1. Run Citi Bike through a public agency: The City should gradually phase out private operations of Citi Bike and operate it through a city agency. The agency could be DOT, or even MTA New York City Transit. One possible public revenue stream would be to pay for Citi Bike using on-street parking fees. This strategy could even dovetail with the implementation of a dynamic pricing strategy of on-street parking spaces. Operating Citi Bike through a public agency, as systems in Barcelona and Montreal have elected, would create a more stable public revenue stream allowing the City to 1) more rapidly expand Citi Bike to low-income neighborhoods; 2) collect the full share of advertising revenues; and 3) offer more substantial discounts to membership in low-income communities.

2. Free Citi Bike memberships for NYCHA residents: To ensure Citi Bike does not discriminate against low-income communities, DOT should expand its largely limited efforts to offer discounts to NYCHA residents. The “discount” of $60 is something of a joke if you’re living below the poverty line. To encourage more NYCHA residents to join, their Citi Bike memberships should be free, or as close to free as possible. Boston’s bike share program, Boston Bikes, charges low-income riders only $5 for annual membership, and this includes a free bike helmet.

3. Tap into the student market: Students represent a huge untapped market for Citi Bike since they are well-known early adopters of cycling and less likely to own cars. City-wide, there are 594,000 college students and another 510,912 students in grades 7-12 who could be Citi Bike’s most loyal customers. Discounted Citi Bike memberships should be made available to all secondary school and university students in the coverage area. Bike share programs in Charlotte, NC and Madison, WI offer student discount memberships for just $15 and $20, respectively.

4. Partner with major local employers to offer Citi Bike as a job perk: Many white-collar employers, from Hearst Corporation to the Municipal Art Society, are beginning to offer free Citi Bike memberships as an employment perk. There is no reason that only white-collar employees should have access to this benefit. DOT should work with local blue-collar and service-sector employers to offer free memberships to their employees in the coverage area in exchange for certain tax breaks.

Can you imagine the employees at your local Gristedes, or Duane Reade starting and finishing their commutes on Citi Bike? That sounds like just the kind of bike share system we need in De Blasio’s New York.

David Perlmutter is graduate in Geography and Urban Planning from the University of Washington and is currently in a masters program for urban planning at Columbia University GSAPP. 

1 2