Friday’s Headlines: Silence = Citi Bike Edition

Citi Bike is all over the news these days, and not for reasons the company would want.

There was a Hell Gate story last month about the Lyft-owned system’s increasingly high profits (followed up yesterday by Gothamist, which reported on the company’s back-door price hike in the form of slower e-bikes that cost more). There have been calls to restrict the company’s e-bikes — an editorial in amNY yesterday was the latest example.

And, of course, since last week’s killing of Citi Bike rider Daria Serkov by a truck driver on E. 14th Street, there’s been even more mud thrown at the bike-share company. Even though nothing is sticking for now, the dirt leaves a mark.

On Sept. 30 — aka Super Bowl Wednesday — the City Council will host yet another all-day-and-part-of-the-night hearing on nearly two-dozen bills about e-bikes, several of which directly affect Citi Bike’s business.

The company should not only defend its service, but go on the offensive. A company that handles millions of bike rides per year is an essential part of New York City’s transportation landscape, yet Lyft remains quiet on the issue of the day: what the Mamdani administration should do now to ensure safe streets. (Ironically, the last time we saw a Lyft official at City Hall, it was to testify to make auto insurance less expensive — which would actually negatively affect Citi Bike users.)

Meanwhile, activist organizations like Transportation Alternatives, StreetsPAC, Riders Alliance and Open Plans are doing the hard work of advocating for what we need: more cycling infrastructure, more car-free streets and plazas, and fewer car trips in a city with the best (but could be better) transit in the nation. (All of those groups were quoted in City Hall’s recent Vision Zero press release … but not Lyft.)

And news outlets like Streetsblog, Gothamist and Hell Gate are holding politicians accountable for failing to build safe streets and then deflecting attention away from their failing by blaming “those damn e-bikes.” (Case in point: The truck that killed Daria Serkov was exempted by the city from rules requiring an underguard, which likely would have saved the teen, but, sure, blame Citi Bike.)

Will Citi Bike testify at Wednesday’s mega-hearing? Who knows?! The City Council would benefit from hearing from one of the city’s most important transportation providers before lawmakers begin making it more difficult for Citi Bike users and other e-bike riders to get around town.

The cab company generally doesn’t like to insert itself into the story, but it has to know that it’s so deep in the story, it’s liable to come out the other end.

Stay tuned.

In other news:

• Speaking of Super Bowl Wednesday, our friend Charles Komanoff offered a coherent and intelligent preview of sorts with a deep dive on e-mobility for Vital City. The piece has lots of solid ideas, all of which go beyond the nibbling that the council is considering. One quibble: Our reporting suggests that the increase in deliverista compliance with traffic laws stems more from the hard-won minimum wage for these hard workers and less from NYPD Commissioner Tisch’s short-lived criminal crackdown.
• Rest in peace: The man behind the pooper-scooper law, Edwin Lehner, is dead. (NY Times)
• The MTA is finally giving its orange seats a sendoff. (ABC7)
• The Post hates Mayor Mamdani and basic ecology so much that it decided to championing Bensonhurst residents who don’t want the city to plant street trees on their block.
• Speaking of cranks, Reddit offered some coverage of an insane Brooklyn community board meeting at which 90 percent of residents identified themselves as drivers and offered conspiracy theories and lies about the city’s bike boulevard plan for Dean and Bergen streets.
• A fatal fire in The Bronx was exacerbated by a car driver who left his vehicle in front of a hydrant. (amNY)
• The City Council passed a bill by Crystal Hudson (D-Fort Greene) to make it easier for qualifying New Yorkers to get Fair Fares. (amNY)
• Gothamist got the handout about $5 million in overnight delivery incentives that the city will give to business owners, thanks to congestion pricing.
• Norman Oder has the latest on the slow-rolling, decades-long Atlantic Yards boondoggle. (City Limits)
• The great Liam Quigley follows our great(er?) Kevin Duggan’s scoop about a possible bike lane around Grand Central Terminal. (Gothamist)
• Streetsblog loves New York City public school teachers, who are among the most selfless of public employees … except when it comes to their complaints about parking. (NY Post)
• The Council continues its efforts to rein in the exploitive workplace practices of the delivery app companies. (amNY)
• The Daily News had more on The Bronx man who was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver.