Category: Brooklyn

I’m clearly fascinated by NYC CitiBike program. I love that they publish daily stats (via RSS, even better). But I have no frame of reference. Is 20,000 rides in a day a lot? Sounds like a lot. But compared to what.

So I went on a Google quest for other city bike share stats. Here are some:

Washington DC:

In its first seven months of operation, Capital Bikeshare users made 330,000 trips. (NYC has that amount in less than a month)

London:

Latest monthly stats are 750K rides in a month. That’s clearly a lot. Taking today’s NYC numbers (a weekday, weekends are much higher) and doing the math, NYC should have 650K rides in a month. So we are close but have some catching up to do.

Paris:

Off the charts. 27 million rides in the first year.

Given the rapid growth of CitiBike in the first 20 days, I’d predict NYC passes London. But no way we come close to Paris.

Here’s a cool site with bike share maps for cities around the world.

And here’s a video that compares the pain is the ass factor of various ways of commuting in NYC (the conclusion is actually the opposite of the title):

I just spent a couple of days in the Kings County (Brooklyn) court system, fulfilling my civic duty as a potential juror.

I have mixed feelings about jury duty. On one side, the thought of spending a week or two sitting on a trial and not working is just painful. I’d end up working late nights every day just to stay afloat.

But the other side does believe that a jury system is the best system we are likely to come up with, and I would probably be a good juror.

What kills me is that the legal system is so……damn…….slow.

I get it, the process is optimized for the judges and the lawyers, so wasting jurors’ time is a feature not a bug. But it’s painful.

At least in the main waiting area there is now WiFi. But once you get called up as a potential juror you are in a no WiFi and fairly dead 4G zone. And they would often dismiss us for “15 minutes”. Not enough time to break out the laptop. But sometimes 15 means 15 and sometimes 15 means 50. I probably should have just read a book, trying to do work was pretty unproductive.

We had a criminal case where the lawyers were being very careful with jury selection. So a pool of 60 potential jurors was not enough to produce a full jury. By the afternoon of day 2 I had been rejected as a juror and was dismissed. They were up to 8 jurors at that point.

Anyway, I’m now done. And in the County of Kings (I love saying it that way) that means I don’t have to do it again for at least 8 years. Go Brooklyn.

The WiFi is spotty on the 20th floor, but the view is pretty good…

(One World Trade in the distance on the left)

I have jury duty this week (more on that later) and I needed to swing by my office before going to court So I grab a CitiBike, pretty much without looking, adjust the seat and hop on. My left foot is pushing air.

I look down, the bike is missing a pedal. Kind of a problem.

That’s the first bike maintenance issue I’ve hit. But it was easily resolved. I put the bike back in the rack, press the Repair button, and grab another bike.

I can’t imagine how much maintenance these bikes and the racks must need. It would be very interesting to see cost/revenue stats, but I’m sure the city won’t be providing them.

They do provide mileage stats. Over 790,000 miles traveled so far.

Never a dull moment in Dumbo. Under the archway* they are doing “Pop-Up Piano Concerts”.

The web page doesn’t list who is playing today, but it was a pretty good Dixieland band:

Combined with food from the Brooklyn Flea, this made for a very nice lunch.

* DUMBO stands for down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass – so this is the archway under the bridge overpass.

My girls finished school yesterday and there’s a week before any summer camp type activities start. So they are sleeping in and chilling(well, not Victoria).

So with no need to scooter them to school, I’m biking to work this week. Today is beautiful out so it’s a nice treat.

According to the CitiBike blog, the bikes have been ridden over a half a million miles. In 16 days.

I’m not sure how they calculate it. I’m assuming they track the distance from the origin bike rack to the destination bike rack. But if that is true, then the number they have is the absolute minimum the bikes have travelled. I checked my account and for the 15 or so trips I’m listed as going 0 miles. I’ve done some trips where I dropped the bike back where I started, but not today. So I’m wondering about the calculations a bit.

Regardless, loving the system so far.

The NYC CitiBikes are here. I’m a member, so basically I can grab a bike anywhere and ride for up to 45 minutes for free (not really free, I paid the annual membership). The bike racks are all over the place in my neighborhood, including right outside my office.

The bike share concept makes you think a little differently. If I had a dentist appointment in the middle of the day, to ride there, lock up the bike, go to the dentist and ride back would be pushing the 45 minute limit (you can keep them longer, you just pay).

But that’s not how you have to think.

I would grab a bike outside my office and ride to the closest rack to the dentist’s office and return the bike. 10 minutes. Then after my appointment, I’d grab a different bike and ride back. Each ride has to be fewer than 45 minutes.

The concept only works if there are racks everywhere. And for me, they pretty much are.

The bikes aren’t anything fancy. They are obviously built for durability, not speed. They are heavy, sturdy 3-speeds. They have this interesting basket in the front with no sides and a built in bungee cord. So today leaving my office I had my scooter with me. But I had to go someplace where I knew there was a bike rack and it was far enough that the speed different bike vs. scooter made the bike better. So I folded the scooter, stuck it in the bike basket and rode. To make the  Brooklyn experience complete, I scootered the half block from the rack to the store.

We’ll see how well CitiBikes work in the long run, but I think it’s a winner.