Never ever ever leave it unattended. $1200 fee on you if it's stolen.

Yeah it takes a lot of patience and arm twisting to get a police report on much of anything nowadays. Had my sister's scooters stolen and it was insured the company wanted a police report and you would have thought I was asking the police to give me their first borns

Yes, stupid mistake on my part completely!

Did you not lock you bike?

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Best to just park it nearby and then get a new one.

"online it says to file a police report but when I tried to call the police station and at one point tried to go in person I just couldn’t get someone to talk to and they didn’t really take me seriously"

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Many such cases!

I sometimes hear 'everyone hates the police unti you need them'

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FOr me it was more like 'I was fine with the police until I needed them and then realised how lazy and incompetent they are'

If you don't like them, then don't use the.m

Do us all a favor and don't leave your apartment. Supporting stealing citibikes is how paying customers end up with bikes that are beat to shit or no bikes available at all.

I don’t, lol

I went to the local station to turn in a nice DSLR camera I found on a park bench. Clearly lost, it was next to me for over an hour. The guy behind the desk couldn't be bothered to do the paperwork until I insisted but not before he was like "bro I would have just kept it if I was you"

Stealing bikes doesn’t cause the bikes to be “beat to shit”… if they’re stolen, they aren’t on the rack. Citibike is an excuse for the city to not have real bicycle renting infrastructure. I support any act to help drive citibike into the ground, they littered the streets with piece of shit bikes they make no attempt to maintain and the government paid them for it.

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Seriously. Only ride from dock to dock.

The parking racks are litter. They’re expanding when they can’t maintain the litter they’ve already place. We need less rentable scooters, not more. Every other rentable scooter company got their scooters stolen and destroyed and couldn’t maintain it in a profitable manner. Citibike already does that with their bikes.

If citibike was an actual public service, like the mta, they would maintain their shit regardless of profits. Since it’s a private company, this is not the case. The city should not employ private companies to supply public services.

Guarantee you it isn't the paying customers that I see taking citibikes and jumping stairs with them.

I also have no idea what kind of government-run bicycle renting infrastructure you're imagining that will somehow be better than citibike. Is there even a modern example in the US?

They charge too much and don’t maintain the bikes. Surely telling people to just steal them will help alleviate both of those issues

I really enjoy citibike and feel like it's a good value for the money.

If citibike was a public service they’d be able to maintain their shit regardless of profits. Other similar companies which let people rent scooters all fail, as they can’t maintain their scooters while maintaining profits. Like the MTA, their trains aren’t profitable but are still maintained, since it’s an actual public service. The private sector cannot be trusted to provide public services, it doesn’t work. If the state is going to shovel tax money into private companies which provide shit service, I support anyone who helped pay those taxes to use that service without paying extra fees. That includes stealing citibikes.

It won’t. Citibike as an idea is great, but it’s incompatible with profit seeking private sector. The city needs to make an actual public alternative. Driving citibike into bankruptcy will influence the city to do so, and show them private companies cant be trusted to provide public services.

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That's called being an ashhole, and I'm not an asshole.

>If citibike was a public service they’d be able to maintain their shit regardless of profits

have you seen the mta

Best headline

So because citibike has provided "shit service" in your opinion, you think paying customers should suffer by encouraging freeloaders to steal a service—ergo you want to ensure more people suffer going forward.

Also, what makes you think "if citibike was a public service they’d be able to maintain their shit", rather than the extremely more likely case that they simply remove racks and bikes to reduce the maintenance load?

How is that being an asshole? You paid the taxes which bought the bike. Surely by this definition, it is public property. Surely you are part of the public.

I seen this homeless guy with a Citibike lol

Their trains all work, they work well even. And that’s just their trains, they also have a fairly reliable bus service. All this, and it’s not profitable at all. This is the difference between public and private services, the MTA could let everyone ride for free, make zero revenue, and still run reliably. Private companies can’t compare to the reliability of a public service.

I had an upstairs neighbor in a previous address terrorizing me. Legit would blame my roommate and I for smoking even when we weren't there. He did things like super glue our locks, pour bleach from his apartment into ours, slash the tires of our cars.

