New York bike sharing hit 10m in 2015
Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, has announced that the city’s bicycle sharing network was used 10 million times in 2015
The Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, announced on New Year’s Eve that the city’s bicycle sharing network was used 10 million times in 2015.
There are currently 7,500 bicycles in the Citi Bike system, which added 2,400 bikes and 138 new docking stations throughout the city last year.
City officials are aiming for the system to have 12,000 bikes and more than 700 docking stations by the end of 2017.
Usage in 2015 was up 24 per cent from the previous year, when just over 8 million trips were made.
Mayor de Blasio said that Citi Bike had more users in 2015 than any other bike sharing programme in the United States.
In a statement, the mayor’s office said the city’s programme is now “on par with the largest bike share systems in the Western hemisphere… There have been nearly 9 million trips taken on Mexico City’s similarly sized EcoBici bike share in 2015… and London’s larger Santander Cycle Hire was on pace for 9,943,074 trips in 2015.”
Citi Bike users exceeded 50,000 trips on 7 days during 2015 and according to Take Part, a bicycle advocacy group, New York City officials have praised the Citi Bike system for the way it has helped reduce car traffic and increase exercise among residents since it was launched in 2013.
A study in Washington D.C .in 2015 found that bike share programmes are capable of reducing traffic congestion by 2-3 per cent and cities across the US are promoting bike sharing as a way to prevent some vehicles entering cities.
