Citi Bike's website claims to allow you to "Bike NYC. Like, all of it." For many New Yorkers, however, a recent analysis found that when and where you bike could preclude your ability to conveniently use the service in certain neighborhoods.

Avid Citi Bike riders may have experienced the competitive nature of docking a bike in a neighborhood such as Red Hook on a busy afternoon. Bikers often circle the neighborhood or camp next to a station, hoping to find someone to rent a bike to free up space. What began as a twenty-minute journey can quickly involve walking more than a mile or waiting an indeterminate amount of time.

Commuting patterns and times affect stations across the city. Docks are most unavailable between 6-8 a.m. and 3-5 p.m., with mornings more difficult for docking bikes and afternoons more difficult for renting.

The office of the City Comptroller released a report in 2023 detailing the many issues with Citi Bike service throughout New York. It found that low-income neighborhoods were more likely to experience poor service.

At a granular hourly level, though, neighborhoods with large proportions of high-income workers show that Citi Bike is also often failing these customers.

For instance, the East Village and Alphabet City neighborhoods of Manhattan experience clogged stations in the morning and afternoon, only adequately serving users at noon. Hudson Yards experiences smooth service through the morning, but by late afternoon has no stations that experience greater than 90% availability throughout the week.

Lyft, the company that owns and operates Citi Bike, only publishes data for station availability in real time, meaning that historical analysis requires continuously capturing this data. I tracked these stations from August to November 2024, downloading data every 10 minutes.

The Comptroller's report found that although Lyft has a contractual obligation to service stations around the city, Lyft is rebalancing stations (replacing bikes from full to empty stations) at historically low levels. “From 2014 to 2019, Citi Bike completed over 100 annual rebalancing moves per bike compared to just 26 in 2022 == an 80% drop,” the report stated. Lyft said this was due to their 'Bike Angels' program, which incentivizes users to move bikes from low- to high-demand stations in exchange for rewards like free rides or discounts.

The citywide view illustrates both the extent of service issues throughout the city and supports the findings of the Comptroller's report. In addition to the highlighted neighborhoods, stations in the Bronx, Sunset Park, Flatbush, and outer Queens all have consistently unreliable service, no matter the time of day.

Despite higher Citi Bike prices and New York's system status as a "crown jewel" for Lyft, conditions show continual deterioration.