Another week in the red zone

Worst week yet for empty Citi Bike stations. Need more feet on the street

We will record about 450,000 rides this December, about 60% lower than the highest usage of the year, in July. Yet two weeks in December have been the most imbalanced of the year.

When we compare the five weeks of July to the last five weeks of deep autumn, the average NotSpot Index is 31 vs. 43. So with 60 percent less pressure on the system, service -- in terms of being able to get a bike -- deteriorates by 40%. What’s up with that?

Since the new owners took over on Oct. 31, there’s been plenty of talk of having deep pockets, like this from new Alta CEO Jay Walder in New York magazine:

“(The new owners) said, ‘Go to it, you have our full support, invest money.’ They know that we need to continue to build up our human resources, our skills, our knowledge base in different areas. Clearly -- clearly -- they are looking to make sure that we are delivering on the things that we need to do. And there are 8 million people in the City of New York who will be watching that, too.”

We continue to press the point: Keeping the system near balance is, as Mr. Walder puts it,  a matter of “human resources.” Citi Bike proved last summer (that lovely swath of green in the middle of the chart) that they can keep the system near balance.

Last Monday at 9:30 am, 25 percent of stations had no bikes. Time to put your money where your mouth is, Citi Bike. Get more feet on the street.

Sources:

The O’Brien map

http://bikes.oobrien.com/newyork/

NYC Bike Share monthly reports

http://bikesharenyc.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_15.html

Tool: Datawrapper

https://datawrapper.de

Forced to see these kinda pics daily. Really wishing they hadn’t rebranded Miami bike-share system

Daily bike count shows that the Dec. 3 station outage really was unprecedented

The number of available bikes plunged to the low of the year -- 2179 -- during the Wednesday, Dec. 3 crash that knocked more than 60 stations off line. That day, the number of operating docks dropped from a normal 11,299 at 8:30 am to 8841 at 12:30 pm -- 21% of the system.

Citi Bike later blamed a T-Mobile connectivity issue for the problem. The system did not fully recover until after nightfall.

Source: The O’Brien map

http://bikes.oobrien.com/newyork/

Well at least it wasn't a repeat of the previous week

About the NotSpot Index

So which big news outlet didn’t get advance copy of Comptroller’s Citi Bike report?

We can’t say for certain, but as of Saturday morning, the NY Times had yet to produce one word about the audit. It’s possible they were on the leak list but found the report so demoralizing that it wasn’t fit to print.

• Andrew Tangel of the Wall Street Journal gets credit for breaking the story -- at 8:42 pm Thursday night.  Tangel also broke the news back in early May that negotiations were under way to buy out Alta.

• So which reporters are on Scott Stringer’s must-call list. They would be:

MEDIUM	REPORTER	DATE	TIME
Wall Street Journal	Andrew Tangel	12/11/2014	20:42
NY Post	Daniel Prendergast	12/11/2014	11:59 PM
NY1	Vivian Lee	12/11/2014	NA
amNew York	Dan Rivoli	12/11/2014	NA
Associated Press	Verena Dobnik	12/11/2014	NA
NY Daily News	Annie Karni	12/12/2014	0:00
WNYC (Transportation Nation)	Kate Hinds	12/12/2014	4:00
Capital New York	Dana Rubinstein	12/12/2014	4:56

Look at the times Hinds and Rubinstein filed. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

• These news outlets devoted staff to cover the story after the comptroller’s office went public with it Friday morring:

NY Observer	Jillian Jorgensen	12/12/2014	10:03
NY Business Journal	staff	12/12/2014	10:45
DNA Info	Jeff Mays	12/12/2014	11:37
WABC-TV	Tim Fleischer	12/12/2014	18:17
Gizmodo	Sarah Zhang	12/12/2014	18:25
NY Magazine (Intelligencer)	Jen Kirby	12/12/2014	NA
Curbed NY	Zoe Rosenberg	12/12/2014	NA
Next City	staff	12/12/2014	NA

• Our vote for the worst headline? The Post’s “City audit proves wheel messy for embattled Citi Bike”

• We were surprised that only two outlets, the Daily News and Curbed NY, chose to focus on the safety aspect of the audit.  To us, broken bikes can be a demoralizing
  • incovenience, but since they can’t be ridden pose no real threat. Bikes with failing brakes, on the other hand...
  
