Bike Angels Community AMA 2023

Yeah, that's a massive pain too. I was walking with my mom the other weekend and moved some bikes from a station that was filling too quickly (what, doesn't everybody move bikes with their mom?), and one of the stations didn't end my ride. So there I was, with my mom, asking her to wait while I go on the phone with customer service.

But the weird thing? It wasn't the first bike I'd moved to that station. The first time, the ride ended just fine. And the bikes were parked right next to each other. So, this is how I can tell it's complex. I wish it wasn't. But customer support was amazing: friendly, helpful, and they disabled the station until someone could look at it. Thanks for calling these things in when you see them.

Thanks for following up to reiterate your interest in reserving a bike in advance. This is an interesting idea! We've been working on features to allow riders to reserve docked bikes in some cities. Currently, this feature isn't being considered for Citi Bike. 

First of all, I feel your pain. I really do. We’ve passed that on, because it's great feedback. I know my friends on the teams that work on these problems are aware of it; it's just more complex than I wish it was.

Paraphrasing what I hear from colleagues: The reality is that our stations sit on NYC streets for many, many years. We've come a long way in designing our hardware to be incredibly resilient to the challenges that the streets pose; plus, we have hard-working maintenance crews out there every day to make them work. But, things still go wrong (and we’re working hard to shrink that list). What could possibly go wrong, you may ask? The list would amaze you – skyscrapers blocking the sun from reaching our solar panels, trucks backing into our kiosks, even rats chewing through electric cables. (What, they got tired of pizza?)

One of the things I've learned as a Bike Angel is "if something looks too good to be true, it probably is." Just one example: one afternoon I saw a 12-point pickup station in Union Square, surrounded by 6- to 12-point dropoff stations. I ran to the subway, got down there as fast as I could and... none of the bikes were releasing. That's why there was one pickup station surrounded by dropoff stations. I used a few words that would be unprofessional to share here (and I'm guessing you've used some of those words yourself). Worse yet: this wasn't the first time it had happened to me.

I keep falling into that same trap: "look at all those pickup points, surrounded by miles of drop-off stations!" I'm slowly learning to switch to the Parking view, and to check a few times. If there are zero parking spots, and it stays that way for 30 minutes, it's probably a station not releasing bikes. I realize that isn't a long-term fix, and like I said, we’ll pass along the feedback.

Most of the time I can tell if something is off with an ebike within the first minute. If that's the case, I return it to the start station, because when you return a bike to the start station in a matter of minutes, the ebike fees will be waived. Also, a ride that ends at the start station will count as neutral and not break your streak.

Hi, RickyDee, thanks for flagging that you haven’t been able to load the City Explorer feature for several months. We know you ride a ton and know how to use the system and app. We’ve created an internal report with the details you shared here to be investigated by the teams that work on City Explorer. 👼

It worked for one brief second a couple of weeks ago, but now it is grayed out again.  Plus...it is rarely accurate, since they turn stations on and off all the time and move them around.  There are several I have definitely been to many times, which no longer show that I had been there (at least before the app stopped working altogether), but the information really has no value anyway, since we do not receive rewards for the number of stations we have utilized.

Hi, zswapsny, thanks for commenting about the Steady Pedaler bike keys. I know this has been paiful for Angels that earned this reward, as many have been waiting for months.

I'm happy to report keys rewards are back in stock and being shipped. 🎉 

A single-digit percentage of rides are point-positive rides by bike angels, so it's not nothing, but it isn't huge either.

Bike angels definitely have an outsize impact on the system compared to the number of rides they do. To illustrate, we have an internal leaderboard where I am regularly the employee with the most point earning rides (because robert_halo opted out of the leaderboard after having been the top dog for months) but even in weeks where I have earned the most points, I tend to not have the most rides or the most unique stations visited.

There are no special rules for valet stations. If it's neutral it can be used for both drop offs and pick ups, but valet stations can also have drop off or pick up points.It's possible that the valet notices that you're rebalancing and asks you to stop because their estimate is that they need to corral or remove more bikes in order to get to a good balance at the end of their shift regardless of what the points scoring mechanism says. If that's the case please follow their instructions.

If a ride started at a docking station, we only look at duration until the ride ended at the same station. If a ride did not start at a docking station (this only applies to where we have bikes with a cable lock), we look at a combination of distance traveled and time.

I can't find the exact thresholds for these in the code/configuration right now, but even if I could, these are subject to change, and I would not be permitted to share this publicly. You should definitely wrench any bike that needs attention and submit the report so our mechanics know what issue to investigate.

Regarding your recent support experiences, we appreciate your callouts, and we’ve shared feedback internally about these specific interactions to ensure they are reviewed appropriately.

If l find a station that is ‘acting up’ as you describe, I do the following:

If, as you say, bikes don’t release but then one all of a sudden does, I’ll wait, as the app will say, for 15 to 30 seconds, ‘Unlocking Bike…’

I’ll stay at the station until the app says, either:

‘Ride In Progress’ in which case l leave for a drop off station, or

’Bike Unavailable’ in which case the ride doesn’t register and I’ll just re-dock the bike and try to check it out again. That way you won’t waste time on a ride that the system thinks never started.

I’ll only put in the extra time and effort if the point value is large, which it often is with wonky stations.

YES! AND...you can no longer contact the 800 number through Skype, so I spent an hour and a half on the phone yesterday after my Visa card was charged more than $85 because when I notice (after an unrecorded 18 point ride) that the station at 47th and 10th was not registering rides.  I released the bike and then immediately redocked it.  I spent a substantial amount of time contacting customer service to end that ride.  Then the station connected briefly again, and the ride ended.  I continued to move bikes from that station.  Two days later I noticed that I was charged for not returning that bike.  They also have been using reward points without informing me...and at the same time, charging my Visa card despite three years worth of remaining reward points.  I do not even bother to ask for the missing points anymore because it is too time consuming.  The individuals on the 800 number are in some other country.  They are very polite, but do not listen and keep repeating themselves.  Plus, they claim they are seeing no points in my account or that they have expired...even though there is no expiration date and I had points awarded in May and June that are still available.  

Also...I was in CVS a day or two after that after completing 13 rides when suddenly my points reverted from the 3X screen back to single points.  The csr in the chat said I had not docked properly, but there were no open rides.  When I took a new ride to earn back the 3X points, it did award me the 3X (9 points), so there is a bug in the system.  There has also been a bug for several months where 3 points and 6 points switch when you enlarge or reduce the screen size to view street addresses, so you have to specifically choose a station to determine what it really represents.  This bug appeared after they made a change with the 3X renewal period several months ago (midnight versus 24 hours).