Report outlines contract overhaul with a better balance of oversight & incentives, ensure more reliable & equitable service, and secure a long-term future for bikeshare in NYC
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released a new report, Riding Forward: Overhauling Citi Bike’s Contract for More Reliable and Equitable Service, revealing significant operational shortcomings under Lyft’s operation, which has left riders facing more unusable stations, longer periods of station unavailability, and more broken bikes. Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color faced these problems more significantly. The review also found that the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) failed to hold Lyft, which has operated Citi Bike since 2018, accountable for its failure to meet contracted performance standards.
The report calls for a comprehensive contract overhaul to ensure more reliable and equitable service with a more strategic mix of enforcement of performance standards, attention to equitable service, and incentives to enable Citi Bike to thrive as a key element of the city’s transportation network – whether under Lyft or a new operator.
“Citi Bike has grown to be a vital element of New York City’s transportation network, but Lyft’s failure to deliver reliable service across the system raises alarm bells. The City should overhaul the contract with more strategic performance standards and the oversight and incentives to achieve them. Making sure that New Yorkers can access working bikes and docks in every neighborhood across the city is the way to secure Citi Bike’s future as an essential and equitable component of New York City’s transportation network,” said Comptroller Brad Lander.
New Yorkers took 3.4 million trips on Citi Bike in September 2023, making it by far the largest bike share program in the country. While the network of bikes, especially e-bikes, and docks grew over the past five years, maintenance decreased. Rebalancing moves—the relocation of bikes between stations, which is essential for bikes and docks to be available when and where riders need them—decreased by 80% from 2014 to 2022. With fewer rebalancing efforts, certain areas experience shortages of bikes or docks, impacting service quality.
The neighborhoods on the outer edges of the system experience far more empty stations and unusable bikes disproportionately affecting Black, Latino, and low-income residents. Riders in Sunset Park, Red Hook, and Kensington in Brooklyn and Fordham Heights, Morris Heights, and University Heights in the Bronx encountered Citi Bike stations with no bikes or out-of-service docks more than 20% of the time during peak hours throughout June and July 2023. When riders are uncertain whether bikes or docks will be available when they need them, they are far less likely to use the system.
Despite numerous instances of service failures, the report found no evidence that the City enforced the performance standards in Lyft’s contract. For example, the Comptroller’s analysis found 11,6000 instances in June and July 2023 alone where stations were left completely empty or full for an hour or more. At one point in 2018, Citi Bike experienced a significant service decline with only 57% of bikes available to riders due to repair needs, though the contract requires 97% availability. These and other failures to adhere to contract requirements could have resulted in millions of dollars of fines against Lyft.
The report comes as Lyft is reportedly considering selling Citi Bike and as docked bikeshare network programs in other cities declined in recent years, highlighting the tensions of privately-operated systems. Lyft does not receive any subsidy from the City of New York, leaving it reliant on fees and sponsorships to be profitable, and potentially in tension with the City’s interest in reliable and equitable service across all neighborhoods.
To address these challenges, the report calls for the City to initiate a comprehensive overhaul of the Citi Bike contract, with a more strategic mix of performance standards, oversight to require them, and financial incentives to achieve and exceed them. Although Citi Bike’s contract does not officially expire until 2029, parties can revise the terms at any time and did so at least ten times in the past ten years— most recently this past summer to expand the number of e-bikes (despite reports that Lyft seriously considered selling off the network at the time).
Regardless of whether Lyft continues to operate the system or sells it to a new operator down the road, the Comptroller recommends overhauling Citi Bike’s contract to deliver reliable, high-quality service in neighborhoods across the system by:
- Updating performance standards with neighborhood level requirements to ensure high-quality service throughout the system, not just in aggregate.
- Strengthening enforcement of basic performance standards by actually levying fines where the operator fails to meet minimum performance requirements, especially around rebalancing and fleet availability.
- Providing financial incentives for consistently achieving and exceeding performance standards, in order to provide stronger incentives for reliable and equitable service and ensure the long-term viability of the system.
- Expanding eligibility for Citi Bike’s existing discounted membership program to reach more low-income New Yorkers,
- Improving transparency through enhanced public reporting on Citi Bike’s operations.
“Thanks to Comptroller Lander for shining a light on the inner workings of Citi Bike. This is the detailed review and set of policy ideas on service quality and transparency that we’ve needed for some time,” said Jon Orcutt, advocacy director at Bike New York.
“Citi Bike is an important cog in the city’s transportation network, so it’s essential that the bikes are in good working order, that stations are well balanced with a supply of bikes and open dock space, and that the system is maintained equitably throughout its operating footprint. We commend Comptroller Lander for shining a light on the areas in which Lyft is coming up short in meeting those requirements, and look forward to continued improvement and growth in the city’s bike share system,” said Eric McClure, Executive Director at StreetsPAC
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