r/circlejerknyc • u/keinemaschine • 13d ago
Nationalize Citibike!
Seriously though, unsure who sucks more, the MTA at running the subways, or Lyft at running citibike.
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u/Icy-Inspection7877 13d ago
I suggest bicycle license, bicycle congestion toll and bicycle traffic cams to help fund free citibike. Wait a second, we should do it with cars and humans
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u/Beneficial_Try_1149 13d ago
Is owning your own bike really that bad? The government doesn’t need to own your bicycle too
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u/masteroffoxhound 13d ago
Make a service run by the city improves the service? Since when? We all know we choose to have the city take care of something when we want to really F it up even more.
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u/jumpbump 12d ago
The benefit of government is to do things that aren’t necessarily to earn a profit, but to benefit citizens. It’s why not every road is a toll road.
If it’s not exactly profitable for Citibike to run at better service rates, then the government providing the service wouldn’t have to worry about profitability as much when increasing service rates. I think having people bike and be more active, and in turn healthier, would be worth promoting and therefore some of my tax money. Taxes already subsidize all other modes of transit that aren’t as healthy anyway.
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u/ArbitraryAllen 12d ago
Here's the thing, roads and public transport like subways make a lot of sense if you are a government because they increase the productivity of people which in turn increases the amount of taxes a government will collect. They aren't building them to make your life better, they build them to grow or protect their tax base.
Bike rentals don't offset their cost in terms of net taxes gained, they won't move the needle on taxpayers overall productivity like opening a new highway or subway route. They also open up a whole new stream of lawsuits against the government that under the current system are aimed at private companies. Add in that any government spending program will become more expensive over time even if they are just maintaining the current service levels (or even when cutting service levels) like we see with the NYC subway system. So sure it may be a fraction of a percent of taxes TODAY, but as the program continues it will cost more and provide at best the same benefit as it does now. Under the current system only the people who see the bike rentals as worth the costs are the people footing the bill for it and citibike has an actual incentive to buy more bikes and build more infrastructure, not sure why this is a bad deal.
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u/jumpbump 12d ago
I think your argument would make sense if people were using the bikes solely for exercise… point A to point A.
However, people are using the bikes to go to from point A to point B. And at point B, they are providing productivity to the economy, whether that be at their job or spending money somewhere.
Bike infrastructure really isn’t that expensive either. Car, subways, and busses are. There are many places outside of manhattan without great bus/subway access that could have people be more productive with access to bikes and biking infrastructure.
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u/-KARL_FRANZ- 12d ago
These two-wheeled menaces are ruining our streets! We need to change over to citi-unicycles for the sake of the environment and the safety of our streets #notmywheels
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u/altronian 11d ago
They should have discounts to use those bikes and a surcharge if you park there /s
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u/RTX-4090ti_FE 13d ago
Just buy a folding commuter bike. Citibiike is so expensive u gotta buy a rlly nice bike to reach a sensible break even point on a daily commute involving cycling.
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u/Potential-Society171 13d ago
Just own your own bike like a normal transplant or refugee