Citi Bike’s New Contract: What You Need to Know

Citi Bike’s e-bike fleet will double under a revised agreement with New York City, reports Dave Colon in Streetsblog NYC. However, the agreement doesn’t include system expansion or public funding for bike share, but for the first time, the contract now puts a cap on membership and per-minute prices.

According to Colon, “Going from 10,000 e-bikes to 20,000 e-bikes in a system of 40,000 bikes balances the reality on the ground, where currently almost half of all Citi Bike rides happen on e-bikes even as they comprise about 25 percent of the fleet.” But the agreement fails to bring bike share to Staten Island, Bay Ridge, and parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

The amended contract includes a pilot program to electrify two Citi Bike stations so bikes can recharge while parked. As Colon explains, “Eventually, the goal is for Lyft to electrify 20 percent of the stations across the city, which may sound like a small number of stations, but is actually enough to cut down on 80 percent of the manual battery swaps the company currently has to do.”