Citibike, a Review of Four Years
Why I fully embrace biking in NYC
Posted From: New York, New York, United States
Transportation as a tourist -- a surprising top option
If you had to travel in the shortest time possible from the Brooklyn Bridge (one of the oldest tourist spots in NYC) to Hudson Yards (one of the newest), how would you travel?
If you were optimizing for speed, biking should be the first choice. Faster than walking, the subway, and the car (except in the wee hours of the night), biking is the fastest way to get from downtown Manhattan to one of Manhattan’s most popular tourist spots.
More than simply speed, NYC's bike share system, Citibike, makes traveling around the five boroughs faster, more convenient, more enjoyable, cheaper, and healthier.
In this post, you' will hear why I am a huge proponent of Citibike, its downsides, and recommendations for the bikeshare to continue benefitting NYC.
City transportation: bikes as a non-dominant form, mostly.
Since the inventions of automobiles and bicycles in the 1880s, city planners in Western cities have vastly preferred designing and optimizing streets for horse and buggies, streetcars, and of course, personal cars. The space in US cities devoted to cars (e.g., parking lots, street parking, roads) sits at ~55%, over 2x more than comparable European cities. While some of this space is shared by buses, bikes use a fraction of this space.
In the realm of transportation, bikes dominating city space is not a new concept. Biking was the dominant transport method for Beijing residents for the second half of the 20th century. Now, some Western cities (like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and even Paris) are prioritizing bikes over other forms of transportation, with the creation of bike parking lots, bike-only lanes, and incentives for bike repair shops. These investments have led to a majority of commuters biking: over 60% of commuters use bikes as their daily commute in Copenhagen.1
The rise of bikes in personal and shared uses
My first experience with biking in cities was with dockless bikeshare in the summer of 2018 during a visit to Seattle. At the height of the micro-mobility VC craze, Seattle's sidewalks, trails, and remote nature parks were filled with dockless bikes.2 These colorful bikes helped me explore the city while visiting my then-girlfriend (now-wife). We rode them to a festival, throughout downtown, and in a couple of hilly parks.3
Before then, my biking experiences were limited to the car-dominant, suburban neighborhood I grew up in during middle and high school. Even though my riding was limited to residential neighborhoods, sidewalks, and a couple small stretches along a busy four-lane road, I enjoyed biking.
While I was cruising on the streets of suburban Richmond, Virginia, many Western cities started building infrastructure to support docked bike share. Capitol Bike Share, Citibike, and even Richmond's bike share began operation in the early 2010s, with varying funding mechanisms. The programs provided an option for non-car drivers to get between two points faster than walking and oft ill-serviced bus system.
Back to 2018, the dockless bike craze began and ended. As VC money dried up and close to a dozen firms competing for the same customer base, dockless bikes experienced a rapid rise and fall.4 Untold in this story is the built environment that these bikes operated within. As I experienced in my Saturday mornings riding around my suburban neighborhood, bikes in US cities stood no chance to wide roads built for SUVs and trucks. Fear likely dominated the bike rider’s mind, competing with 18-wheelers for a share of the road. Although over 40,000 people died in 2021 in motor vehicle crashes (bike deaths are at ~1,300, a 44% increase in the past decade), drivers and riders of automobiles do not hold the same fear as bikers while on the road. If they did, chances are we'd drive a lot less.
Meanwhile, some forward-thinking cities redesigned and reoptimized part of their existing car infrastructure for bikes. NYC has installed 644 miles of protected bike lanes with a 104% growth of riders in the past decade. My hometown of Richmond has 55 miles of bike lanes, with half of that added since 2020. Bogota, Colombia has over 360 miles of protected bike lanes as well as permitting bike-only traffic across 75 miles of roads every Sunday and public holiday. When I visited Mexico City for the first time in December 2022, they had a similar initiative (“Ciclovía”); the experience was one of the highlights of the trip!
The benefits of Citibike in NYC are more than I first imagined
If I told you an item would be faster, more convenient, more enjoyable, cheaper, and healthier, you'd think I was hosting an infomercial for walking. Fortunately, you can have it all, for $200 a year thanks to Citibike! As a frequent rider for over four years, I have felt each of those benefits with no diminishing returns. In fact, the more I use Citibike, the more I receive its benefits!
