Bike Sharing

The Wall Street Journal reports that Citi Bike is in the red, needing "tens of millions of dollars" to keep running.

Even when adjusted for its size, Citi Bike's ridership numbers have quickly surpassed comparable systems. While there are many factors shaping Citi Bike's success, a new report from NYU argues that the program's connections to transit could be a key to its strikingly high ridership.

Bike-share NIMBYs have lost another lawsuit.

City Council members today expressed strong support for Vision Zero, bike-share expansion, and other safe streets initiatives, but it's not clear how they will be funded.

Bicycling in Manhattan has long been a male-dominated mode of transportation, but a new study says bike-share is helping improve the gender balance in the borough's bike lanes. Another change since the blue bikes hit the streets last summer: Manhattan bike riders are far more likely to follow the rules of the road.

Major media have a habit of blowing bike-share problems out of proportion. Witness the 2009 BBC story that cast theft and vandalism as an existential threat to Velib in Paris. Five years later, Velib is still going strong. The most recent entry in the genre is Christopher Matthews' misguided story on the Bixi bankruptcy in TIME. Headline: "Why America’s Grand Bike-Sharing Experiment Is Failing."

The Montreal-based equipment supplier for several American bike-share systems, including Citi Bike, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday. It's unclear exactly how the restructuring or sale of the company known as Bixi will play out, but the bankruptcy filing could accelerate the transition to more robust and reliable hardware and software for Citi Bike and other systems. It also figures to be a messy process, though the company that operates Citi Bike expressed confidence today that it won't impede service.

This afternoon, DOT released a bunch of data about Citi Bike ridership that gives some new insight into how New Yorkers are using the system, which covers Manhattan below 60th Street and parts of Brooklyn. The Citi Bike data also informs a new estimate of how many bicyclists are on the street in this part of the city.

Without a doubt, 2013 has been a banner year for bike-share in the United States. Major systems were implemented in New York City and Chicago, and many others debuted or expanded in other cities. In fact, Citi Bike users have biked over 10 million miles and the system is closing in on 100,000 annual members!