Citi Bike may be bleeding money faster than a broken ATM, but don't think Mayor de Blasio's coming to bail the bike share program out. He told reporters this week that the city will not be using public funds to help alleviate Citi Bike's debt, proving once and for all that Ol' Progressive Bill is in secret cahoots with the Plaza Hotel.
Citi Bike was supposed to be self-sufficient enough to survive without using city funds, and de Blasio says his administration is working with Alta Bicycle Share, the company that runs the program, to work out some of the rather staggering financial kinks. "We will collaborate with them to help them find ways to be more efficient and more effective," de Blasio said yesterday. But he maintained that the "tens of millions of dollars" the program needs to keep rolling will not come from a public sector check. "At this moment, city budget money is not on the table. But we’re open to other alternatives," he said.
Some suggestions for getting Citi Bike back on its feet have included raising the annual $95 membership price, wooing new sponsors and raking in more private investors. Turbo-charging the bikes to make them ten times more awesome does not seem to be on the table, but it totally should be.