Convenience
If you live in an area with Citibike access (which is now the majority of NYC), Citibike likely gets you to your destination faster. Going to a barbecue in Carrol Gardens from the Financial District? Citibike beats the subway. When I go to work, Citibike is faster than the subway, even though my home is very close to the necessary subway stops. Even going from downtown Manhattan to Midtown, an electric Citibike matches the time of a subway ride.
With 1,700 stations, chances are you are less than a five-minute walk from the nearest station. Stations are continuously being added, whereas the subway has added only 1.8 miles in the past 50 years (at a cost likely ~8,133% more expensive than an equivalent protected bike lane).
Compared to an individual bike, Citibike is actually even more convenient. There have been dozens of times where I've taken a Citibike one-way and used an alternate transportation method on the return. I've biked to work, and subwayed back after a late-team dinner with drinks. I've biked to Astoria to purchase Greek grocery items, and subwayed back with several bags of groceries. I've ran one way, and biked back as a cooldown. I've even gotten dropped off on the edge of Manhattan or Queens, to save my family time when driving me home (as biking beats out the local traffic), and then Citibike-d the rest of the way home. In addition, since Citibikes are rented, there's no hassle with ownership. If the bike is broken, simply report it on the app and pick another.Cheaper
At a cost of ~50 cents a day, Citibike is the cheapest form of transportation available. An equivalent amount of unlimited subway rides costs $4.23 a day, an 846% increase! Taxis and Lyfts can't compete, as they cost upwards of $40 for a 20-minute ride. Individual car ownership is a no-no, as NYC boasts high insurance rates and abysmal parking prices.5 Likewise, biking parking costs north of $50 in the cheapest lots per month; parking one personal bike costs 2x more than access to an unlimited number of Citibike trips. With no extra fees for maintenance, Citibike easily beats the cost of the subway, taxis, personal cars, and the all-inclusive price of individual bikes.
Healthier
Compared to subway and car rides, biking in the city provides a foundational form of exercise. If you wanted to meet the recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity recommended by the CDC, simply exchange a 30-minute round-trip commute with biking and you’d meet the recommended activity.
Additionally, bikes create no air pollution while operating. Compared to cars, busses, and subways, this is a major benefit to a city of 8 million that experiences multiple weeks of unhealthy air quality a year.
Citibikes beat out individual bikes for health purposes as well. Regular bikes are optimized for performance. On the other hand, Citibikes are optimized for durability. As I spoke to a friend in Colorado training for a race up Pike's Mountain, he laughed in irony with me: biking in NYC on Citibikes is certainly prepping me for a races, as the movement-to-energy ratio is likely far lower than bikes built for performance.
Enjoyable
The views of NYC are part of the uniqueness of living here. While riding a bike, you feel the westerly wind and see the sights approach without a glass-barrier. Compared to the subway, views from the bike are infinitely more captivating.6 Riding a bike provides an opportunity to be alive with the city, rather than apart from it. Sitting in a taxi in a traffic-jammed intersection is draining; riding a bike along the West-Side Bike highway does the opposite.
Compared to individual bikes, theft is a non-issue as secure docks remove your personal responsibility. Living in NYC, theft is a prominent concern for individual bike owners — not having that worry allows me to focus on enjoying the rides.
Let's not be crazy, downsides do exist
While the benefits are numerous and strong, Citibike has its share of downsides.
Safety
As I first learned during my suburban biking days, safety was the primary concern. While I've only had one car hit me (the driver parked illegally and swung open its driver's door into me and the bike, bruising my right hand a fair bit), the concern is definitely omni-present. Taxis trying to make a left turn to beat the light, trucks parking illegally, and other bikers zooming by in the wrong direction, biking in the city induces fear at a rate higher than my prior suburban escapades. Biking likely requires as much attention as driving.7
These realities, coupled with the lack of adequate bike infrastructure, creates fear in bike riders; a very non-optimal situation, especially if a goal of NYC is to increase bike riding. When I visited Barcelona in April 2022, I was enamored with the bike lanes that were designed as well as the car lanes; bikes not only had their own signals, but their traffic flow across car lanes, sidewalks, and other bike lanes was optimized. The same was true as I visited Paris in 2024, London, Antwerp, and Amsterdam in 2025. Compared to NYC's lack of optimized bike infrastructure (see: "shared" bike lanes), there are ample opportunities to increase safety by making bike infrastructure designed, built, maintained as appropriately as car infrastructure.