Aside from the landlord who "couldn't do anything" (side note: pretty sure they were in cahoots with each other to increase turnover on a rent stabilized unit), the police literally looked at a video of him gluing our locks and said "we can't do anything."

I hate the world.

Does the MTA remove stations to make maintenance easier? I’ve never heard of that. And yes, I’m saying that if your taxes paid for citibike, and citibike provides shit service, you may as well make the most of it and take the bike to maintain it yourself. Paying customers suffer? They should stop paying.

And don't get sloppy: The other day I saw a girl get her bike stolen very close to a dock. She turned her back on the bike for a bit (looking for a spot? looking at her phone?) and someone jumped on the bike and took off.

Might as well just buy a bike instead of using citibike then. Costs way less than $1200

No, but the MTA certainly cut service during the pandemic when it was collecting significantly less in fares. Removing bike racks is as simple as loading them up on a flatbed and driving off.

I'm also not sure where you got the idea that Citibike is funded by taxes. They've received funding to build in underserved neighborhoods, sure, which definitely benefited those who otherwise wouldn't have access, and I'm sure wouldn't complain about the quality of service versus none at all. Your sense of entitlement for some grand level of bike quality completely ignores those people who just want any access they can get.

Stealing public property is something assholes do.

The MTA cutting service when there’s lower demand makes sense, lol.

People can have all the access they want, to as high a quality as they’d like, right outside their building, by stealing one of those tax funded citibikes. And id fully support them in doing so.

How can you “steal public property”. It’s public. You already own it. It belongs to everyone. It’s equally as silly as saying you can trespass on a public park.

He did not lock he bike.

When second-nature civil asset forfeiture matures to first-nature thievery.

If it belongs to everyone, then I don't personally own it. Only assholes don't understand that.

If it belongs to everyone, everyone personally owns it, and everyone can do whatever they want with it, because it belongs to them. So anyone can take it wherever they want, like, for example, into their home. Why are people only able to comprehend things in the framework of private ownership?

It belongs to everyone. Not to you. It's sad that people don't understand this and why we can't have nice things.

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That's not how society works. What a stupid line of thinking.

Go try to build a house in Bryant Park and let us know how it turns out.

Your whole argument to justify stealing relies on the idea that Citibike is funded by taxes, which is pure fiction.

And the idea that a newly built publicly-run bike rental infrastructure would be a good allocation of funds while also exceeding what Citibike has achieved is both naive and insane.

It belongs to everyone, correct. So why can’t one person, who is part of “everyone”, do as they please with it? They’re not preventing others from doing the same.

Citibike doesn’t get any public funding

Not that you care about facts or anything.

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You’re so close. So so close. Tell me, since public parks belong to everyone, why can’t I build there? It’s almost as if public property isn’t public, and more like private property owned by a company, which calls itself the “government”. The solution is to steal the private property from the government, and declare it public, until there is no government property left for them to operate from.

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It's more like you don't understand the nature of public property or, more generally, organized society. Lol.

Citibike is routinely given public funding lol.

NYC already has enough funds to reallocate to a bike service. I mean, surely the NYPD can spare some of those ten billion dollars.

Yes they do?

Or maybe that's just the kind of person that becomes a police officer these days....

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If you knew what public means, you would know it makes no sense for it not to belong to the public

You've now repeated yourself, so you can just read back to the top of this thread for my thoughts. Good luck in your crusade to illogically convince people to act like assholes.

Public property is owned by the public.

How does this not make sense to you?

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https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/10xxslw/comment/j7vabh0/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Never leave a citibike unattended, even when I dock my citibike and I get the green light I still shake it like crazy to ensure it’s locked in place and nobody can take it, people steal these bikes constantly

People going to jail paying thousands of dollars for using public property is greatly troubling. Clearly, the legal system needs to be greatly reformed, if not abolished.

I never said only you personally own it. I said every individual who is part of the public personally owns it. Not everything is private property dude.

Can you even find a single resource confirming that Citibike receives funding from taxes? Just one?

