Ed García Conde, founder of the blog Welcome2TheBronx, has been a critic of Citi Bike for not coming to the borough for years. “We have bike riders who would like to use this great service in all parts of Brooklyn”. “For years I have fought to have our borough incorporated into the nation’s largest bike share network and today that becomes a reality”.
Advertisement
It’s the first step in a plan that will double the size of Citi Bike from 6,000 to 12,000 bikes in the city over the next two years.
“Once we are confident that our expansion is off to a good start, we welcome conversations with City officials on how we can meet the Mayor’s goal of bringing Citi Bike to all five boroughs”, she said. Many of those upgrades are underpinned by Canadian firm 8D Technologies, which Motivate brought back into the fold, reversing the disastrous decision by Citi Bike’s original equipment supplier to dump the firm’s successful tech platform and build a glitchy replacement. Wednesday’s ceremony in Long Island City included New York Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Tottenberg, Motivate CEO Jay Walder and city leaders.
One of the shortcomings in Citi Bike’s next wave of growth is that new stations are being spread too thin, with expansion zones getting fewer stations per square mile than the existing system. The former MTA chairman came in and rescued Citi Bike from collapse with an infusion of private investment. I asked Trottenberg about this problem.
Next month, Citi Bike will set up shop across the river in Jersey City, CBS2 reported. There is no word yet on whether those will also be connected to the New York and Jersey City systems. “What’s going in in Jersey City is exactly the same system. New York has a specially-designed kiosk”. It would be almost impossible to make it from any part of New York City to Jersey City in less than 45 minutes.
Advertisement
Citi Bike service is expanding into Queens, doubling the number of bikes in New York City – but not everyone is happy about the announcement. Here are short-term planned expansion areas where new bike stations will be placed: – Long Island City – Greenpoint – Williamsburg – Bedford Stuyvesant this August (more stations) These areas will get service by 2017: – Harlem – Astoria – Prospect Heights – Crown Heights – Park Slope – Carroll Gardens – Boerum Hill – Cobble Hill – Red Hook – Gowanus A map on Citi Bike’s website shows where existing are and new stations will be.
