A 45-minute ride on an electric Citi Bike can cost a subscriber $12.45, four times the price of a trip by metro or bus. Transportation Alternatives, one of the leading mobility associations in New York, relaunched this week a campaign to fix the maximum price to $3 for 45 minutes of use.
The comparison with the metro is at the base of the proposal. From 2026 a ride on subway or bus costs $3. Citi Bike has its own annual subscription, separated by that of public transport, which costs $239: it includes unlimited rides up to 45 minutes on traditional bikes, while to use e-bike subscribers pay another 27 cents per minute.
There is an important exception: for an e-bike ride that enters or exits Manhattan, Citi Bike provides for subscribers a $5.40 roof if the trip lasts no more than 45 minutes. For electric travel carried out entirely in the same borough, however, the rate per minute continues to be applied and 45 minutes therefore arrive at 12.15 dollars.
Transportation Alternatives claims that the price has become too high to consider Citi Bike a real alternative to public transport. Its proposal is simple: a maximum of 3 dollars for 45 minutes on an e-bike for those who own an annual subscription, regardless of the route. The association accompanied the campaign with the birth of the first Citi Bike Riders Union, which aims to represent the users of the service in discussions on prices and quality. (transalt.org)
The request does not mean that the price will come down soon. Citi Bike is the official bike sharing system of the city, but it is managed by Lyft and currently does not receive a direct operating aid from New York City.
As Streetsblog rebuilt, reducing tariffs would therefore require a new economic agreement between the city and the manager, in addition to the political decision to allocate public resources to the service.
For now the $3 is therefore a request, not a new tariff. But the campaign reopens a question that concerns more and more people using Citi Bike for daily travel: if the bike sharing has to be considered a part of the New York transport system, the theme is just what costs compared to the metro.
L’articolo The campaign started to lower the cost of Citi Bike in New York proviene da IlNewyorkese.
