In New York we are lucky to have two such organizations, Transportation Alternatives and Bike New York.
Transportation Alternatives, which recently won a 2014 Advocacy Award for helping to bring Citi Bike to New York, began advocating for bike shareyears before the City government was ready to consider it. Their staff researched best practices from other cities and started building excitement among their membership and the media about the idea of bringing bike share to New York.
This excitement proved extremely valuable. T.A.’s members quickly signed up for Citi Bike, helping us sell out of 5000 “founding memberships” in less than 30 hours when the program first opened for sign-ups. And these members spread the word, inspiring more and more to join, making a Citi Bike key a must-have accessory.
Strong membership sales helped us financially, but also politically. Even when some in the press questioned whether New York City was ready for a bike share program, our numbers showed that clearly there was a strong interest in the program and people were indeed ready to ride.
Bike New York, in addition to running the hugely popular Five Boro Bike Tour, also provides free bike education classes. They’ve reached over 17,500 New Yorkers since 2011 alone. Since our launch they’ve also partnered with us to provide Citi Bike Street Skills, free, in-classroom sessions meant to give Citi Bike members and those considering membership the skills they need to ride confidently on city streets. During the warmer months, Bike New York helps us hold these classes at least twice a month. This program is an important part of our safety efforts, which also include giving new members a $10 helmet discount coupon redeemable at any bike shop citywide.
More informal organizations like NYC Biketrain are also partnering with us to host “member-meet-up”rides in which an experienced NYC bike commuter leads a group on Citi Bikes. These rides are meant to show off some of New York’s best bike infrastructure and help our members think about comfortable routes for commuting or just making quick trips around their neighborhoods.
Working with local bike groups allows us to offer more education, programming and excitement to our members. In return, we try to support the efforts of these groups in our communications, with donations of memberships, and collaboration on events. We see it as a virtuous cycle and couldn’t imagine having the country’s most successful bike share system without them.
Dani Simons is the Director of Marketing and External Affairs for NYC Bike Share, the Operators of Citi Bike. She also joined the board of the Alliance for Walking and Bicycling in 2014.
