Steve M.

I come in through Penn Station every morning circa 8:10 a.m. and for the past week or so there haven't been bikes available at any of the four kiosks or at Herald Square. Coupled with the mildly buggy docking and redocking, and I'm not sure this is adding up to feasible commute option.

They really need to improve the rush-hour rebalancing, but it's hard to see how they can bring sufficient bikes downtown in NYC traffic to serve the commuting throngs.

Anybody else seeing this? Maybe I should just stick with my suave and trusty Brompton.

Steve M.

FatherAlabaster

I mean, I dunno, if you already have a Brompton maybe you should leave those rush-hour Citibikes for the folks who actually need them... Wonder how many of those other users also own bikes that they choose to leave home in favor of the Citibike?

The only thing that's kept me from buying in is the lack of kiosks in my neighborhood at the moment. I'm looking forward to when that changes.

Ferdinand NYC

This reminds me a little of the Yogi quote about a certain restaurant: "no one goes there anymore; it's too crowded". The fact that the stations are often empty is actually strong testimony to the fact that many people are finding bike share useful.

However, you are right to suggest that more attention needs to be paid to keeping the high-use stations stocked.

The only problem I have with the bike-share system is the trip time: 45 minutes for yearly members / 30 minutes for daily or weekly users. I'd say it should be an hour for all. I, as a yearly member, would have no problem if the daily/weekly users had the same trip length as the yearly members. And each bike should have a timer on it which would show the official time counting down.

Of course, one could argue that allowing longer trips would only exacerbate the existing shortages that you wrote about.

Anyway, I hope that we see the preservation and expansion of this programme. There are no stations where I live, either; and I hope to have one there eventually. (I became a member mainly to support the idea, without any real need for using it.)

If bike share ever makes it deep into Brooklyn and into Queens, the Bronx, and upper Manhattan, then that would be more reason to allow for periods of an hour or more, as people would presumably be using the bikes for trips of longer distance. My commute from Woodhaven to downtown Manhattan is a little over an hour; so, even if there were a station near me and I chose to use a bike-share bike, I'd have to dock it once on the way into work.

zacster

It doesn't surprise that they are empty. They are empty at Grand Central too. There are just too many commuters that think this is a great alternative to the subway.

Steve M.

Sure, but wasn't it supposed to be a great alternative to the subway?

aixaix 

Don't just tell us. Tell them: customerservice@citibikenyc.com

vol

On July 4th I rode past lower Manhattan, somewhere along or around West Broadway I saw several Citibike stations full of bikes and no/few people in sight. Apparently those stations were located in such a way that few people knew their existence and few people would ever be in those areas, at least on weekends/holidays even with the great weather we had that day (I don't think I had ever wandered into that area before). I wish they move those station to upper east side, where I'm sure they'd often become empty.

zacster

The whole city was pretty dead on July 4th. That doesn't surprise me at all.

JohnsonRay

It is useful! A few of my co-worker loved it, use it 2-3 times / week. They are the kind of person usually don't ride a bike (don't have a bike at home).