news More Than Half of Citi Bike's Early Members Did Not Renew

[Harry]

 

Citi Bike doesn’t publish numbers on how many people are renewing their memberships. While the system does release monthly reports on how many people sign up or renew, it doesn’t break out renewals as its own figure. We know that at the end of May, the system had 105,355 active annual members. Those are people who have paid $95 for a year’s worth of riding, and have activated their little blue key. At the end of June, the system had 96,318 members. Does that mean almost 10,000 people didn’t renew at the end of that month? Unclear.

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[Via Garibaldi 8]

I considered getting a membership, but one afternoon in Chelsea changed my mind.  On a Saturday afternoon in between tutoring sessions, I went for a macchiato and a pastry at one of my coffee spots and decided to sit and relax for a bit before getting on the express bus and heading to my next session.  I sat at a bench by the docking station located near Broadway and 22nd and it was pretty active.  People would come and go taking bikes, but those trying to dock had an almost impossible time doing so, and so any time that they saved running quick errands was eaten up by the time taken away from the docking issues.  I believe a few folks even gave up on docking their bikes and looked for another station or just left it there partially docked.  I found the whole thing rather comical and decided that walking or taking the local bus in the city was the best way to do short trips, get exercise and be environmentally sound, but I get why some folks prefer it.  

 

If you have to run a quick errand and don't want to take the subway, if you know where the docking stations are located and they actually work, you can take care of errands really quickly.

[N6 Limited]

When you dock a bike you're basically supposed to shove it into the dock. People don't use enough force and so they have issues docking the bikes.