My First Citi-Biking Experience in Lower Manhattan Area.

Ever since I have been in New York City, I wanted to experience a bicycle ride around the city. While I did ride bike for years in my home country, I could not really manage to get on the streets of New York to ride a bike. The course assignment gave me an opportunity to fulfill my prolonged dream of experiencing a bicycle ride around New York City. Being fairly new to the city my only concern was to be able to locate the routes properly. So, I decided to ask my husband if he could accompany me on this adventure, to which he enthusiastically agreed. My husband has been a regular biker for many years.

We wanted to make the exercise of studying the conditions of the bike routes in Lower Manhattan not only a learning experience, but also a memorable, fun event. Keeping that in mind, we chose a route that would encompass all kinds of roads: a protected bike lane, a standard bicycle lane, a shared lane and no bike lane. The Citi Bike communications media do a good job in educating the riders in how to UNLOCK, RIDE, and RETURN the Citi Bike. However, in my experience there is a wide scope for improvement at each of these three steps. 

Unlocking a Citi-Bike requires a one-day pass user to take a 24-hour pass, which gives the user unlimited rides for a day provided that the user recharges the Citi Bike every 30 minutes during the active use of the bike. To commence my journey, I went to the ticketing kiosk and followed the instructions shown on the screen, purchased the 24-hr pass, took the ride code receipt, entered the code at the docking station, and pulled the bike out of the docking station when the station light turned green. 

Since I was not accustomed to an international bike design, I took time to learn about the bike functionalities. It took me some time to figure out the location and functioning of the bell and the gear. My hubby was chuckling as if he had anticipated my anxiety. When I did locate the bell and rang it, it made a soft sound, which I think was not enough to alert the drivers, pedestrians, or other cyclists of the rider’s presence. Among other issues I noticed include the brakes, which were too tight, and the seat height adjustment lever, which required considerable force to activate. As I was prepared to rest the bike using a bike stand, I noticed that the bike stand was missing. Considering my unfamiliarity with the international bike model, initially I thought the stand must be located somewhere else, but that was not the case; the stand was really missing. I had to return the bike to the dock, so that I could find a better one. I tried to unlock another bike by using the same ride code, but wasn’t successful in my attempt. For a moment, I got goose bumps thinking that I lost my 10 dollars and I would need to buy another one-day pass. I rushed to the kiosk and looked for any instructions, but there were none that would resolve the issue. So, I called the helpline number. The Citi Bike customer service agent did answer the call quickly and guided me to request another ride code. While I was waiting in line to get the second ride code, I noticed a couple of riders had issues with getting their ride code receipts printed. Some didn’t even think of calling the Citi Bike customer service and left frustrated with the ticketing system. This time, it took some time to get the ride code receipt, but I finally got one. I quickly grabbed another bike, did a pre ride check, and began my ride marching towards Hudson River Park.

The first sigh of satisfaction came as I hit the protected bike lane of the Hudson River Park. The bike lane was well planned and well maintained. There were proper signage and signals for biker and pedestrian safety. The only exception was a non-working traffic light at the intersection of Chelsea pier and Hudson Greenway near pier 62. When I realized, it was 25 minutes past the original time. I was at the Chelsea pier and I had to rush to the nearest docking station, which I had to explore. I wished the Citi Bike would have put signage showing nearest bike stations along the Hudson Greenway.    

Fortunately, I came across with a biker who told me that the nearest Citi Bike station was at West 14 Street and 10^th Ave (High Line Park). I peddled as fast as I could to reach the docking station before I ran out of time. I noticed the dock was almost full. However, I was able to locate two empty docking ports. Unfortunately, I couldn’t dock my bike even after several trials. As I was scrambling to dock my bike, I saw an undocked bike at the station. Someone must have had a terrible experience docking the bike. I called the customer service hotline once again and explained the situation. The agent advised me to go one more block, and assured me that I would not be fined for the extra time considering the rare circumstances. I went one more block to dock my bike at the 14^th street and 9^th avenue. I experienced similar conditions at this station. However, I could manage to recharge my bike successfully and move on.

  

This time, I promised myself to prepare to recharge the bike every 20 minutes. The next recharging stop was at the Chambers Street. At this station, I and many others faced a bunch of issues. The station had couple of malfunctioning docking ports; the ticketing kiosk didn’t print the ride code on a couple of receipts, and there was a delay in printing the receipts.

