Survey No. 4: Cracked seat replacement program seems to have stalled

For Survey No. 4, we visited 10 stations, starting in the Financial District and ending at Penn Station.

The accuracy rating of the app continues to deteriorate.  Here’s how we define accuracy:

ACCURATE = exactly reflecting conditions on the ground

SLIGHTLY OFF = off by fewer than 5 bikes or docks

WAY OFF = off by 6 or more bikes or docks

ANNOYINGLY OFF  = where it tells you all is well at a station that is filled, empty or dead.

In this survey, the app reflected conditions on the ground at only two stations. And while we did not personally experience an annoying station visit, we consider ourselves lucky.  Just after we docked at W 14 St & The High Line, we witnessed another rider try all 13 open docks, the clangs and bangs getting louder as his frustration grew. When we commiserated, he muttered “It happens all the time” and rode off to the W 16 St & The High Line. So we scored that station experience an annoyance.

The cracked seat replacement program seems to have slowed down. This survey, we found 70 of 175 bikes, or 40%, had cracked seats. In our Sept. 26 survey, we found 43% cracked.  That was a great improvement over the Sept. 15 survey, when we found 56% cracked. In our first survey in early August we found 68% of all seats counted were cracked.

Dock lock: In our visit to 10 stations, we encountered only one dock that refused to take our bike, by far our best experience in each of the four surveys.

Bike availability. In this survey, 51% of the 392 bikes held useable bikes. TriBeca/Civic Center is at the top of the heap,with bikes at 72% of the 314 docks we surveyed. FiDi/Battery Park came in at 63% and Lower East/Two Bridges at a paltry 25%.