Age verification is coming to Citi Bike, amNY reported on Saturday.
Details were scant, but the new policy comes after a brief campaign by Council Member Justin Brannan and venture capitalist/political strategist Bradley Tusk, and will take three months to implement, Citi Bike operator Lyft said in a letter to Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro obtained by amNY.
Adding age verification will "require multiple steps, including vendor evaluation, selection, negotiation, engineering scoping and execution," the outlet reported.
The minimum age to ride Citi Bike is 16, but in a Daily News op-ed, Tusk recently railed against the bike-share system's popularity among kids younger than that. Specifically, he complained that his son was riding around town — which raises questions about Tusk's parenting.
It's not clear how the app would prevent kids from simply unlocking a bike with their parents' accounts (perhaps we should ask Bradley Tusk about how that's done). It's also not clear if there is any actual data showing that underage Citi Biking is creating safety problems, but we digress — the rules are the rules and people should follow them. (But also, "now do cars" — there are certainly underaged, and entirely unlicensed car drivers putting the public at great danger; we'd love to see a crackdown on that.)
Gothamist also covered the news.
In other news:
- Call it The Park Department! The Parks Department coddles cops by not planting trees if they're too close to where New York's "Finest" illegally park outside precinct houses. (Hell Gate)
- Speaking of cops, our Editor-in-Chief Gersh Kuntzman spoke to The Intercept about how NYPD officers comprise some of the worst safety offenders on NYC streets.
- Signal system upgrades won't be coming to the Bronx under the MTA's 2025-2029 capital plan. (Gothamist)
- The driver who killed a pedestrian on the Conduit near JFK Airport on Aug. 13 remains at large. (amNY)
- MTA board members will award a $1.9-billion contract for the Second Avenue Subway on Monday. (Crain's, amNY)
- The Parks Dept. (nearly) cannibalized a Hell's Kitchen outdoor dining set-up with an ill-conceived tree bed expansion. (W42ST)
- Here's how to take transit to the U.S. Open as "Fan Week" starts. (amNY)
- And finally, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards endorsed Zohran Mamdani and, more important, rode the bus with him:
