Citi Bike Use Up 40 Percent in 2016, City Says

BROOKLYN, NY — Citi Bike, the increasingly ubiquitous bike sharing system in the process of expanding its blue rides into new Brooklyn neighborhoods, was used for a record 14 million trips city-wide in 2016, four million more than in 2015, according to statistics released Thursday by the city.

Between July 1 and Sept. 1 of this year, the most recent quarter for which data is available, the system provided more than 60,000 rides on 12 separate days. By comparison, during the same period in 2015, Citi Bike never eclipsed 60,000 daily rides, instead hitting its one-day max on Sep. 24, when 52,706 people used it.

According to the city, this year, Citi Bike prevented an estimated 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere by diverting residents from cars or other modes of transit onto bikes.

The Citi Bike system grew by 139 stations in 2016, the city said, including an expansion into Red Hook, Gowanus, Park Slope, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens that elicited both praise and protests from some community members.

Community Board 6, which represents BoCoCa, Gowanus, Red Hook and Park Slope, is currently evaluating a list of stations residents have asked to be moved, and plans on sending its recommendations to the Department of Transportation (DOT), which runs Citi Bike. CB 6 district manager Craig Hammerman said Thursday that he's hoping to finish that evaluation in January.

The system is also currently planning its expansion into Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. The DOT ran two community comment sessions this fall to assess where locals think stations should and shouldn't be placed in the neighborhoods. An agency spokeswoman said a draft expansion proposal should be released for public comment in the spring.

According to official estimates, by the end of 2017, Citi Bike will operate 12,000 bikes and 700 stations throughout New York.

Photo by Ron Cogswell via Flickr/Creative Commons