Elected Officials, Advocates, Business Leaders & Riders Rally for Five-Borough Citi Bike at No Cost to Taxpayers
#CitiBike4All Campaign Amasses Over 5,000 Signatures in Just a Few Weeks
"Too Good a Deal to Pass Up"
New York, NY
-Elected officials, community leaders, business leaders and riders will gather at City Hall on Wednesday to rally for a five-borough Citi Bike. Motivate, the company that operates Citi Bike, has offered to expand bike share to all five boroughs at no cost to New York City taxpayers; advocates will push for the city to accept the deal.
WHAT:
Elected officials, community leaders, business leaders and riders rally for a five-borough Citi Bike at no cost to taxpayers
WHO:
·
Ydanis Rodriguez, City Council member, Transportation Committee Chair
·
Paul Steely White, Executive Director, Transportation Alternatives
·
Tracey Capers, Executive Vice President, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
·
Michael Brady, Executive Director, HUB Third Avenue Business Improvement District
·
Deborah Marton, Executive Director of the New York Restoration Project
·
#CitiBike4All supporters from all five boroughs including:
o
Bike New York
o
Make Queens Safer
o
Streets PAC
o
Staten Island Wellness Coalition
o
Island Voice
WHEN:
Wednesday, June 21 11:00am
WHERE:
City Hall Steps
BACKGROUND:
Citi Bike launched in May 2013 with 6,000 bikes at 332 stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. By the end of 2017, Citi Bike will have doubled in size, with 12,000 bikes at 700 stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Citi Bike currently serves over 60,000 trips a day during peak season. Last year over a half million people accessed the program. Citi Bike currently has over 126,000 annual members.
Since its inception in 2013, Citi Bike has become an integral part of New York City's transportation network, and expansion to all five boroughs is necessary to ensure it can be an even more effective and equitable mode choice. Citi Bike is popular as well: According to a Penn Schoen Berland and Transportation Alternatives poll in November 2016, 71% of likely New York City voters support Citi Bike expansion into all five boroughs. The City Council, in its formal response to the Fiscal Year 2018 Preliminary Budget, asserted that Citi Bike has the potential to "resolve the problem of transit and health inequity for New Yorkers of all backgrounds."
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