  
  
  • Here’s the full list of coverage with links to the stories:
  
  

  MEDIUM	URL
  Wall Streeet Journal	http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-comptroller-scott-stringer-knocks-citi-bikes-operation-1418348573
  NY Post	http://nypost.com/2014/12/11/city-audit-proves-wheel-messy-for-embattled-citi-bike/
  NY1	http://www.ny1.com/content/news/220290/comptroller--citibike-stations--bikes-not-being-properly-maintained/
  amNew York	http://www.amny.com/transit/citi-bike-audit-shows-tough-first-year-1.9706196
  Associated Press	http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/article/NYC-bike-share-audit-reveals-problems-5952208.php
  NY Daily News	http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/citi-bike-faced-safety-risks-due-inspections-report-article-1.2042663
  WNYC (Transportation Nation)	http://www.wnyc.org/story/citi-bikes-shoddy-management-has-left-riders-lurch-audit/
  Capital New York	http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/12/8558355/citi-bike-gets-harsh-audit-promises-improvement
  NY Observer	http://observer.com/2014/12/comptrollers-audit-finds-poor-citi-bike-maintenance/
  NY Business Journal	http://m.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2014/12/12/citi-bike-audit-finds-that-operator-needs-to-pedal.html?r=full
  DNA Info	http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20141212/central-harlem/citi-bikes-docking-stations-left-broken-dirty-audit-says
  WABC-TV	http://7online.com/traffic/new-york-city-bike-share-audit-reveals-problems/433473/
  Gizmodo	http://gizmodo.com/theres-a-good-reason-why-citi-bike-is-such-a-mess-in-ny-1670546626
  NY Magazine (Intelligencer)	http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/confirmed-citibike-had-some-problems.html
  Curbed NY	http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/12/12/citi_bike_has_apparently_been_unsafe_for_riders_since_launch.php
  Next City	http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/citi-bike-safety-problems-report-new-york-bike-share

Citi Bike ceased in-field safety inspections for 4 straight months (and stayed mum about it)

Link to this visualization

The dotted line shows the period when Citi Bike stopped field inspections entirely.

You would think the layoff of 16 field inspectors and the complete discontinuance of checking bikes for four months, both for mechanics and for safety, would merit some kind of heads up to the DOT. Apparently not.

New York Bike Share simply stopped reporting the number and made no written mention of the layoffs. Here’s what the October 2013 report said about maintenance:

All bicycles were inspected in the field or in the depots this month...The bike shop completed 2,134 total repairs in October, including the refurbishment of 89 bicycles damaged during Sandy.

Prior to October and resuming in February, monthly reports include a hard number for in-field inspections.

Source: NYC Bike Share monthly reports

Tools: Datawrapper, Google Sheets

New Yorkers overwhelmingly use bike-share system for that ‘Last Mile’

Link to this visualization

When Citi Bike launched, it was greeted with great enthusiasm and people took longer trips. Both this year and last, trips got shorter as the weather cooled and fewer people took fewer pleasure trips.  In 2014, miles per trip peaked in the spring. We suspect the enthusiasm factor was at work here, too, people emerging from a harsh winter.

In New York the overwhelming use of the bike-share system is to get people across that Last Mile, like home to subway, subway to work place. Streetsblog explains it all.

Our personal best is 4.7 miles from the Financial District up the Hudson, ending at Penn Station. About as much as we can do within the 45-minute limit.

Source: NYC Bike Share monthly reports http://bikesharenyc.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_15.html

Tools: Datawrapper, Google Sheets