I always thought New York City was a walking city. “We walked 25000″ steps a day!” people always say when you ask them how their NYC trips went. So after our last trip, using a Citi Bike Daypass and the Lift app, we definitely still got in nearly 25000 steps a day but we also covered way more ground because we figured out how to travel by bike all over the city too. Except for the night we decided to bike through Times Square (not for the faint of heart) I honestly can’t imagine a better way to travel around NYC.
So how does Citi Bike work?
You can rent a Citi Bike bicycle using the lift app just like you would call for a rideshare. This would suffice if you only intend to ride one time in a 24 hour period. But we figured out that by the time you pay the unlocking fees, etc your first ride might be around 7-8 dollars. So if you want to borrow a bike for more than just one time, it’s better to check to see if they have the $15 all day daypass promotion when you visit too. We saw a sign on the Citi Bike kiosks advertising that you can ride as many 30 minute rides as you want during a 24 hour period for $15 with the Citi Bike daypass. It was a bit of a hassle trying to learn how to set it up-we borrowed two bikes so we couldn’t do it through the Lyft app, we had to use a credit card at the kiosk and our 24 hour span would be tied to the credit card. (**we originally visited in July 2022 and on our most recent trip in May 2023 the bikes are now $19 through the lift app but still only charged $15 a day when we used our credit in the same method above.)
Every time we wanted to rent bikes, we went to the kiosk at the bike rack, inserted the same credit card, got a code for our rental and then had 5 minutes to select a bike, type in the code and head off on our way. Once we got the hang of it, it was mostly easy. And there are often bike racks available near touristy spots so it was easy to get to all the places we wanted to go.
Citi Bikes need to be locked in a kiosk you can’t just leave them everywhere like we do with bike shares in Seattle
In Seattle you see bikes littered all over where people have stopped their ride. In New York City you need to find a kiosk where you lock them up. You can find the kiosks using the Lyft app as well as by using the “find a bike” section on the Citi Bike website.
So where did we bike with Citi Bike Daypass in New York City?
We rode over the Brooklyn Bridge-there is a great designated biking lane. We also biked the length of Central Park and stopped at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (it’s reciprocal with the Seattle Art Museum Patron Membership) and tried to go to the American Museum of Natural History using our Citypass (but I forgot to book ahead). We rode from there to get lunch at Zabars. We biked to meet my cousin for dinner in the West Village one night and then parked our bikes and walked the Highland, then took the bikes on the wild ride through Time Square to our hotel (we stayed at the Conrad Midtown)
Riding Citi Bikes had a few minor glitches
It was extremely difficult to find a spot to park the bike rental sometimes. And some mornings it was tough to find a bike at all. A few times we had trouble getting the Citi Bike to lock up-they can be really finicky. And a few times we had to go to a different kiosk because the code wouldn’t work for the 2nd bike. We called for help and service was sort of helpful but it was easier to go to a different stand than have the person on the other end try to fix the problem. We also had request 15 minutes numerous times when the bike racks were full and we couldn’t park them-this is also why some days we got WAY more steps than we were expecting because we had to overshoot our destination to find a bike parking spot. (You do this by inserting the credit card when you get to a full bike rack kiosk and following the instructions on the keypad)
But biking is such a great way to travel and maybe the best way to get around NYC too
Ultimately, it was better to use the Citi Bikes than not have them at all. We noticed many locals using them for commuting too. This along with the subway and just walking made NYC feel so livable and healthy. So I hope this is something we see more of in the future. And I hope the bikes get easier to use.
(Also, FYI we never used the electric bikes. The 15 dollar daypass was just for the regular ones. New York City is nowhere near as hilly as Seattle so regular bikes were just fine for us.)
(PS I think Amsterdam was the city that first got us biking so much. We found biking around Uluru was better than hiking too because we spent less time in the heat and bugs and it was faster and more fun. We also biked with the kids in New Zealand and that was one of our unexpectedly favorite days. Do you like biking in your city and on travels too?)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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