Bikeshare Means Transit to New Yorkers

"More than 10 million rides were taken on a Citi Bike in New York City in 2015, and public data released by Citi Bike suggests that many of those trips were commutes to or from work," according to an article by Kelsey E. Thomas.

Thomas also shares the data-crunching work of Todd Schneider, who analyzed data released by Citi Bike between July 2013 and November 2015, finding that "the times and routes of rides follow commuting trends, suggesting that the bikes are used primarily for utilitarian purposes."

Schneider notes that the data supports the thinking behind federal legislation introduced recently by Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL), titled the Bikeshare Transit Act [pdf]. In a separate article published earlier in January, Josh Cohen reports that the Bikeshare Transit Act would make bikeshare projects eligible for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) and other federal money.