The New York International team has always been enthusiastic about a bike share program coming to New York. Our team comes mostly from Europe and has spent time living in Asia and South America. A lot of nations on those continents are traditionally very inclined towards biking as a main means of transportation. So how does the Citi Bike program work? First of all, if you live in the city, you should sign up for the yearly membership for $ 95 and wait for your blue keys to arrive. Other options are the weekly memberships and, as a trial, a daily membership. It took me two rides to understand how to properly lock and unlock the bike (the secret is lifting the saddle a bit when unlocking it), and embarrassingly enough, the length of a full commute to understand that there are gears and a shift for the bike. But after my initial 40 rides here is what to love about the new program:1. It gives New Yorkers their daily dose of communication.If there’s one thing that New Yorkers love to do, it’s talking to their fellow citizens. The bike share program has just tripled the amount of communication that is going on at street level. From the most common, “how does this work?” when checking out a bike, to helping others in adjusting the saddles, these new blue vehicles give New Yorkers plenty to talk about. It might be not all positive – we think of hysterical New Yorkers complaining that their car parking spaces are gone, but mostly, New Yorkers are adventurous and love to try out new things. Among the new bike share commuters, a sense of community has grown – a nod, when passing on the street, a short comment when exchanging bikes or recommendations on the best routes. Pedestrians started talking to me when I pushed the bike through the Hell’s Kitchen flea market and tourists asked for help unlocking bikes. All in all, it makes our city feel like a community again.2. It’s the fastest way to get around town.
We don’t need to explain that short-distance trips in Manhattan can take up a lot of time. Subways go north-south and very few go crosstown – the same goes for buses. Any twenty block distance that entails some crosstown blocks are now an easy bike ride away. It feels amazing to zip past the cars that crawl crosstown and in Lower Manhattan it’s just wonderful how you can see new corners of the island so fast. The downsides? Despite the city’s huge efforts to increase the amount of bike lanes, some of the big avenues in midtown – 5th, 6th, and Madison to name a few – are still utterly dangerous to bike on. I was sweating when biking up on 6th Avenue for an appointment at the Time Warner Center; traffic was fast and I still felt like I was the only one trying to get by on two wheels in this part of town. Around Times Square it proved to be impossible to bike, as pedestrians take over the bike lanes. Still we hope that the city will continue to build protected bike lanes that will help shorten our commutes.3. Celebrities do it – and the coolest people in town.When word spread that Brad Pitt was spotted on a Citi Bike in Soho last July, more bikes were checked out immediately. We almost want to NOT recommend the system, as we can see a shortage of bikes starting. It’s just too good to remain something that is for only the “cool people.”4. It saves you a gym membership.Let’s be honest, we all at one time feel the need to join a gym in the city and end up going there once a week. With the bike system in place from Brooklyn to Manhattan, there’s no excuse not to use it. For a mere $95 a YEAR (as opposed to $116.5 a month on subways and an average of $80 a month for a gym membership) these bikes will get you plenty of exercise basically for free. During the past two months, I used the bike mainly for my commute from Grand Central to Park Avenue South and 31st Street – but even 2 miles a day add up. Once you start using the bikes for lunch breaks and to get to meetings, we’re talking about a serious workout.5. Our city is more beautiful – where did all these new parks come from?
During my two month trial of the bikes, I’ve been to more places than in the entire twelve months before. For the first time, I biked the Williamsburg Bridge and wondered afterwards why more tourists don’t take that route. The beautiful red construction is a gorgeous sight at sunset, with amazing views. The new parks in Brooklyn bordering the east river are still under construction, but the water views were amazing. Having lived on the Upper West Side, I didn’t need to take the Riverside Park bike lane – but it is for sure one of the prettiest bike lanes in the city.The most beautiful sight that I discovered was riding the southern part of Ninth Avenue, with its perfect bike lane protected by greens. The bike lanes just made the avenue look so much more inviting, reminding one of Notting Hill or parts of other European cities. One can envision how New York could look: pedestrian and bike friendly, and amazing for the shops too.Our wishes for the future of the bike share system:
- Keep adding protected bike lanes along the main avenues.
- Extend the bike system to outer boroughs and the Upper West Side.
- Keep educating cars and cab drivers in particular to watch out for bikers.
Keep rolling New York!