NYC Has America’s Most Expensive Bike-Share Program. Could That Change Under Mamdani?

Makai Podolskiy rides a Citi Bike almost every day. The subway doesn’t run near his house in central Brooklyn, and backed-up traffic often makes the bus a slow ride. E-bikes allow him to bypass all the cars and get to his job as a city lifeguard on time. “It’s a simpler and easier way to move around,” he tells Next City from a bike dock in Williamsburg. But it comes at a steep price — as a non-Citi Bike member, a 25-minute ride can set him back at least $20. He remembers the same ride costing him about $5 as a kid. “It’s gotten way out of hand, the expenses on these bikes,” he says. New York City boasts the biggest bike-share program in the U.S. — and even the world, outside of China. It’s also, by far, the country’s most expensive. And it’s getting pricier every year. That could change in the next few years, however, if a campaign to cap Citi Bike rides at $3 for members gains allies in city hall. This would tie Citi Bike fares to the cost of a trip on a city bus or subway, and acknowledge bikeshare as a vital form of public transformation in its own right, advocates say. Since launching in New York City in 2013, Citi Bike ridership has increased sharply, but so has the price to ride. Citi Bike members paid about $4.50 for a 45-minute e-bike ride in 2020. That same ride can cost over $12 today, and for non-members, it can easily clear $22. Membership, meanwhile, costs $239 a year, a 92% increase in inflation-adjusted dollars since the program launched. Meanwhile, that same ride would cost bike-share members between $4 and $7 in cities like Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., where annual memberships can cost at least $100 less, according to Transportation Alternatives, the group behind the $3 Citi Bike campaign. Lyft, which operates New York’s Citi Bike program, also runs the programs in these cities — and supplies bikes to 55 cities globally including Honolulu, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, and Dubai. It just charges New York City riders much more. Rides on the city’s blue, non-electric bikes are much cheaper, but e-bikes account for 72% of Citi Bike’s ridership. The price gap is even more stark abroad. A 45-minute ride would be about $2.40 in Paris, $1.35 in London, and $1.05 in Tokyo, according to Transportation Alternatives. “Citi Bike is too damn expensive,” Brooklyn councilmember Lincoln Restler told Next City at the official launch party for the campaign’s launch party on Aug. 12. Restler first introduced a bill linking the price of a Citi Bike ride to a subway ticket in 2024. “Riders are getting gauged. It should not cost a penny more than a subway or a bus ride to take a trip on a bicycle.” Restler said he’s taken over 5,400 Citi Bike rides himself, and routinely bikes up and down his district along Brooklyn’s waterfront. Each ride now tops $10, which he said “adds up real fast.” While the $3 Citi Bike campaign supports Restler’s bill, organizers are focused on 2029. That’s when Lyft’s contract with New York City runs out, and the campaign wants the Mamdani administration to push for a much more affordable bike-share program at the bargaining table. Brooklyn councilmember Lincoln Restler at the launch party for the $3 Citi Bike campaign on Aug. 12. (Photo courtesy Transportation Alternatives) A bike-share monopoly Lyft’s monopoly over the city’s bike-share program has empowered it to raise prices as it pleases, says Alexa Sledge, Transportation Alternatives’ Senior Director of Communications and Strategy. “Lyft sees a market opportunity,” she says. “They see an ability to raise those prices repeatedly and repeatedly and repeatedly, and people will still ride because at the end of the day, there’s journeys in New York City that just don’t really make sense on the bus or on the subway.” Lyft did not respond to Next City’s request for comment. While Citi Bike has expanded to previously underserved neighborhoods, Sledge says the product has begun to deteriorate in several ways. Advocates say they’ve increasingly seen unserviceable bikes and full stations that require riders to circle blocks seeking somewhere to end their ride – a claim Next City observed firsthand while visiting Citi Bike racks across the city this week. “Every single minute you’re circling looking for parking is a minute that Lyft is getting out of your wallet,” she says. At Transportation Alternatives' campaign launch party, Citi Bike riders wrote down their most expensive rides ever at the campaign launch party. The winner paid over $104 for a single ride. (Photo courtesy Transportation Alternatives) However, Sledge says the Mamdani administration will have leverage at the table with Lyft, as New York City’s contract is one the company will not want to lose. “This is an absolutely massive market for Lyft, and one they want to continue operating in,” Sledge says. This past June alone, there were almost 5.5 million Citi Bike trips, netting Citi Bike over $32 million in total revenue. That’s a $7.8 million increase from June 2024, during which time ride fares have increased by over 35%. Will Livingston, an NYC Department of Transportation spokesperson, tells Next City that Citi Bike factors into the administration’s commitment to “creating a more affordable city,” and that it will go to the table looking to “secure the strongest benefits for riders and their wallets.” Bikeshare as public transportation Most cities with cheaper bike-share programs share something in common, Sledge says: They subsidize those programs. Capital Bikeshare in the D.C. area, operated by Lyft, gets the majority of its operating costs covered by the government. Paris gets up to 70% of its costs subsidized. Some cities, like Austin, oversee their bike-share fleets themselves. Meanwhile in New York, Lyft pays for the city’s program with private sponsorships and user fees. Charging non-members double the rate helps ensure profit, Lyft says. Transportation Alternatives argues that this burden should be passed from riders to the government. “The biggest roadblock we’re seeing in New York City is that we still look at bikeshare as private transportation, whereas bikeshare is public transportation, just like the subway, just like the bus, just like the ferry,” Sledge says. The Department of Transportation, which operates Citi Bike in partnership with Lyft, says the program plays a crucial role in “extending the reach” of public transportation into transit deserts, but doesn’t place bikeshare in that category itself. Transportation Alternatives has several other ideas to make the program more cost-efficient, including building smaller docks in underserved areas that don’t require the usual footprint, getting the government to cover Citi Bike memberships for public employees, and transforming more stations into charging ports. The city has electrified 32 of its 2,200-plus stations so far, Livingston says, adding that it plans to build on this and to pass on savings to riders. Sledge says she’s optimistic about the campaign’s future under an administration with such a strong focus on affordability and improving public transportation — and a particular support for cyclists. Podolskiy is excited, too. “If I could move around the city the way I need to, and it only cost me $3, I wouldn’t take the train,” he says. Brennan LaBrie is a New York-based multimedia journalist who originally hails from Washington State. He reports on urban development, housing, education, and environmental issues. Add to the Discussion Next City sustaining members can comment on our stories. Keep the discussion going! Join our community of engaged members by donating today. Already a sustaining member? Login here.