Citi Bike rolled out its ambitious expansion plan Monday — touting new stations in Queens and Brooklyn as well as upgraded wheels.
Astoria, Long Island City, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Boerum Hill, Bed-Stuy and Harlem will also welcome bright blue bike docks in the near future, said Jay Walder, CEO of Motivate, which now runs the bike-sharing program.
The company plans to double the number of Citi Bike stations — currently at 332 — by 2017, he said.
It’s already overhauled nearly all of its existing 6,000 bikes — repairing seats, tightening brakes and replacing pedals, he told reporters.
Walder said Motivate has updated its software as well to make bikes easier to find.
Citi Bike clients will also get an email at the end of each ride, confirming their wheels have been properly stored and they are no longer on the hook for charges.
Walder apologized for taking the whole system down for three days over the weekend.
It was an abrupt move but one that had to be done to replace all the bikes’ user screens.
They now provide real-time information and updates to users.
New Yorkers get three days’ credit to make up for the outage, Walder said.
“Let me apologize for that. We really wanted to make sure we did it in a way that worked, so there was no question about us not taking appropriate responsibility for this,” he said.
The 12,000 docking stations are also getting makeovers so it’s easier to return the Citi Bikes.
Key dispensers will be installed at some stations so people can sign up and take out a bike on a whim — rather than wait the usual week for account activation.
Despite all the upgrades, the pricing will remain the same, at $149 a year and $25 a week.
Citi Bike will continue to offer annual members discounts on helmets and bicycle safety education classes in partnership with civic biking organizations. The classes will be held once a week, as the weather warms up.
“We’re very much a fan of the bicycle lanes in New York and the investment that’s been made there. In fact, if you look on our app, when you go there now, the bike lanes will become very, very prominent. We encourage helmet use for people and we run safety-training programs as well,” said Walder.
New York’s bike share rate is one of the highest in the world, Walder added.
Each bike in New York is ridden 8.3 times a day. In Paris, the average is 6.7.
