Business Lifestyle & Culture

Citi Bike price hikes deter some, not others

By Sebastian Urrutia

For those who don’t pay an annual membership fee, it costs $4.99 to unlock either a non-electric or electric Citi Bike, with the latter immediately charging 41 cents per-minute to ride and the former offering the first 30 minutes for free. So what makes the bike ride — versus hopping the subway or bus for $2.50 — worth the ride?

Renting a bike provides convenience, a faster way to get around or simply the experience breezing through the city on two rented wheels.

But every trip comes with a calculation. Bilal Gutu, 23, weighs that decision every time he thinks about whether to use Citi Bike again. He used to ride twice a week.

Now, it’s “Once in a blue moon,” said Gutu, sighing, groaning and tossing his hands in frustration.“ For him, the service has gotten too expensive, so he never bought an annual membership. “Every time I [tap],” Gutu said, referring to paying per ride, “it makes me feel like I’m breaking my wallet. It’s so expensive … I feel like the barrier to access is definitely that high. It’s cheaper to just use the subway or the bus in most cases.”

Yet, there were 20.1 million trips on Citi Bikes during the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, according to the New York City Department of Transportation. That is a 3% increase over the same period last fiscal year. There was a 5% increase in the number of people paying a minimum of $239 for an annual membership. One of those 114,000 members is Matthew Wood, 52, who joined Citi Bike six months after it launched in 2013.

“It’s a good mode of transportation for me,” he said.

He’s decided to pay the charges, which have risen to cover higher operating costs and to keep the system growing, according to Lyft, operators of the public-private bike-share partnership.

Wood has logged more than 4,000 rides and traveled about 7,300 miles using the system, he said, showing the data on his cellphone’s Citi Bike app. “Twelve dollars a day, five days a week. That’s sixty dollars a week” said Wood. “That’s three-thousands dollars a year.”

For Wood, Citi Bike is more than a means of commuting. Riding through the city reduces his anxiety and helps him relax.

Since 2022, Citi Bike has had five consecutive years of price increases. Michael Chan, 21 joined in 2022 but didn’t renew his membership after that year. “It’s become too expensive for a young adult like me,” said Chan, an NYU student.

Now, he barely uses the bike-share. And when he does, he keeps a close eye on the clock.

“I’m aware,” he said, rapidly nodding his head to emphasize his point. “I gotta keep track of business … I used to Citi Bike a lot back in the day, but not anymore,” Chan said.