Citi-Bike as a daily commute mode

When the assignment on Citi-Bike was given in the first class, all I kept on thinking how I was going to do this assignment. I never rode a bike. I never needed to. I grew up in a small town in Bangladesh where main transportation was Rickshaw (Pedi-Cab). Also for girls, riding bike was looked down at. Riding a bike was a task that boys did. They went to school on bike. They went everywhere riding bikes. Almost all boys in every family had a bike. On the other hand, girls moved around on Rickshaw. Hence my decision to do this project by talking to someone who uses Citi-Bike. 

I take E train from Penn Station for commute to and from my work. So one evening after work I stopped by to interview someone.

It was a Friday evening.  I approached a man who was docking his bike, but he denied talking to me since he had to catch a train. Bikers were coming in and out of the bike stations. It was a very busy time. I spotted a young lady was on kiosk. I walked up to her and asked her if she had few minutes to talk to me.  She replied that it wasn’t the best time. So I walked back to the side walk again and kept on waiting. I was telling myself that I had to talk to someone, at least one person. Because that was one of the best ways to do this assignment as I don’t know how to ride a bike. As these thoughts were going through my mind, I see a man taking a bike out. He had helmet on. I walked up to him and mentioned to him that I was a graduate student at City College, studying sustainability. My class assignment was on Citi-Bike and if he had few minutes to spare I would like to talk to him. Luckily he said he had about 10 minutes.

His name was Richard. He was a decorative painter.

In response to my question why he uses Citi-Bike, he replied that he loves the concept behind the Citi-Bike. He has yearly membership. So he gets to take out a bike for 45 minutes at a time, which gives him a little more time than other daily users.

              

            He continued on with few complaints. He was very disappointed how the program was running. He said, “I am doing my part supporting this program. Now they are asking the City for money. I say they should be ashamed of themselves.” He mentioned that he had complained numerous times to them [while we were talking, we had to keep moving as another biker was having difficulties to dock his bike and kept on changing racks]. Richard pointed at the biker and said “as you can see a lot of racks don’t register the bikes properly.” Then he shared an incident he had to face that previous Saturday. He had his bike parked, and left. When he came back to take a bike out, he couldn’t. When he called the customer service, they informed him that the reason he can’t take a bike out because he still had a bike out. After sorting this problem out by telling them that he had returned the bike on time, Citi-Bike program gave him one month of free rental. He continued saying that he shouldn’t need to spend that 15 minutes on the phone with the customer service every other day. He said again, “this is such a great concept. I want it to work. There are other cities in other countries who are successful in this program. Then why can’t we run this program successfully?” 

                I asked him why he chooses Citi-Bike over MTA. He replied that he chooses Citi-Bike over MTA because he has more control over it. Since there are Citi-Bike Parking stations every five blocks, he doesn’t have to worry about locking it up or having it stolen. Basically, with Citi-Bike, he has a reserved parking spot. He can bike in, and walk out without any worries. He can come whenever he wants and there is a bike waiting for him. 

                Then we shifted our conversation from City-Bike program to Bikers and Pedestrians relationship on sharing streets and laws for bikers. We talked about the accident that happened in the Central Park. I asked him what he thought about giving summons to Bikers who doesn’t follow the traffic lights and speeding limit. He supported the idea saying it was good idea to be safe on the road. We both agreed saying that it’s not always biker’s or driver’s fault. There are pedestrians walking around without following the traffic. He said, “some pedestrians will come in front of me out of nowhere and they look at me like I am the bad guy. They need to know how to walk safe and be safe”.

              Richard really likes and supports the Citi-Bike sharing program. All he wants is it to work.

Then we chatted a little more on our profession and education. Wished each other to have a great weekend and said goodbye.

I kept on repeating my conversation with Richard on the subway on my way back home. I was thinking that it was actually goof for me that I didn’t know how to ride a bike to do this assignment. If I had rented a Citi-Bike for a day and try to bike around the city I wouldn’t have known how these regular members feel and what they are dealing with on daily basis. May be I would have faced problems with the Citi-Bike program of my own. Maybe.  Lets keep it to may be and not definitely. 

Another point that Richard pointed out is that rules on pedestrians. I think the pedestrians should be given out tickets too for jaywalking. Whenever I have friends from Toronto, they are reluctant to cross the street in the middle because they are used to the habit of not crossing for the fear of getting tickets. I believe if we have the same laws enforced here in New York City, where we have so many pedestrians and tourists walking around, wondering and looking up seeing high-rise buildings, will hesitate to cross the streets in the middle or during green light. I strongly believe that this restriction alone will be able to decline the rate of bike-pedestrians or car-pedestrians collision tremendously.