I would like to express my deepest condolences to Council Member Daneek Miller and his family upon the loss of his father. My prayers are with you and I regret not being able to attend the funeral this morning.
Just two years ago, this committee held a hearing to discuss the precarious position of New York City's bike share program at the time. With questions about its solvency and sustainability, we were unsure that Citi Bike would make it to today. I am glad to say that now, there is no doubt that Citi Bike is not only healthy, but is taking off. This is thanks to the great partnership between the mayor, commissioner Trottenberg, Motivate CEO Jay Walder and their teams, who together got the program back on its feet. This October, we saw record breaking ridership, not only surpassing 2015's total ridership within 10 months, but on October 19th the system saw over 69,500 single trips. Citi Bike has become the largest bike share network in America, with over 12,000 bikes, concentrated in lower Manhattan, Northern Brooklyn and Western Queens.
Citi Bike has also been expanding outward from its initial footprint. We'll soon see blue bikes in Harlem, Astoria and Crown Heights, creating more opportunities for residents in these areas, as well as for tourists eager to see more than Times Square and the Empire State Building. Over the past five years, Citi Bike has become an integral part of our diverse transportation network, often doing more than traditional transit to close transportation deserts in areas like the far east side of Manhattan, Red Hook and the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront. It is an excellent example of both a local transportation system, a quick way to get around your local neighborhood; and a more widespread commuter network, with residents capable of getting to work even if they live many neighborhoods away. And it also solves the last-mile problem for residents living some distance from a subway stop.
One of the most celebrated parts of Citi Bike is that the network has done all of this without any direct public financing. The one concern about this however, is that the network has expanded to predominantly affluent areas, with concerns that to do otherwise would be financially unsustainable. As Citi Bike is largely concentrated in the central business district and areas with higher property values, it has unfortunately come to be viewed by some as an amenity more than a public good-a sign of gentrification more than one of opportunity. If we can change the reality that too many communities remain disconnected from Citi Bike, we can quickly change this perception.
That is why today, we'll be looking at what we as a city can do to support the continued growth of Citi Bike into more communities, providing more of our city's residents with this great resource.
To start, I am calling for city dollars to be earmarked in the FY18 budget to fund a Phase 3 expansion, aimed at delivering Citi Bike to the Bronx and Staten Island, while pushing further north in Manhattan and deeper in Brooklyn and Queens. I am setting a goal today, that Citi Bike should be available in every community board in the city by the year 2020. I am ready to work with everyone to achieve this goal, from our speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and my colleagues, to Mayor de Blasio and his administration, to the private sector partners who have proven so valuable. It means that we should all increase our contributions, with public and private capital and expense dollars, so that New York City can be an example to others with bike share in every neighborhood. Working, middle and upper class communities should have the ability to enjoy this resource equally. It is wonderful that Mayor de Blasio is committed to bringing Citi Bike, citywide, and I look forward to seeing a plan and will work with him to secure the funding to get it done.
The benefits of cycling are clear, and are why this committee has sought to make cycling in New York City safer and more accessible to more New Yorkers. From its impact on personal health to its more positive effects on the environment; from its ability to increase traffic to local small businesses while decreasing car traffic on our streets, encouraging cycling is one of the most positive policies we as a city can promote. Commissioner Trottenberg, yourself and the DOT have been excellent leaders and partners in this effort, and I thank you and the mayor for your commitment to building out the bike lane network. I know you, more than most, are interested in seeing Citi Bike expand beyond its current borders and we as a committee are interested in hearing from you about what the next few years of bike share look like.
It is imperative that we turn Citi Bike fully into a public good, a resource for our lowest income communities, an opportunity for growth and human capital development. It's important that our students attending every CUNY campus in the city, can get to class quickly and easily on a Citi Bike. It's important that residents living in some of the poorest communities like those in the Bronx or Brownsville can connect with jobs in other places, even if they can't afford the soon-to-be even more expensive subway or bus fare; and it's important that residents in Staten Island can move about without relying so heavily on their cars, opening up opportunities beyond buses and the Staten Island railroad. And we should capitalize on prioritizing locations near subways, ferries and other transit to ensure quick access to all seeking to move beyond the transit network. Citi Bike has a distinct ability to create and grow new business hubs through more accessible transportation, which can lead to more jobs and more resilient small businesses.
