NEW YORK BIKE SHARE.

Bike Share is a new phenomenon that has been gaining popularly across many big cities in Europe (Paris, London), and the United States.  Boston, Washington D.C have introduced bike share in their transportation system long before New York City. The former Mayor of New York City and his administration was the fierce advocates for the bike share for the city. On May 21012 the former Mayor, touting some of the benefits of the program declared “Subways and buses don’t always go where you want to go, and that can mean a long walk or taxi ride. Now New Yorkers will have another option-hop on a Citi Bike” (Coscarelli).

After some delays the Citi Bike Program was launched in May 2013. The program is about sharing bikes in regular bikes stations.  We can find bike stations mostly in Manhattan neighborhoods, Downtown Brooklyn, and Williamsburg.  So far I have not seen any bike station in the Bronx.  We can have access to these bikes by purchasing a Daily, Weekly or Annual Membership.”  Annual members through August 13 were 71,395” (Flegenheimer).

 The program has been gaining popularity months and months and causing challenges to the company.” In its opening months, New York City’s bike share system has found itself locked in a perpetual race against its riders- to remove bikes from fully occupied stations, and to refill stations before the supply runs dry”(Flegnheimer). According to Emily Badger who is a former staff writer at the Atlantic Cities,”NYC bike system toppled 7 million trips, and more than 100,000 have signed for annual membership” (Badger).

Another challenge the company has been facing off is financial difficulties Due to low revenue generated by the bikes. Many issues contributed to the low revenue, including “damage to the equipment during super storm Sandy, software glitches, and the harsh winter” (Kusisto, Brown, and Tangel).

                                                              Work cited

Emily Badger,” Why DC bike share is flourishing while New York’s is financially struggling”, Washingtonpost.com April 1, 2014, washington post web April 5, 2014.

Joe Coscarelli,” NYC Bike share Program Is Citi Bank Blue and Pretty Pricey”, nymag.com, June 7, 2012, nymagasine web  April 5 ,2014.

Laura Kusito, Eliot Brown and Andrew Tangel,” Citi Bike Needing  Millions of Dollars Looks for Help”, wsj.com, March 20, 2014, wsj wed, April 5, 2014.

Matt Flegenheimer,” The  Balancing Act That Bike –Share Riders Just Watch”, nytimes.com, August 13, 2013. Nytimes  web, April 5, 2014.