CitiBike Finally Arrives

I live at Washington and St. John's. At 7pm last night there was one lone bike there, and this morning at 8am there were zero. Do they stock these things with bikes or wait for people to travel to the area?

They move them around in trucks and apparently some users can volunteer to move individual bikes.

I suspect it takes the network of users a little while to realize that these stations even exist. As in, "oh, I could ride a Citibike to Crown Heights and there would be a dock."

goldemi1 said:

Hah thanks. Wow they're fast at this

Since they're solar-powered, they just need to plop the stands off a truck and wire them together— no running utilities.

Bike racks are in at Franklin and Eastern Parkway, but there were very few bikes there as of last night.

^^^^ e.pkwy and Franklin this morning 8am. No bikes

I passed by a truck with bike docks on my way to the subway (Prospect Park) this morning.

Bike docks have been spotted being installed behind the Firestone on Sullivan Place (near the corner of Bedford Avenue).

pragmaticguy said:

Well, there's another one lying with a bent front wheel on the corner of Troy and Sterling Place so I suspect that one was stolen.

It seems a lot of the theft is due to customers not docking the bikes correctly when they return them. A learning curve for new users. https://bklyner.com/citi-bike-thefts-rise-due-improper-docking-cops-warn/

Guilty of this! Luckily the bike from my first ride wasn't stolen, but I had to ask citibike to wipe a $120 charge for having it use all night. Moral of the story: lift as well as insert

I live near the Underhill/Lincoln dock, and it is almost always empty or has 1, 2, or 3 bikes at best. This seems to have been the case since the week the docks came to the neighborhood. I’ve seen similar patterns in the docks near me - Washington/Saint Johns, Prospect/Underhill and Parj/Vanderbilt. I love finally having it in Prospect Heights, but it seems there is either a greater need than expected or bikes were stolen(hopefully not...). Wondering if anyone in a neighborhood that has had Citibike coverage for longer has any insight?

Saw about 7 of 50 or so bike slots with bikes in them at franklin and Ep this morning. Seems like they just haven’t put many bikes in yet but will do so when they get around to it

Edges of a bikeshare system, especially on top of a hill, often empty out pretty quickly in the morning. But hopefully they just haven't added our neighborhood to the rebalancing routes yet. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2014/08/balancing-bike-share-stations-has-become-a-serious-scientific-endeavor/379188/

I didn’t realize we had to be added to the rebalancing but makes total sense. Thanks for the info!

This dock at Franklin and Eastern is going to need more than some rebalancing.

https://twitter.com/andyjayhawk/status/926806696529293319

Wow how does that happen? Aside from the asinine placement pulling out into a single-lane road.

Whoever hit the dock hit it head first. ...one can't blame this on backing into it.

That's my point partially. Bikes facing into a lane that often has that coffee truck or others partially blocking, and forcing (often aggressive) drivers to the left. Guessing this won't be the last hit. Hopefully not a person in the future

The point made earlier about stations located on top of a hill depleting faster is a good one. That describes my Bergen/Vanderbilt dock. AND also the subtle voice in my head the evaluates the incline of the trip before suggesting to me whether I should walk or ride. My girlfriend and I are guilty of biking to Smith, and returning via other means.

Looks like the CitiBike people are finally getting it together and most of the racks now have more than one or two bikes in them.

The dock at Sullivan and Bedford (behind Firestone) is already gone.

We are apparently too lazy to ride them uphill. https://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories/2018/10/dtg-crown-prospect-heights-lazy-bikers-2018-03-09-bk.html