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Happy First Birthday, Citi Bike
May 23, 2014Contributors
When Citi Bike launched a year ago, we had high hopes for it. Our goal was to do something bold that cut through the clutter, impacted people's lives and celebrated Citi's history of enabling progress. We believed sponsoring the Citi Bike program would help us achieve that, so we said yes to the opportunity and made a big investment to support an innovative, sustainable transportation network in the city we have called home for more than 200 years. Yet its success was far from assured.
One year later, it's safe to say the Citi Bike program has exceeded our expectations. New Yorkers, tourists and Citi colleagues adopted the program and rode bikes with passion and in numbers no one predicted. In its first year of operation, more than eight million trips were taken on Citi Bikes and people rode more than 14 million miles - to the moon and back 29 times. More than 104,000 people signed up to be annual members - far more than was forecast - and 426,000 people have taken day or week passes. The program addresses a major New York City issue - urban mobility - and it quickly became a part of tens of thousands of people's daily lives and an indelible part of the city's urban landscape.
Citi Bike has been heralded as an important initiative with regard to environmental sustainability and public health. Parks & Trails New York honored Citi with the George W. Perkins Award for outstanding environmental leadership in recognition of its role in helping to create Citi Bike. The program also became a major media topic and pop culture icon. Hundreds of news stories about the program have appeared on local, national and international broadcast and print media, and Citi Bike made its way everywhere from the cover of the New Yorker to the set of the Today Show. Celebrities using Citi Bikes have become a regular feature of entertainment media.
To celebrate Citi Bike's birthday on May 27, 2014, NYC Bike Share, the program operator, will offer $1 day passes. If you haven't given the Citi Bike program a try, take a bike out for a ride. Citi is also sponsoring a Citi Bike Birthday Sweepstakes* through May 27, 2014 via social media. Participants will have a chance to win a Citi Bike annual membership pass for four years.
Thank you to everyone who has made Citi Bike's first year such a success. All of us at Citi are proud to have played a role in its creation and are excited for what lies ahead.
* NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Open to citizens or resident aliens of CT, NJ and NY 18 or older. Sweepstakes ends May 27, 2014. Click for rules.