New York City's bike-share expansion is almost here. Citi Bike has added more than 100 new stations to its system map in Brooklyn, Long Island City, and between 59th Street and 86th Street in Manhattan. While it's difficult to assess station density with much detail from eyeballing the map, you can see that parts of the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, and Bed-Stuy have thinner station spacing than is typical in the rest of the system.
The updated map is available on Citi Bike's website and mobile app. A spokesperson wouldn't say when the new stations will be rolling out, but this round of expansion is expected to start in the summer.
When it relaunched with new ownership last fall, Citi Bike committed to expansions in Brooklyn and Long Island City by the end of this year. This spring, DOT brass said that the Upper East Side and Upper West Side south of 86th Street would likely be included in a summer expansion, as well. Further expansions are planned in 2016 and 2017.
The station locations themselves have been developed through several rounds of public meetings and don't come as surprise. DOT had posted the locations in a series of maps for each community board district.
While Citi Bike is coming soon to more neighborhoods, those neighborhoods won't necessarily get the same caliber of bike-share service. A dispute between DOT and Citi Bike parent company Motivate has left the expansion zones, which include some of the city's densest neighborhoods, with fewer stations per square mile than the existing system. The convenience, reliability, and overall usefulness of the system in those thinned-out areas won't be up to the standards bike-share users in New York are accustomed to.
