Bicycling

Major Citi Bike Expansion Starts Today

Citi Bike began installing a batch of 121 139 new stations this morning, kicking off a 2016 expansion phase that in Manhattan will reach up to 110th Street and in Brooklyn will extend to the neighborhoods between Red Hook and Prospect Park. All told, Citi Bike will be growing from about 470 stations and 8,000 bikes to about 590 more than 600 stations and 10,000 bikes this year.

By David Meyer

3:07 PM EDT on August 1, 2016

Early Monday morning and #citibike kicks off their huge 2016 expansion! pic.twitter.com/abCLKh0tuJ
— Will Bissell (@BissMarkie) August 1, 2016

Citi Bike began installing a batch of ~~121~~ 139 new stations this morning, kicking off a 2016 expansion phase that in Manhattan will reach up to 110th Street and in Brooklyn will extend to the neighborhoods between Red Hook and Prospect Park. All told, Citi Bike will be growing from about 470 stations and 8,000 bikes to ~~about~~ ~~590~~ more than 600 stations and 10,000 bikes this year.

In addition to the expansion areas, Citi Bike will be adding some infill stations in the current service area on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side, where the station density initially fell short of recommended standards. Station density is a key factor in the success of bike-share systems since it cuts down on the time users spend walking to and from stations.

The 2016 expansion is the second year of a phased, three-year plan that in 2017 is expected to extend up to 130th Street in Manhattan, further into western Queens, and into parts of Crown Heights in Brooklyn.

The new stations coming this year are shown in yellow on the Citi Bike map. Check the map to monitor when new stations are operational.

Citi Bike is adding nearly 140 new stations to its network in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Jersey City. Image: CitiBikeNYC — In addition to the new stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, Motivate, the company that runs Citi Bike, is adding a few stations to its Jersey City network this year. Image: Citi Bike

Citi Bike continues to get impressive use. This spring and summer, users have routinely exceeded 50,000 trips per day, which works out to more than six daily trips for each bike in the system.

DOT is also putting down new north-south protected bike lanes this year in the expanded service area. The Amsterdam Avenue protected bike lane, a northbound route between 72nd Street and 110th Street, is mostly complete. And an extension of the protected bike lane on southbound Second Avenue from 105th Street to 68th Street is currently underway as subway construction wraps up. That will leave a gap on Second Avenue between 68th Street and 34th Street, which DOT plans to partially fill in next year.

Updated to reflect accurate number of stations being added in 2016.

David Meyer

David was Streetsblog's do-it-all New York City beat reporter from 2015 to 2019. He returned as an editor in 2023 after a three-year stint at the New York Post and is now Managing Editor.