useful for recreational purposes, for athletes, and for
tourists; but a person wearing formal attire for a meeting will not be very
enthusiastic about riding a bike to attend a meeting.
To summarize, in order to make Citi Bike
more attractive to a wide variety of people, the authority should take
initiatives to reduce fare, introduce a common pass that can be used to take
transfer to the common transit system of New York, establish more docking
stations around the city, and provide adequate signs to guide riders to the
nearest docking stations.
No comments:
Post a Comment