Citi Bike Announces Major Expansion, Will Triple Number of Bicycles in New York City Area

The bike sharing company Citi Bike plans to triple the number of its bicycles in New York City over the next five years.

The bike share service currently has 12,000 bikes, meaning the new expansion will increase the number to about 40,000 bikes.

The ride-hailing company Lyft, which owns Citi Bike, will spend roughly $100 million for the expansion.

The city also said it will double the service area but hasn't decided yet where the new bikes will go.

"We have a pretty elaborate siting process to make sure we're putting them in places where they're going to be used and minimizng parking loss and other things," said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.

Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez said he's pulling to get Citi Bike in Washington Heights and northern Manhattan as a way to draw more tourists from downtown and offer a new way for people to get around. But not everyone there is sold, saying parking is already an issue, and docked Citi Bikes could take up valuable space. A similar concern was brought up in some Brooklyn neighborhoos when Citi Bike expanded there. 

"We have no traffic control," said Washington Heights resident Elizabeth Starcevic. 

"People use bikes here. Why can't they take them into their house? Why do they have to take up the street?" she said. 

But loyal Citi Bike riders say expansion means there's more to gain, and more access for people who may have limited access to public transportation. 

"It really opens the whole city up to you," she said. 

The city is looking to expand using both docked and dockless bikes, and other areas, like the north shore of Staten Island, the South Bronx and parts of Brooklyn around the L train, like Bushwick, could start seeing more Citi Bikes next year, 

In July, Lyft announced it was buying the core operations of Motivate — the parent company of multiple bike-sharing programs in the country, including Citi Bike, which operates in New York City.

The acquisition was part of Lyft’s Green Cities Initiative and came on the heels of its recent carbon neutrality pledge.

According to Lyft, in 2017, 80 percent of the bike-share trips in the United States were on Motivate-operated systems.