Seriously, How Many People Are Throwing Citi Bikes in the Hudson?
Posted on February 27, 2019 at 7:22 am by West Sider
In the wake of the discovery of a barnacle-bike at the Citi Bike station on 73rd and Riverside, people have begun sending us photos of more Citi Bikes in the Hudson River. And now it’s looking more and more like a bizarre trend.
The barnacle-bike was last ridden in September 2017. It may be this bike pictured below, which was spotted by real estate broker Tom Holmes near 73rd Street around October of last year.
John Reische spotted the Citi Bike below in June of 2017 near 72nd Street. “The bike was exposed at low tide and would be covered by water the rest of the day,” he told us.
And in November 2014 Sheiva spotted the bike below in the West 60’s.
Is it so hard to find a docking station, people?
I’ve seen Citibikes not only in the Hudson River at West 79 Street and all the way up to 125th St. along the Hudson river in the rocks maney Citibikes seen but also in central park lake at W. 77th St.
And also in the lake over at Oak bridge. It’s nothing new…it’s been very common to see this the last couple of years. Isn’t this wonderful all the tourist can see this and Citibikes don’t care !!!! Just another reason to get rid of them.
Get rid of bikes. Decreases the quality of life AND
Is the cause of congestion!
Wait, because a few assholes throw bikes in the river, this is reason to ged rid of Citibike altogether? You’re logic isn’t logical.
People have paid for over 60 MILLION rides since Citi Bike was launched and its ridership has grown every year. I would say it is clearly providing a much appreciated service. I know of many people who say it has changed their lives for the better. Why would you get rid of such a successful program?
Re: “Is it so hard to find a docking station, people?”
THAT’s probably NOT the REAL reason!
Think back to 2013 when Citi Bike first appeared (per Wikipedia). Shortly afterward WSR reported that some neo-populist agitators were OUTRAGED that the bike-share program DARED to sport the name of a …(gasp!!) BANK😱, which, of COARSE (stet) represented all the evils of THE ONE-PERCENT, CAPITALISM, CORPORATIONS, plus the fact that they were still rebelling against grown-ups.
These neo-populists are still around, and it just might be one or more of them deep-sixing the offending bikes…that is, when they’re not busy supporting AOC, BDS, U.S. Rep. Tlaib, and/or the latest Librul flavor-of-the-month.
Well said. I call them DOCs, short for dictators, over regulators and confiscators.
I am crushing on your sarcasm, intellect, and political cynicism big time
People are morons. Citibank paid for the naming rights. Why is that so hard to understand? I don’t see people screaming about ads on the sides of buses or on subway cars, yet so many are unable to comprehend that Citibank doesn’t own Citibike – they just pay for ad space.
— “Is it so hard to find a docking station, people?”
I assume that some West Siders (or perhaps only one?) thought that the 79th Street Boat Basin *was* a “docking station”.
If Citi Bike existed in Manhattan in the 1970s this is precisely how most or all of the bikes would have ended up. We’re heading towards that mentality again, thanks to the imbecilic man-child in City Hall.
Scott, Seriously?
you are obsessed.
You misspelled White House.
Are there tides in the Hudson River? I always thought tides are a feature of oceans, not rivers.
— “Are there tides in the Hudson River?”
Answer:
“The Hudson River is not your typical river. In fact, most of the Hudson is actually a tidal estuary where salt water from the ocean combines with freshwater from northern tributaries. This “brackish”, or mixing, water extends from the mouth of the Hudson in NY Harbor to the Federal Dam in Troy, approximately 153 miles.”
https://www.riverkeeper.org/hudson-river/basics/
Hey! I learned something today.
Thank you, Cato, for that informative bit of REAL facts.😜
Yes, the Hudson IS a Tidal Estuary…somewhere it says that the Native Americans called it “The River That Flows Both Ways”…ummm…NOT in English but in their native language, of course!
Dude you nailed and as and estuary it is entirely feasible that bull sharks could be up near the boat basin!