Fortunately, NYC is spending some dollars and time to creating more optimized systems for bikers. During the last mayor election, bike infrastructure seemed to be an issue mentioned several times throughout the NYC Democratic primary by candidates, showing a willingness to continue to create improvements to the current lack of safety.8
System Availability
The Citibike system is built as a public service, not the individual. So, there are problems that exist as part of its functionality. Sometimes, the bike you have is broken. Sometimes, the station you want to dock at is full. And sometimes, the station is fully not functioning. I've had a few instances where these problems have delayed my trips. Fortunately, these problems are mitigated by the abundance of bikes and stations. While inconvenient, these infrequent problems are much more preferrable to the frequent and unpredictable traffic and subway delays. Out of my four years of biking, I’ve had less than a handful of occurences where these problems caused delays of more than 15 minutes (and never more than 30).
Weather
Sweaty or cold, sometimes both. NYC is not an optimal climate for year-round bike riding. As such, Citibikes rides in the summer are over double those in the winter. As the weather warms, more Citibikes are ridden. To be sweaty is a hinderance to bike riding; to be freezing cold biking against a wind tunnel is a major deterrence. Trust me, I've done both many times! However, NYC is not the worst-weather city that has a population that bikes. The current bike capitals of the world, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, have worse weather for biking year-round. To mitigate the effects of the weather, these cities prepare wisely. They prepare their bodies by layering effectively. In my case, I wear a couple of jackets and a gaiter to protect my core while also allowing it to feel the wind once the blood starts flowing and I feel the beginning of sweating. They also prepare their minds; biking is not meant to be comfort-inducing. As discussed in "The Comfort Crisis," people in the US spend 93% of their time in climate controlled conditions indoors.
Par for par, Citibikes downsides of safety, system availability, and weather are far outweighed by the upsides offered through convenience, cost, health, and enjoyment.
Citibike, loved by me and others
I am simply an avid user of Citibike. I have thought often about working for the organization, given my current passion for expanding bike usage. Others, such as Citibike workers, illustrate their commitment and love to the organization, even while they experience immense hardships, such as losing their first 7,000 bikes to Superstorm Sandy's flooding effects.
I've had upwards of two dozen visitors in my apartment: parents, siblings, cousins, friends. One activity they have all loved more than they thought they would was biking. This is not just biking for leisure; we went from point A to B on our itinerary with the assistance of Citibike. Even during a bike ride that was interrupted by a 20 minute thunderstorm, my younger brother and I found it to be on the most exciting times of our fun-filled day.9
It seems the love of Citibike, and biking generally, stems from the distinct combination of productivity, excitement, and exercise. Together, riders feel a brand new experience not felt by walkers, subway riders, nor taxi-hailers.
I remember my first ride: a 7am morning in dense fog throughout the City Hall and TriBeCa areas. At that time, I had no idea I would spend 1,200 trips over 215 hours riding - an average of 8 minutes a day over the past four years.10
Over the past three years of living in NYC, Citibike is one of the top reasons I have loved living in NYC. Without it, I would not have explored as many places nor been as physically active. The rides to work, evening rides on the Westside, and trips over the steep bridges have served as core memories of my NYC experience. Thank you, to the NYC government, the early pioneers of the system, Citi as the sponsor, and Lyft as the current operator -- you have positively transformed my life!
Post 17.
When I went to Amsterdam in March 2025, my wife — a non-biker — was able to very easily ride from the city center out to the rural areas of the metropolis; a month later, I rode around Downtown Manhattan + Brooklyn with an experienced biker friend; the latter experience was far more stressful to make sure we both completed the ride safely.
Interestingly, many startups were Chinese-based companies.
During that hilly park ride, we left our bikes at the bottom of a long hill, at the tip of Discovery Park. After only 15 minutes, our bikes were unlocked by another couple, who, must have gotten a big-time workout going back up the 30%+ grade roads.
Eerily similar, another micro-mobility option that came the following year (2019) and suffered an identical fate: dock-less scooters.
In my area (Downtown Manhattan), simply parking a standard car costs more than $1000 a month!
Unless you are a vampire.
Biking on Citibikes is not noticeably more dangerous than biking on a regular bike.
The 2025 mayor election has focused on bike infrastructure less for reasons not yet explored by me.
Granted, they had an experienced biker with them helping them with the ins and outs of Citibike, the bike routes, and the city itself ;)
Additionally, I just celebrated my birthday with a “Citibike” themed party.