Even though it’s just a year old, New Yorkers are still pretty excited about Citi Bike obviously. Not only are people riding the bikes to within the (limited) system of docking stations, residents of neighborhoods like Crown Heights, Brownsville and East New York are riding the bike share bikes there on one-way trips. Sure, you might be (and police definitely are) looking at this as stealing public property from a financially imperiled transportation system. We prefer to look on the bright side: Everyone wants Citi Bikes!
The Post had the story on Citi Bikes turning up abandoned in Brooklyn’s “worst neighborhoods,” with 67 bikes collected by police in Crown Heights, Brownsville and East New York so far. Even a police source telling the Post “The first time we saw it, we thought it was kinda funny,” before theorizing that the bicycle thief probably just didn’t want to wait for a long train ride home. In Crown Heights, police apparently ran out of room to store the bikes while they wait for Citi Bike employees to pick them up, so they put the bikes in jail cells, which is almost an allegory for the city’s relationship with cyclists if you get high and really think about it.
The bikes are stolen most of the time after people improperly dock them, so make sure you do that next time you take one out, or you’re gonna be paying $1,200 for someone else’s ride home on a big blue bike.
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I see a lot of CitiBikes around where they shouldn’t be and I’ve found many people on Craig’s List asking what they should do with a CitiBike they found in a junk yard or in a dump – allegedly CitiBike doesn’t to come pick them up.
I was biting my nails when my bike didn’t dock properly (though I got a green light) and was taken for a joy ride that lasted a few weeks. I called CitiBike almost every day to check on the status, hoping that someone found it and did the right thing by taking it back to a dock. That $1,200 penalty is no joke.
If you see a CitiBike where it doesn’t belong, keep in mind that someone’s probably on the hook for a lot of money until that bike makes its way back home.
Yo this writing is abhorrent and racist. I don’t think stealing Citibikes is the public property fiasco you guys should be focusing, but it reveals your ignorance and racism.
I don’t care if you think my writing is bad, but how is this racist?
I haven’t read any thing about those blue ugly bikes being left in crown heights or Brownsville, I’ll be honest it seems you havent done your reach search. In that part of the city we seem to be forgotten and looked down on maybe if they put in the bike station they won’t be abandened.
if they are finding them abandoned places (instead of stripped or repainted for everyday use) it seems like putting docks where they find them makes a lot of sense.
I found two citi bikes, called CitiBike, and they picked them up within one day.
if the city put citibike docking stations in neighborhoods like east new york and crown heights then maybe people wouldn’t leave them on the street. when citibike is only available in midtown and lower manhattan, and they forget about the rest of the boroughs then maybe thats the problem. stop calling them thieves, and realize how unfair it is that when you can’t afford manhattan rents, and you live in other boroughs you are unable to use the same public transportation that people who live in manhattan can use