One of the first big conflagrations that blew up when the Citi Bike program started was that people didn’t like the idea of one of the banks that had just recently helped blow up the world economy getting a slew of advertising with the bikes. It remains kind of annoying to see it, but it could have been worse. According to the beginning of this New York Times story about the deal for REQX to expand and prop up Citi Bike, Bloomberg administration aides wanted to call the bikes “Mike’s Bikes” or “Bloomberg’s Bikes.” Just jump on and ride a Bloomberg girl, come and jump on it.
We know, we probably should be focusing more on the rest of the actual news in the article, things like how the deal as currently constructed will raise the price of a one-year membership to $155, but will also lead to the system doubling in size to 12,000 bikes and even include some east of Nostrand Avenue. The plan for is to have all of this done by 2017, so just hope the seas don’t sweep us all away before then, if you’ve been wanting to ride a legal Citi Bike in Crown Heights.
e’re too tickled by the idea that anyone in the Bloomberg administration thought that he was so beloved at the end of his third term that every hated that they’d say things like “Oh, the subway’s down? Let’s just hop on some Mike Bikes, we should still get there on time.” Because if there’s anything less popular than a vague idea of a world-eating bank, it’s a guy who spends twelve telling New Yorkers what to do.