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As real estate firm REQX Ventures and gym chain Equinox prepare to take over troubled Citi Bike, the bike share program has announced a big expansion into Brooklyn and Queens, adding 6,000 bikes and 375 stations by 2017. Next year, stations will come to Greenpoint, north and east Williamsburg and eastern Bed Stuy, according to this map released by Citi Bike earlier this afternoon. After that initial expansion, stations will be added in Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Park Slope, Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens.

Citi Bike also confirmed the price of a yearly membership will rise from $95 to $149, but hasn’t revealed when. Riders can still get a $95 membership for now.

Map via Citibike’s Tumblr

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At last night’s Community Board One meeting, the Department of Transportation announced that it is beginning the planning process to install bike share in Astoria. “This is not an announcement that bike share is officially coming to Astoria,” explained Jon Orcutt, of the DOT. “This is the start of the planning process… and the first of many meetings.” The Citi Bike planning process takes 18 to 24 months before installation, and the DOT plans to work very closely with the Astoria community in that time. The DOT already spoke with Senator Michael Gianaris at his request in regards to potential locations; the city is considering a rough boundary that follows the N/Q line although nothing is set in stone. The final locations will not be decided until after significant community outreach, and an open web portal for residents to leave location suggestions will launch soon.

The Department of Transportation is also working with Community Board Two in Long Island City, where the preliminary planning process has already begun. At this rate, a chunk of Western Queens will have its very own Citi Bike set-up sometime in 2015. Exciting stuff!

Photo via NYC DOT

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Image source: Seth W. on Flickr

Trying to get around has been crazy this week, with hurricane-related transit issues, and many people have been biking to work. It’s a great time to bring up the topic of bike sharing again, for those of you who wish you could get around on two wheels. Unfortunately, the Citi Bike program, which will bring about 10 bike rental stations to Long Island City, hasn’t gotten up and running yet. Now it is slated to launch in March 2013.

There’s another option in the meantime: renting bikes from your neighbors using Liquid.

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Image source: Citi Bike

An update on the coming bike share program – delayed. Again, and this time until Spring 2013. And why? In the words of our Mayor, “The software doesn’t work, duh. You’re not going to put it out until it does work.” He is hopeful that it will all work by spring, though. We are, too.

Update: Citi Bike launch in Long Island City delayed until August [QueensNYC]
We are getting bikes to share, now let’s fight over how to do it- meeting today [QueensNYC]
Bike-Share Program Delayed Until Spring, Mayor Says [NYT]

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Update:

The Citi Bike sharing program will be delayed until August. StreetsBlog confirmed the delay today, citing tweets from the bike manufacturer and the Citi Bike events calendar, which shows bike demos into August.

 

Original post on July 13, 2012:

The Citi Bike sharing program will launch on July 31 with 11 stations available in LIC. When the program expands into Phase 2, we may see more stations in other Queens neighborhoods, including Sunnyside. The program will have 600 bike stations throughout the city and will be managed by the NYC Department of Transportation. With a $95 annual membership trips, under 45 minutes are free:

An Annual Membership is purchased online using a credit card, and an account is created with Citi Bike. Every Annual Member will be provided with a unique key that is used to unlock bicycles from the Citi Bike system. A trip begins when a bike is unlocked and ends when the bike is securely returned to any Citi Bike station.

NY Mag also has some good coverage of how the program will work.