Pricing Details Start to Solidify For July Bike-Share Launch

The general shape of the pricing scheme for New York’s bike-share system — an annual membership cheaper than a monthly Metrocard, according to the early buzz from DOT — has been floating out there for a while. Now, with the system set to go live in July, the details are starting to get nailed down.

Speaking at the New Amsterdam Bicycle Show last weekend, DOT policy director Jon Orcutt revealed the current thinking on how much it’ll cost to use one of the 10,000 public bicycles soon to appear on the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Doug Gordon moderated the discussion, and he’s got the info on his blog:

  • An annual membership will cost $95.
  • A one-day membership will cost $10.
  • The first 45 minutes of any ride will incur no additional charges to annual members beyond the initial subscription fee.
  • Lower membership levels, such as one-day and multi-day options, will have a shorter “free” ride limit: 30 minutes.

As Gordon notes, nothing’s set in stone until the system goes into operation. Also, both Washington, D.C. and Boston have offered online deals to price-conscious consumers who passed on the first wave of sign-ups.

New Yorkers anxious for bike-share to move from concept to reality should be getting an even bigger treat shortly. The preliminary map of all 600 station locations is expected to be posted online in the very near future.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

CB 2 Committee Voices Support for Bike-Sharing as System Details Emerge

|
Committing to a “very intensive participatory planning process,” top DOT officials provided a wealth of detail about the city’s plans for bike-sharing at a meeting of Manhattan Community Board 2’s transportation committee last night. Members of the board and local residents in attendance voiced strong support for the initiative. When DOT selected Alta Bikeshare as […]

You Can Now Subscribe to Citi Bike

|
A big announcement is coming later this morning, but the news is all over Twitter: You can now buy a Citi Bike annual membership. Citi Bike membership registration is OPEN! Just signed up for my @citibikenyc key. Here’s the link > ow.ly/k4lZK #bikenyc — susi wunsch (@velojoy) April 15, 2013 An annual subscription is $95 […]
STREETSBLOG USA

Annual Bike-Share Passes Now Cost Just $5 for Low-Income D.C. Residents

|
Cities all over the country have been experimenting with ways to make bike-share service accessible to people who don’t have a credit card and about $100 to drop all at once on an annual membership. In the last few years, Boston and Chicago both started offering $5 annual memberships for low-income residents. Edward Russell at Greater Greater Washington reports that […]

Citi Bike Ridership Begins to Climb Out of Its Slump

|
Summer sales and ridership numbers show Citi Bike, at last, is on the rebound. The bike-share program grew by leaps and bounds as New Yorkers embraced it immediately after the May 2013 launch, but before long, subscribers grew frustrated with unreliable service caused by buggy software and other operational problems. Sales and ridership slumped. In fiscal year 2015, […]