CitiBike Delayed…But for How Long?

photo via Facebook

If everything had gone as planned, the CitiBike bike-share program would have launched yesterday. There would have been 1,000 bikes to start, with “at least 75 docks of new bicycles put into service every 10 days until the first phase of the system was fully operational.”  To start, the bikes would be concentrated in lower Manhattan, Midtown, and North Brooklyn. By Spring 2013, the program was supposed to have spread to Park Slope.

We were excited. We were annoyed (no station on Union till Spring 2013!). We lamented the price. We defended the price. We worried about helmets. We had a lot of feelings.

But as July — the scheduled launch month — progressed, we began to wonder: where are the bikes? By mid-month, we were hearing August. The apparent culprit was software problems. Totally relatable — I have software problems all the time! We looked forward to August.

Yesterday, though, we got wind of a new plan. Sort of. The revised launch date is TBD, but judging from the NY Post story this morning, it sounds like it August probably isn’t happening. And while there’s no official confirmation either way, people seem to be tossing around “spring 2013” as a real possibility:

One insider said the program might be shelved until next spring if the delay reaches late October.“No one wants to do this in November,” the insider said. “You’d be looking at spring [2013].”

Which, of course, is when the bikes were supposed to hit Park Slope anyway. If everything rolls out at the pace originally planned, that means that bike share won’t arrive in the neighborhood until 2014. So if you were thinking of selling your bike to take advantage of the program…I guess what I’m saying is, no rush.