Thank you! Very interesting information.
Yes, there are tides in the Hudson. The southern part from about the Tappan Zee is a salt water tidal estuary which means that it is an arm of the ocean. As such it has tides.
Shorakkopoch – The river that runs two ways was one of the names of the Hudson River when Henry Hudson sailed up it.
My educated guess would be that an angry pedestrian who was nearly clipped by a thoughtless Citi bike rider, knocked the rider off the bike and threw it into the river.
the same was happening in Paris a few years ago: people were throwing the bikes in the Seine river. Why???
Re: “people were throwing the bikes in the Seine river. Why???”
Ummmm…’cause dey was ‘in-seine’? 🤪
I am glad to see Citbikes being discarded in the Hudson River, where the salt water will rust them to bits fairly soon. Another benefit should be the additional car parking spaces that should become available to replace the bike racks and help make up for the street parking spaces sales displaced at the expense of car owners who pay the state gas tax to use the streets.
I hate those damn bikes! They were
forced upon us from Day One. Riders
are thoughtless and dangerous- I
am shocked that a biker is not killed
every day. Let’s dump them all in
the river- and DeBlasio too!
That’s going to be a lot of bikes in the river – they’ll soon be up to 40,000 bikes in the City, and with over 36k rides per day on average in 2016 (which means probably well over 100k a day in nice weather), you can likely thank Citibike riders for your seat on the subway and your faster cab or bus ride across town (and if its still too slow, blame Uber and Lyft, but not Citibke).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citi_Bike
In my experience it is not the Citibike riders who are a menace to pedestrians, but rather the sport bike riders who heed no rules that might slow them down, the crazy suicidal messengers on bikes, and the food delivery bikers who go through lights and go down one-way streets the wrong way. Citibike riders tend to be sedate and mindful, and the bikes themselves do not lend themselves to speed and other antics. Why the hysteria about Citibikes, I wonder?
Maybe it’s just one Citibike that took to the waters and is more elusive than our mandarin duck!
I’ve never used one but, aren’t they traceable to the person who checked it out the last time? Seems to me like a way of, if not charging the person for the bike, at least of tracking who did this.
Good riddance! They should never have been installed in the first place. If Dumblasio never forced them upon us we could have up to SEVEN more parking spots on the Upper West Side! Billionaire Dumblasio doesn’t care about us poor car owning Upper West Siders! Make those poorer than me walk! How dare there be an efficient, cheap, clean transportation alternative!
Can’t whoever threw the bike in the river be traced by Citibike? When you get the bike at a bike stand isn’t it registered to your credit card, etc? Seems like an easy paper chase to follow and the culprit held responsible.
Ha! I wish all ended up in the river!
I hate Citibikes. I never see anyone using them who can’t afford to have their own bike. And the cost and restrictions on them make them all but useless. They take up a lot of space, and the riders who use them are a threat to pedestrians. It was just a giant scam to make Blue Cross look good. For all we know, Blue Cross is who is throwing them in the river for insurance claims.
In Amsterdam, the canals are dredged for discarded bicycles
Everywhere you turn, there is nature. And New York nature lovers (including the West Side Rag) are there to take notes and name names.
Actually related to Crabs and Lobsters, Barnacles are Crustaceans that look like snails (both make shells) and so I reached out to local snail expert (Malacologist) Susan Hewitt, who reached out to Peter, another snail expert in New Zealand and this is what he sent back….
“The barnacles on the bike appear to be Amphibalanus improvisus, although there may be some other Amphibalanus species in the mix.
I did some digging into their growth rate, and in fact it is much more rapid than you (and I) thought. IE. After metamorphosing, they can grow to over 10mm within one month!
They grow to a maximum diameter of about 16mm (usually less) within 10 weeks, molt every 2-4 days, produce three generations in just one summer, and their lifespan is 1–2 years. Amazing little things! I would love to see a time-lapse video of a barnacle growing, but haven’t been able to find one yet.
BTW, did you read comment number 2 in the news story? Very funny!”