It is important to say that I rarely bike. I don't own a bike, and my neighborhood, Jackson Heights in Queens, has only a few bike lanes and no Citi Bike coverage. Generally speaking, it is somewhat rare to see anyone but food delivery people cycling in my area. I enjoyed riding a bike recreationally in high school, but was never particularly good at it, and didn't ride at all from approximately 2005 to 2014.
General Observations on the Bike
The Citi Bikes, if nothing else, are distinctive. Bright blue with impossible-to-miss branding, they stand out. I like that they foster an upright riding posture; I don't much love the idea of hunching over like a racer. My problem is the weight of the bikes. While this probably makes them sturdier/hardier, it comes with disadvantages. It's not even about top speed so much--most people riding a Citi Bike are probably not looking to break speed records, nor are they riding in conditions that really allow for it. But to me, the weight of the Citi Bikes makes them rather hard to get going from a full stop, and they can be wobbly and difficult to maneuver at low speeds. This is important because riding on city streets is a stop-and-go affair. It's particularly frightening for me as an inexperienced cyclist to find myself wobbly while avoiding a vehicle, not to mention those times I had difficulty getting up to speed as an angry taxi driver was bearing down on me. I would favor a lighter/more nimble design, keeping in mind other criteria such as durability.
Checking out a Bike
Most of my time riding a Citi Bike has been as a member. However, on my initial two trips, I used the console to purchase a day pass. I found the process generally slow and frustrating, as the interface is unresponsive and cumbersome, and my code didn't even work the first time I tried to use it.
Checking out a bike has been easy and seamless with a members key fob.
Returning a Bike.
Bicycles sometimes need an extra-firm shove to actually lock. It's not too difficult, assuming the user does due diligence and actually checks the light. On one of my trips (detailed below), I found a bike that was not checked in properly. I don't know how long it was there or how much in fines the previous rider was charged.
Trips
A few trips I took on Citi Bike include:
- City Hall to Hell's Kitchen
- I was meeting a friend for dinner in Hell's Kitchen, who ended up running late, so to take advantage of my extra time I decided to use Citi Bike, going across Rector Street, up the Greenway, and then across 48th Street. The Greenway was as pleasant, if long, ride, with only a few joggers blocking my path in the bike line. The hardest part was getting ON the Greenway. Signage was confusing, and I ended up trapped in the median of West Street, with cars pushing past me in all directions, until the light changed and I could get a clear path. This was rather harrowing as it was my first Citi Bike trip.
- 48th/10th to Rockefeller Center
- After a short night out with some friends, it was time to return home. Normally I would walk to the E train at 50th Street, but due to service changes, it was running over the F. Being too lazy to walk four avenues, I decided to take Citi Bike. To me, this is where Citi Bike's utility shines: it can address the first/last mile problem of transit, especially crosstown. Uptown/downtown trips will probably be faster by transit than by bike, but crosstown buses are notoriously slow, making cycling an excellent alternative. Upon approaching the dock, I saw that one of the bikes was not properly re-racked. I made sure to lock it before choosing my own bike.
- 23rd/8th to 49th/8th
- Dinner after fieldwork for work. The stretch from 23rd to 40th was largely pleasant, being in a buffered bike lane. However, mixing zones for left turns were a little problematic, and cars didn't want to let me in. This was exacerbated from 40th-42nd, where the bike lanes become (useless) sharrows in front of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. This, to me, is the most important type of place to have protected bike lanes, because cyclists need extra protection from the increased car traffic, where taxis are fighting for riders coming out of the terminal. However, it feels like DOT took a look at the situation, said "this is too hard," and put in sharrows to make it look like they at least tried. Once I passed the Port Authority, the buffered lane returned, but pedestrian traffic overflowed into the bike lane. I would widen the sidewalk, even at the expense of a traffic lane.
- 57th/Broadway to 49th/8th
- Broadway was a breeze here: there was a protecting buffer from traffic, few pedestrians interfering in the bike lane, and separate traffic signal phases for bikes and automobile traffic. The biggest problem was 49th street: that small stretch took longer than all of Broadway, because there was no real demarcated bike lane and I had to battle through snarled traffic and inattentive/overaggressive drivers.
- The bike checkout system is easy to use if you are an annual member, but cumbersome as a visitor
- The bikes themselves are comfortable but slow and unwieldy
- Crosstown travel is one of the most tempting ways to use Citi Bike, but more bike infrastructure (real protected, or at least demarcated, lanes, not "sharrows" which are easily ignored) is needed.
- Mixing zones are stressful for non-pro riders
- DOT should seriously examine tough areas like the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Penn Station, et al for ways to physically separate bikes from cars even in challenging traffic situations.
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