Will Official Citi Bike Docking Station Come To Roosevelt Island? There's An Unofficial One At Roosevelt Island Subway Station.

Roosevelt Island has no official Citi Bike docking station but that did not stop one user from adopting the Roosevelt Island subway station bike rack as a personal Citi Bike dock station. According to the Roosevelt Island Twitterverse

Dear @CitibikeNYC I think someone needs a docking lesson. Saw this on the rack by the Roosevelt Island F train stop. pic.twitter.com/GSmME5ExnC
— Jeff Lee (@jeffreally) August 5, 2014

Also, Michael Hocke shares this picture of the personal Citi Bike docking station at the Roosevelt Island Subway Station Bike Rack

 Image From Michael Hocke

and adds yesterday:

Somebody seemed to have claimed a Citibike as his/her own.

I snapped this picture yesterday morning. The bike was still there this morning and notice the lock! I’ll let Citibike know so they can reclaim it but it will probably take a while according to reports on the Gothamist.

The Citi Bike was still docked at the Roosevelt Island subway station this morning.

Roosevelt Island resident Janet Falk reports on her conversation with a Citi Bike Program Manager:

Citi Bike, the bicycle sharing system in Manhattan and Brooklyn, is enormously popular, exceeding expectations. I have used it numerous times to take short hops between appointments in Manhattan. It's fast, a light work-out and saves the cost of subway fare on these interim trips.

Of course, it could be even more convenient. The northern-most docking stations are very close to the tram at 58 and 2nd Avenue

and 58th and 3rd Avenue. In the morning, the bikes at these stations are quickly snapped up, according to my neighbor.

On Saturday, August 2, I spoke informally with a manager of the Citi Bike program and congratulated him on its success. I asked when the program might be extended to Roosevelt Island. Unfortunately, our Island, flat and scenic as it may be, does not appear to be on the Citi Bike radar screen. The next areas of expansion are likely to be Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, followed by the area between 58th and 79th Streets, on both the East and West sides of Manhattan.

In 2009, RIOC briefly considered an Island-based bike sharing program, which at the time struck me as doomed. Anyone who wants to zip around the Island probably has their own bike already. Riders using the proposed bicycles could transport very few items from a store in the carriers provided. As someone who once hoisted a backpack laden with a 10-pound bag of frozen chicken breasts on a bike ride from the nearby Costco, I know the folly of shopping by bicycle.

A bike program that communicated with Manhattan, however, would be viable and might even bring more tourists and visitors to the Island's restaurants and stores. If REQX Ventures, an affiliate of real-estate giant Related Cos, completes the anticipated investment in the Citi Bike program, that might make the Island an attractive location for some Citi Bike stations at the Tram, subway, Good Shepherd Plaza and under the helix.

According to the NY Times, REQX is:

...a venture formed by some principals of the real estate firm Related and the fitness chain Equinox....

Related Companies is a joint venture partner with Hudson Companies (Hudson Related) as developers of Roosevelt Island Southtown Riverwalk buildings and as Main Street Retail Master Leaseholder.

A Citi Bike location on Roosevelt Island would make a great connection to Long Island City and Astoria, as well as Brooklyn and Manhattan.

The August 4 WNYC Brian Lehrer radio program



has more on the future of Citi Bike.