Today’s Headlines

  • De Blasio’s Transportation Record: Progress That Still Leaves Advocates Scratching Their Heads (WSJ)
  • Tim Tompkins and Corey Johnson Tell Errol Louis Why the Times Square Plaza Should Stay (NY1)
  • Mayor Defends Slow Zone Program, Also Defends Canceling Midland Beach Slow Zone (Advance)
  • Hudson Yards Subway to Open September 13 at 1 p.m. (AMNY, News, 2nd Ave Sagas)
  • People Who Detest Rude Cyclists Should Be the Biggest Boosters of Protected Bike Lanes (NY Mag)
  • With Uncertainty Over Development Plan, Willets Point Businesses Want to Know What’s Next (NYT)
  • WSJ Visits the New Plaza on 33rd Street, Finds a Pedestrian Oasis — and Salsa Dancing
  • No, the High Bridge Is Not the High Line — It Has Its Own Charm (NYT)
  • DOT Mistakenly Stripes Incorrect Arrows on Lexington Avenue (DNA)
  • Citi Bike Expansion Now Has the System Over 400 Stations (Citi Bike Blog)
  • Meet the Guy Who Got on a Citi Bike, Headed West, and Never Stopped (Velojoy)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • vnm

    Meanwhile, Queens driver gets charged with vehicular homicide for killing another motorist and passengers . . . in Suffolk County.

    http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/oniel-sharpe-jr-pleads-not-guilty-in-fiery-parkway-crash-that-killed-ostane-family-1.10780694

  • Can we be honest about something here? The guy who took a Citibike out of NYC and is riding across the country — he’s a huge jerk, right?

  • His lifestyle is not one that I would want.

    But, he acknowledges that his CitiBike account has justifiably been charged the maximum fee. As long as he eventually pays that fee, then he is doing nothing wrong.

  • Nothing legally wrong (though a reading of Section 3 of the CitiBike terms may suggest otherwise). That said, if everyone treated CitiBike as a personal bike retailer, the share element of bike share would collapse spectacularly.

  • vnm

    Exactly. If everyone did what he did, there would be no Citibike. If he wanted to tour the country by bike, which itself is a great idea, he should buy a bike.

  • Joe R.

    Can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing in his position. Tiny apartment, dead end job, apparently no significant other in his life. What’s keeping him here? And really what’s in for him continuing to do what he’s doing? Kind of reminds me of that movie “Joe Versus the Volcano” except he’s not afflicted with a terminal illness. It may have been an assholish move basically appropriating a public bike to use on his quest for his own personal holy grail but otherwise I’m not seeing anything terribly wrong with. His life before sucked. It seems like he’s in a much better place now.

    I’m almost tempted to send a donation to help with the Citibike fee.

  • I’m talking purely about his decision to appropriate a bikeshare bike for personal use.

  • Well, he essentially has bought a bike for $1200, the maximum CitiBike fee, which is presumably far in excess of the actual value of the bike. (Assuming that he pays the fee. If he doesn’t, then I have a problem with that.)

    You and Ben are right that, if everyone did what he did, then CitiBike would collapse. This is why the fee structure is such that it strongly discourages people from doing that.

  • Joe R.

    I’m in agreement there. He could have bought a bike more suited to cross country touring. Had it been me, I’d have gotten a nice velomobile. Plenty of cargo space, along with the ability to cruise at 30 to 50 mph on those long country roads.

  • WalkingNPR

    If he wanted to make a point about bike-share, why not ride each city’s bikeshare along the way? (I know he couldn’t have made it across the country exactly doing this, but he could have done some sort of tour)

  • Jeff

    I don’t see the problem. I’m assuming the $1200 fee is far beyond the cost of replacing the bike (the bike itself and the labor and logistics). If anything he’s helping to subsidize the program.

  • Shemp

    Totally fucking lame to steal a CitiBike for your own thing. Even lamer to seek publicity for it

  • Adrian

    He didn’t even take one of the nice new Serotta ones by the looks of it…

  • com63

    He did get a new one.

  • com63

    I think he did it for the attention (hence the newspaper article). I’m not sure that qualifies him as a huge jerk though. It is just one bike and can’t possibly have a real impact on anything.

    I wonder how much these bikes actually cost Citibike? Maybe they should encourage people to do this and buy 3 bikes with the overage cost of a single bike.

  • com63

    At $1200 a pop, I’m sure they could afford to replace the bikes that leave the system.

  • JL

    Would any one of you guys be talking about a guy who quite his job to ride across the country? It’s not even that original. Didn’t some brits take a bunch of Boris bikes into France to climb Mt. Ventoux?

  • ocschwar

    There was a guy who took a Boris on the Eurostar to ride it around Paris, then took it right back and docked it.