Anatomy of a Blue Bike
1. “The minute you start rolling, the front and rear lights come on,” says NYC DOT bike-share program director Kate Fillin-Yeh. A capacitor in the hub keeps them on even when wheels stop (say, at a red light).
2. The adjustable seat fits people from four-foot-eight to six-foot-eight.
3. New York law requires that all bikes have bells. The Citi Bike’s bell is built in.
4. The GPS and radio-frequency tag transmits data for every trip, much like the GPS system for the city’s yellow cabs. The data will be used to plan improvements, like adjustments in station locations and bike-lane expansion.
5. Fortified for 24/7 city riding, each bike is fitted with heavy-duty tires and weighs about 40 pounds. Says Fillin-Yeh, “It’s a big bike the first 30 seconds you’re on it.”
6. A rack in the front has a cord to secure backpacks, purses, or laptops.
7. The mechanical titanium lock sends pins into the docked bike: “It’s pretty much bombproof,” says Jon Orcutt, senior policy adviser at the DOT.
8. The D.C.-station model was redesigned for New York to better blend in with the city’s existing “street furniture,” like bus shelters.
• The modular stations install quickly with no digging or roadwork. “We were running demos last fall and installing them in 30 to 45 minutes,” says Orcutt. Detailed planning ensured local businesses wouldn’t be disrupted.
• Alta installed solar-power poles in the stations that collect both direct and reflected light from 360 degrees, making them twice as efficient as ones in other cities.
• Most payments can be made at the kiosk, so that all riders have to do at the docking point is swipe a key or enter a five-digit access code.
How It All Works
Who runs this operation?
Alta owns it, Citibank and MasterCard sponsor it, and the DOT oversees it.
How do you pay?
This program was designed for
short-distance commutes (under three miles), so there is a
30-to-45-minute usage time cap, depending on your chosen payment plan: A
24-hour pass is $10, a seven-day pass is $25, and an annual pass is
$95. Overtime fees start at $2.50.
Are the stations uniform?
No. A residential area might have a 23-bike dock; the area around Grand Central station might host 120 bikes.
What if the station is full and there’s nowhere to park?
Enter
your access code at the kiosk, which gives you a fifteen-minute grace
period and provides directions to the nearest available station.
Typically stations are spaced five blocks or fewer apart.
Read more: http://nymag.com/guides/summer/2012/communal-bikes/