Even though, the complaints have been rolling in at community meetings in the historic areas such as Greenwich Village and some expressed their concerns about the safety, bike-share users made 10,099 trips, and annual membership continued to surge in the third full 24-hour period of usage stats, according to Streetsblog.com,
Usage between 5 p.m. Wednesday and 5 p.m. Thursday topped 10,000 trips, an increase of about 33 percent over the previous 24 hours. Meanwhile, an additional 2,449 annual subscribers joined the system — a bigger jump than the prior day — bringing the total to 23,749. Before this Wednesday-to-Thursday period, Citi Bike ridership was already outpacing the early usage of bike-share systems in Boston and DC.
On this Sunday, I took an advantage of the nice weather in the city and tried the Citi Bike for the first time.
Screenshot of iPhone App
We originally planned to take the bike from Battery Park City to Upper West Side. But, we later found out from iPhone app that West 59th street is the highest point where Citi Bike’s stations are installed. Hundreds of stations have been set up throughout downtown but, there is no plan of the stations being set up in uptown and we wonder if the coverage will be expanded in the future.
We encountered our first obstacle even before we got to the actual bike. We tried to get a 24-hour Access Pass at one of the stations in Battery Park City but, system won’t take my credit card. There were some people behind us saying that they were having the same issue. After several attempts, we were finally able to get the 5 digits ride code.
Then, we encountered another problem. We typed the code into the keypad on a dock with an available bike but, the bike won’t be released. We kept getting an error and before you know it, the code was expired (5 min). So, we kept getting a new code and tried with different bikes on a dock (not a fun experience). After spending a good 30 min at the station, we were finally able to unlock two bikes and set to go.
The bicycle itself was pretty solid and I had a comfortable ride after adjusting to fit. We took our bike to the Hudson River Park and joined other bikers. One thing was that we had to keep an eye on the clock – we had to bring our bike every 30 min (45 min for Annual Members) to a dock and changed to another bike. As we easily found the next station and the plenty of available bikes were there, it was not an issue.
All and all, we found it was a great experience and the Citi Bike program definitely provides an easy access to New Yorkers a quick bike ride from point A to B.
We however have to see the further improvement in the system and customer service for New Yorkers don’t always have 30 min to waste just to unlock the bike.
Have you tried the Citi Bike? What was your experience like? What did you like/dislike about the program?
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