How Many Citi Bikes Are Actually Available? (Graph)

New York's Citi Bike claimed in September 2017 that it has 12,000 bikes in its system.  But as pointed out last month in Streetsblog NYC, there are far fewer (7166 at the time), likely because many are in repair or storage.  Or set aside for out-of-town commuters.

I've started logging the number of bikes in the Citi Bike system that are available, using Oliver O'Brien's invaluable Bike Share Map, which uses Citi Bike's data.  I'm using the Total Bike Available: Max Today metric.

As of October 28, the number of Citi Bikes available is up to 8592, a sharp jump from 7825 two days earlier.  This chart will continue to be updated.

It's 8:30pm and Mid-Town Is a Citi Bike Wasteland, So Why Are Hundreds of Bikes Systematically Kept Out of Commission?

If you are a Citi Bike user with the misfortune of being in midtown Manhattan after 7pm, you are well familiar with the despair of trying to find an available bike to ride home after a long day at work.

Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 8:36pm

Tonight I had the experience of walking from station to station for 25 min, arriving just in time to see a fellow Citi Bike member riding off with last bike at the station.  A station sporting 2 bikes gave me more hope til I arrived to see a happy couple pedaling away with both precious vehicles.

Midtown doesn't have to be a Citi Bike desert every weekday night if the service didn't deliberately take hundreds of bikes out of commission every night for a questionable reason.

After finally finding a bike and going uptown, I passed by a stockpile of dozens of Citi Bikes outside Penn Station:

Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 8:55pm

Presumably, Citi Bike collected them at the evening commute from members dropping them off before heading out of the city.  Citi Bike COULD do the right thing and serve its members by doing a final rebalance in the evening and distribute these bikes around midtown to desperate bikers but it doesn't.  

So members are stuck with a shortage of bikes for 12+ hours from 6pm through the next morning, so Citi Bike can have a fleet of bikes ready for commuters arriving at Penn Station.

For some reason, Citi Bike is treating commuters riding in on the LIRR better than Manhattanites, who pay higher taxes but don't get the valet service at the morning and evening that the out-of-towners do.  

Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 9:48pm

So why doesn't Citi Bike do a final redistribution of bikes from its stockpiles at Penn Station, and presumably Grand Central and other major transit hubs?  I'm guessing it's money.  It would have to pay to do a final distribution of bikes after the evening commute, and then overnight round up enough bikes to bring back to these hubs in time for the morning commute.

The bean counters a Citi Bike have somehow decided that being able to serve commuters from out of town with a steady stream of bikes in the mornings and to have a valet collect said bikes at the end of the day, is more important than serving Manhattan-tax-paying members.

Citi Bike: why have you forsaken Manhattan members for out-of-towners?