As we moved to the south, we came across Vesey Street where we noticed that the bike lane was almost completely blocked by many pedestrians and the portable toilet cabins, which, clearly, ought not to be in the bike lanes. 

 

We continued our journey till Battery Park and started moving uptown on Church Street. As we made a right turn on Church Street, entering into Warren Street, we saw a discontinued bike lane as a result of construction work. The bikers had a narrow road to share with the regular traffic. 

  

We crossed City Hall Park to go to the Brooklyn Bridge. We noticed that no bike lane exists in this Park although the bikers are allowed inside the Park. We moved ahead to experience the most thrilling ride on the Brooklyn bridge. As expected, we encountered a variety of challenges riding on the bridge. At the entrance, the bike lane directions on the floor were not clearly marked. As I started ascending the bridge, I started recognizing one more issue with Citi Bike, i.e. the bike is not suitable for riding on the slopes as it demands excessive efforts. I had to stop at couple of places before I could finally complete the ride up the bridge. I also noticed that the safety cones indicating “Wet Paint” were obstructing the already narrow bike lane; a “Wet Paint” tape would have done a job, saving the space. I saw some bikers riding on the left side of the bike lane. Last but not the least, the pedestrian encroachment in the bike lane was frequent and obvious. Both the pedestrians and the bikers were yelling at each other, claiming the right of way of their respective lanes.

Banning the bikers on the bridge would help resolve the issue, especially on weekends when visitors are expected on the bridge in large numbers. The other solution is to detour the bicycle traffic via the Manhattan Bridge which has a well protected bike lane or by opening the lower part of Brooklyn Bridge for bikers.

After Brooklyn Bridge, we went to recharge the bike on Church Street and Leonard Street, where we noticed that the station neither had a protective barricade nor any marked lane to protect the bike dockers from getting hit by oncoming traffic. 

After recharging the bike, we continued on Church Street. On Church Street and in between Franklin Street and Leonard Street, we noticed a dangerous bike lane merging. The bikers are required to merge and switch the sides from right to left quickly within feet, beating the fast vehicular traffic. The bike lanes can be remapped to avoid the dangerous merging.

As we moved forward along Sixth Avenue, I saw many people violating the traffic rules, such as bikers not following the traffic signals, the cars encroaching upon bike lanes, the bus traffic occupying all the lanes, double-parked cars in bike lane, Taxi-drivers dropping off passengers in bike lanes, and oncoming bikers in the wrong direction.

We then moved to Carmine Street and 6^th Avenue to recharge the bike. We did not get a receipt and had to call customer service hot line again. The agent helped us punch in a temporary code and resolve the issue. Moving to the 6^th Avenue, we came across a bike station on 33^rd street where we recharged the bike. We noticed that the ticket kiosk was surrounded by a street vendor. There was no space to stand and get the bike pass from the kiosk. 

We then moved to the 6th avenue until 59th street and then turned left to complete the loop. To summarize, on Sunday, September 28th ,we started our tour from 11 Avenue and West 59th Street and continued on our way to the Hudson River Greenway, Battery Park city, Brooklyn Bridge, and returned to complete the loop via the Church street onto 6th avenue  up to 59th street. We began at 11.15 a.m and returned at 5.35 p.m with a good 6.20 hrs of riding around lower Manhattan. The whole experience was memorable and fun. 

Miscellaneous Issues and suggestions:

• 30 minute time limit is very challenging to cover some locations.
• Bike charging stations are very close in midtown like one could view two bike racks within one eye shot from a street, while at some locations they are 3 to 4 blocks apart.
• The Kiosk ticketing system need to be more efficient and smoothly working.
• Regular check of the bike conditions from Citi Bike is desired.
• Improving the design of citibike is desired.
• Signage for nearest Citi Bike station along the bike routes required.
• Providing station maps at the Citi Bike stations suggested.
• People should act responsibly; ensuring that the bike is docked in the station while returning, not banging in the bikes in rush at the docks, obey all the traffic rules and wear helmets while riding etc.
• Bike lane marking on the floor and roads are not visible at some locations.
• Well protected bike lanes on the busier streets of midtown are essential.
• Brooklyn Bridge bike lane need to be remapped through vehicular traffic below by providing protected bike lanes.