Commuters of New York

As a fellow commuter, I understand the need for convenience to get to and from work. Coming in from Suffolk County, it takes almost two hours to get to Penn Station. From there I have two options to get to work –subway or walking. A one-way subway trip takes me no more than 10 minutes to get to work.  Walking from Penn to the office usually takes about 20 minutes. Every morning, I usually take the 20-minute walk over the 10-minute subway ride. Choosing to walk in the morning is not only to save that $2.50 one-way subway trip, but also to get away from the stuffy subway station and crammed subway cars. Recently, through this assignment, I decided to try CitiBike and maybe integrate it into my commute.

I arrived at Penn Station a little past 7AM and walked towards 7^th Ave and 34^th Street.

Walking down two blocks, I was able to grab the last CitiBike on Broadway and W 36^th  Street.

As I was about to ride my bike, I was blocked by this huge food truck, which was a disappointing introduction to the start of my CitiBike experience. It turned out that the truck wasn’t blocking a bike lane, but it’s a designated lane for cars to park.

 At the end of the block, I hit my first bike lane.

Met my first biker during my morning commute stopping at a red light. There wasn’t a designated bike lane in the direction he was heading.

Blocked by a couple cars parked on the bike lane. Not wanting to risk biking in the car lanes, I had to move to the sidewalk.

CitiBiker biking in the car lane when there is clearly a bike lane.

On 5^th Ave and 42 Street, I was left with bus and car lanes so I walked with my bike on the sidewalk.

  

As I got closer to Grand Central Terminal, bike lanes appeared again. However, they were in the middle of the street. In my opinion, this is a dangerous setup. Having cars on either side of you would increase the chances of bikers getting hurt.

After 30 minutes of biking, I finally reached the docking station behind the building that I work at. It didn't shorten my commute since it was my first time biking, but with more biking experience, it would definitely cut my commute from Penn to work in half. Like at Broadway and W 36^th Street, there weren’t many CitiBikes left at this docking station.

As a new biker biking in the city, I didn’t know proper biking etiquette. In the first couple minutes of riding, I was either walking on the sidewalk with my bike or biking in the bus lane until ‘BUS’ displayed itself on the road. My first experience using CitiBike in the city was troublesome and unpleasant. I was weaving in and out of lanes, sweating bullets as taxis zoomed past me, walking on the sidewalk with my bike clueless as to where the bike lanes were.  Personally,  I wouldn't integrate CitiBike to my daily commute to work. When biking in the city is safer, even for first time bikers, then I would reconsider.

I found the bike lanes from Penn to Grand Central, were surprisingly in good condition. From the bikers I saw that morning, they seemed to obey traffic rules. However, there was one overly brave bicyclist who biked in the car lane with speeding taxi cars without wearing a helmet. Overall, there weren't any issues with the bike lanes.

There are five things that I believe the program should work on:

• Have more visible signage at eye-level indicating bike lanes. During my bike ride from Penn to Grand Central, I was never sure whether I was in a bike lane or not.
• For bike lane indications on the roads, they should be maintained. There were one or two areas that  were a bit of faded. 
• I would recommend having a barrier or wall dividing the cars and bikes for bikers’ safety.
• I would suggest increasing the number of CitiBikes near Penn Station and Grand Central since there is an increased demand for bikes around 7AM to 8AM.
• Also, CitiBike should enforce bike riders to wear their helmets. On their website, they say that they recommend bikers to wear helmets, but helmets are necessary for safety and should be implemented.

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Experiencing CitiBike firsthand, I thought it would be interesting to hear opinions from other commuters about CitiBike or biking in the city. I interviewed two commuters from Long Island and two from the city.

Commuter 1 has about a two hour commute to work. He takes a five-minute walk to the train station to catch a one hour and ten-minute train ride to Hunterspoint. From there, he either walks or takes the subway to get to work. Both options take him about 20 minutes. 80% of the time he walks instead of riding the subway. There aren’t any cons to his overall commute besides catching a train that requires a transfer at Jamaica, which he ends up needing to stand.

When asked about his thoughts on CitiBike, he compared it to cable. “I don’t buy cable primarily because it is packaged. So it isn’t attractive to me the way it’s packaged. There are programs that I want to watch, but I don’t want to pay for all the stuff that I don’t want to watch. And I think the pricing structure of CitiBike is somewhat similar. It isn’t attractive for on the spur decisions if I wanted to take the bike from point A to point B. You almost have to buy the 24 hour package, and since I’m not a tourist I’m not going to be using it on a 24 hour basis.” He feels he’s compelled to use it if he buys the package, but he would rather use it based on his own needs.

Though Commuter 1 said some positive comments about CitiBike, he wouldn’t use CitiBike as a part of his daily commute routine. The pricing structure isn’t attractive to him and using CitiBike would only save him 10 minutes. At the end of our interview, I asked him what were some changes he would make to the program or whether he would make any changes to the program. He said he would drop the cost for spontaneous use, identify bike lanes that aren’t identified, fix bike docking issue. An important issue he points out about the program is climate. What will happen to the bikes during the colder months? When it snows or rains?

 Commuter 2 commutes either by subway or bike from his house to work, which takes about 20 minutes each. The only downside to his commute by bike is, “you arrive sweaty and there’s no where to take a shower.” When CitiBike first came out, he thought it would be a “fun and cool” program. However, it’s not an option for him since he owns his own bike. However, it might be an option for him in the future when the office that he works at moves downtown.

For his commute by bike, he goes over the Queensboro Bridge and “there is a defined separate pedestrian/bike lane. Beyond that, the bike lanes in the city are very sketchy. Along the west side [the lanes] are very nice, and a little bit along the east side as well. In between can be ok, but can be sort of confusing.” He suggests highlighting and marking the bike lanes more, because bikers usually get cut-off by cars and cab drivers despite huge ‘Yield to Bike Path’ signs.

Commuter 3 walks to the office from 36^th and 3^rd. His commute to work takes him about 20 minutes. Currently, taking the subway is not an option for him since he lives nearby. He thought the CitiBike program was an exciting program when it first came out because it is popular in Europe and he hopes it would be as popular here as it is there. Commuter 3 then goes on to mention that he’s been involved in city infrastructure projects for a decade and a half. Part of many infrastructure projects that he was involved in was to put in bike lanes. However, there was a lot of opposition then, but that is not the case anymore since pro-bicyclists outweigh the opposition.

He didn’t enjoy the 30 minute time limit, especially for recreational purposes, because of the every 30 minute ‘time stamping’. 30 minutes might be too short for recreational purposes, but might work if it was a short commute to work.

If he could make changes to the program, he would want to see dividers between the cars and the bikers, rules implemented on bicyclists, and maintaining bike lane indicators. 

  

Commuter 4 takes the LIRR into Penn Station, takes the 1/2/3 subway lines, and the S Shuttle to Grand Central. If she arrives to Penn early, she would walk to work. Taking the subway takes her about 15 minutes while walking takes her about 20 minutes. Her total commute takes her over an hour. The downside to her daily commute routine is the many transfers needed to get to her final destination.

She thinks that CitiBike is a great program, but there are a couple of things that she’s worried about and/or believes that should be changed. With unsafe drivers on the roads, safety of biking in the city is a concern. She believes that there should be more bikes in some areas, especially areas with many commuters.

Though saying great things about the program, she would not ride a bike in the city. The concern for her own safety makes her hesitant. 

Seeing bicyclists on her way to work, she emphasized the importance of helmets. Many people that she saw didn’t wear helmets. She proposed an idea that we should have a helmet rental system that coincides with the Citi Bikes.