Citibike isn’t public property. Stealing a shared resource is not using it. Jesus christ I knew you guys were stupid but do you live in an alternate reality?

Ah yes let’s abolish the legal system. I’m sure you and your crime committing buddies won’t do anything terrible if that happens.

Seek help. Not from me though. I’ve already schooled you enough today.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/10xxslw/comment/j7vb737/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

are Citibikes that much easier to steal ?

They are either a troll or a dumb 13 yo kid who thinks they are being edgy.

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I would assume so, they’re everywhere and there’s nobody attending the docking stations. I’ve walked by countless docks and seen people jamming a screwdriver or something into them to break them free

sure!

Citibike is absolutely public property. Why, they even store their bikes on the streets! “Crime” is a silly word made up by governments to let them harm you over arbitrary made up rules.

That’s irrelevant and only shows that the government is stealing from society, by directing public funding to private projects, and then pretending said private projects are public.

Did you even read the article whatsoever? This is a partnership for government employees to receive rideshare service. Try again.

That’s citibikes fault then , with all the money that they have you would think they would have a more robust system to prevent theft

To shorten your comment: the government provided funding to the company that owns citibike

Paying for a service =/= funding. You have a serious fundamental misunderstanding about what public funding means.

By your logic, is WB Mason publically funded because government offices buy their paper?

Paying for a service implies giving money to the provider of the service. Giving money to a company is funding them. Jeez.

Yes, any company which receives tax money is publicly funded.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/10xxslw/comment/j7vc80l/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Again, public property is public. If it’s not public, it’s not public property. This isn’t complicated really.

It’s citibikes fault people go and break their docks to steal bikes? It’s not the bike thieves fault for you know breaking the law and stealing?

As much as I wish you were right there are honestly people this delusional who live in the city. Entitlement is americas greatest problem. These kids got so many participation trophies they can’t fathom the idea that they’re wrong or things aren’t the way they want them to be.

Eh, it's the convenience. Your $200-$300 bike (talking super, super cheap prices) is as likely to get stolen as your Citibike.

You'd have to carry around a lock as well and even then, some part of your bike (ie.: a tire) might get stolen.

Dogs love to pee by wherever you park it outside and they're a bit of a hassle to bring into an apartment building (especially if you have to do stairs) - you're constantly worried about dinging walls (including in your room) and it also takes up a decent amount of space

Of course, but you can’t control people’s behavior and it wouldn’t hurt to make it a little harder for these criminals to steal bikes.

So you think that a government contract allowing federal employees to get a discount on Lyft rides translates to "citibikes are funded by the government," and that you're entitled to steal bikes at your discretion because all things paid for by the government are actually owned by everyone? Is that really it?

No… I think “giving tax money to the company that owns citibike” translates to “giving tax money to the company that owns citibike”. And I think the government only really exists if owned by the people. Otherwise, it’s just a violent occupying force.

Unrelated, but if citibike wants to keep people from stealing their bikes, maybe don’t store them… in public? Like, on the street? I mean, the least you could do for some dude who can’t park in front of his job or home anymore is let them steal a bike.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/10xxslw/comment/j7vczve/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

edit: lol dude got triggered and blocked me after this - so fragile

Irrelevant, do you have an actual response?

Has it ever occurred to you that publicly traded companies have to disclose where their money goes? It's fairly straightforward to see that the government does not pay for Citibike to exist, but I have a feeling it's a lost cause to mention that.

Now your motivations make sense though. Started complaining how bikes are "litter", and now you're suggesting publicly accessible services not be made available in public. You don't actually give a shit about people using Citibike, you're just a car driver upset that bike racks take up precious parking spaces.

I don’t have a car nor do I want one. I want cars banned from travel within the city. Streets used to be, and should be, an area travelled primarily by pedestrians, bikes, and trams.

I also don’t think a private company should be able to just set up shop and profit from the publicly owned street.

I have a bike and still use citibike for some trips. As do most people I know who own bikes

Edit: and none of us would ever leave that citibike unattended.....

