Citi Bike Hits 50 Million Rides, City Says

NEW YORK CITY — Citi Bike's wheels are really turning. The citywide bike-sharing program has logged 50 million trips since its 2013 launch, city officials announced Wednesday.

Cyclists have traveled more than 102 million miles — more than the distance between Earth and the sun — on the program's 10,000 bikes, which each get an average of seven trips a day, Mayor Bill de Blasio's office said in a news release.

The milestone comes as the nation's largest bike-share expands in Harlem, Astoria in Queens and the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Some 12,000 bikes will be docked at 750 stations across the city by the end of the year, officials said.

“When the Citi Bike program first launched in New York, 50 million rides seemed like an impossible goal – but New Yorkers don’t shy from a challenge,” said Jay Walder, president and CEO of Motivate, the global bike-sharing company that runs Citi Bike. “Today, Citi Bike is a crucial component of our transportation network as more New Yorkers and visitors than ever take to two wheels."

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Those 50 million trips have also helped make the city greener by offsetting more than 53 million pounds of carbon emissions, which contribute to climate change, the city said.

Citi Bike was launched in 2013 by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and has expanded under de Blasio. Ridership has grown steadily from 8 million trips in 2014 to 14 million in 2016, with even more expected to be recorded this year, the city said.

"With the boom in cycling, Citi Bike has also been a key to helping us reach our Vision Zero goals – as we have actually seen the positive effects of 'safety in numbers,'" city Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said in a statement, referring to the city's effort to reduce traffic deaths.

(Lead image by John Moore/Getty Images News/Getty Images)