Citi Bike kicks off to fanfare and frustrations
The county’s largest public bike share system launched this weekend to both fanfare and frustration, as blue-trimmed bicycles arrived in docking stations on sidewalks and curbs throughout the city, but rider keys to unlock them were not all arriving as expected in registered members’ mailboxes, and at some point during launch day, the Citi Bike app crashed for a while, preventing riders from knowing where the closest bike docking station was located.
But first-day glitches aside, overall, the launch experience went smoothly, said Ilya Nikhamin, owner of Redbeard Bikes in DUMBO.
“Keys got lost by the postal service, so we just picked up our keys at Union Square, activated it on the spot and were good to go,” said Nikhamin, who has been waiting to become a Citi Bike member ever since the program was announced over a year ago.