Eyes on the Street: Dockless Citi Bike Prototypes Spotted in Brooklyn

Citi Bike operator Motivate confirmed that the black bikes belong to the company.

Black bicycles with the distinctive Citi Bike frame, fenders, and handlebars have been spotted around Brooklyn this month, and we can confirm that they are prototypes for potential dockless bike-share service operated by Motivate.

Last night, Paul Goebel shared photos of a test bike locked to a rack in Carroll Gardens. In one of his photos you can make out the QR code above the rear wheel lock that users would scan to unlock the bike. The bike also has a larger basket than current Citi Bikes, enclosed on three sides:

Possible dockless citi bike sighting in Carroll gardens pic.twitter.com/Imz2d7cSzU

— Paul Goebel (@paul__goebel) January 22, 2018

Near Motivate’s Sunset Park headquarters, Alan Gerber spied a few varieties of Motivate test bikes, including one GenZe-brand electric bike. (Motivate recently announced the addition of 250 GenZe e-bikes to its Ford GoBike San Francisco operation.)

Found what sure look like some @CitiBikeNYC ebike and dockless test mules in Sunset Park #bikeNYC pic.twitter.com/m0UoaGJNwz

— Alan (@akgerber) January 15, 2018

A Motivate spokesperson confirmed to Streetsblog that the black bikes and GenZe e-bikes belong to the company.

Bike-share experts usually cite the durability of Motivate’s bicycles as one of its competitive advantages, but the company has some catching up to do on dockless technology, with other bike-share operators having run such systems for a few years now. Adding the flexibility of dockless operations is probably essential for Motivate to keep up in the increasingly competitive bike-share sector.

Last month DOT put out a request for expressions of interest for companies looking to run dockless bike-share in areas not currently served by Citi Bike. The Motivate spokesperson said the company is considering responding to the city’s request.

Ferdinand Cesarano

E-bikes of the kind that we’re talking about are plenty faster than regular bikes, sometimes more than twice as fast. And pedal bikes with electric-assist motors are also significantly faster than regular bikes.

If people were content to ride these things at normal bike speeds, then I suppose that their operation of them in bike lanes would be less of an issue. But speaking as someone who is regularly dusted by these vehicles on bridges and in on-street bike lanes, I can attest that the current state of affairs is unacceptable. In practice, these vehicles go way too fast to be mixing with bicycles in bike lanes.
Elizabeth F

Thanks, you made my day!
David Veloz

I wonder if it’s not something else, because I rode a half dozen bikes the past couple day and the only ones that shifted reliably were the NuVincsis, and they didn’t feel any more sluggish than the others. But that’s pretty anecdotal.