Correct. But will probably invest in one now if there’s not a dock nearby

If that's true, I don't know why you'd advocate for doing something that demonstrably causes users of bike sharing services to suffer. Private companies are not inherently bad, municipalities partner with them for practicality and in the best interest of the people. Do you think things would actually be better if the MTA decided to start manufacturing their trains instead of just purchasing them? Do you think the NYPD should manufacture their own cars instead of partnering with Ford? In many cases, using the private sector is the most efficient and cheapest means to an end, especially when it comes to setting up and maintaining a bike sharing network.

I'd rather not be taxed more for a service I periodically use, at a rate that costs the public 3x to create than it would for a private company to do so.

I would like if the MTA made their own trains, but currently they don’t have the infrastructure or funding necessary to set up said infrastructure, necessary to manufacture and test trains. The trains would be better, as safety and quality would be put before profits and cost, since the MTA doesn’t care about profits. The NYPD should not manufacture their own cars, as the NYPD doesn’t give a fuck about safety or quality, and is more focused on just beating and killing poor people. State manufacturing is objectively cheaper than private contractors. Which is logical. The private company needs to sell the service for more than it actually costs in order to make a profit. This means it’s cheaper to make or provide than to buy.

You have quite a fantastical image of the government, as if "use it or lose it" policies spending all the funds in a budget aren't a thing. Or that government projects aren't actually more expensive and take longer to finish. You have to come to terms with reality, the government sucks when it comes to doing things efficiently and effectively, and at no point will building something for the government ever not be done without the help of the private sector.

Weird, other nations seem to manufacture stuff in government just fine, for an extremely cheap price. If the US can’t match the efficiency of even developing nations, the US government needs to be either heavily reformed or abolished

I was rear-ended on the highway and an off-duty officer was a few cars behind me. He rushed to make sure everyone was okay and stayed with us until highway patrol and ambulances came. I guess it really depends on the cop you get.

Heavily reformed, abso-fucking-lutely. Abolished? No bearing in reality.

Lock the bike, he did not.

Lol, what a racket.

Those city bikes are prices of shit they are basically $100 Walmart bikes.

If your gonna steal a bike at least steal something decent

Citi Bikes are NOT worth $1200. They’re junk bikes worth a few hundred at most. I’m pretty sure the only reason why they’re appraised at that value is because it’ll be a felony if you’re caught stealing them.

Well, if you're responsible you'll never have to pay for a stolen Citibike because you'll never leave it unattended...

I had my Citibike stolen last summer. I was approaching the docking station and noticed a teen kid with long hair hunched over, just hanging around on top of a bike. I remember being annoyed because it was clear he wasn't using it & there was only one other bike much further down.

So I unlock it with my phone & nothing happens & I notice the kid takes off at the same moment with the other bike. Then I look at my phone & see the counter has started. Lightbulb went off, omg he just played me!

Turns out he had pealed off & swapped the QR code and swapped between his bike & mine. So by me scanning the QR code, it unlocked his bike. I was SO angry, started running after him but it was electric.

Had to call the Citibike number and was so nervous I'd be responsible for costs, but they said this type of thing happens and that was it.

Still angry though, makes me hate people. what a piece of shit.

So moral of the story if you see anybody lingering near a bike, watch out!

Maybe it’s both

Police are useless in the overwhelming majority of cases. Why they get $11b/yr is beyond me.

Wow, people truly will find every way to cheat the system. That’s infuriating. He was just fine with creating a situation for you to clean up.

Wow, people truly will find every way to cheat the system. That’s infuriating. He was just fine with creating a situation for you to clean up.

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They are there to help the big companies.

Barely serve, Hardly protect, Above the law, and Mostly corrupt. Join your local NYPD today.

So true, I hated the police before. I had an identity theft so had to file a police report. Hated them event more after they came into my apartment, started yelling at each other about unrelated BS, and then constantly interrupt me so I can barely get a word in edgewise.

That day I learned cops are called pigs because they both have the intelligence of 7 year olds

All the police care about is people jumping the metro lines these days.

How in the world can a bike cost that much? They're not exactly made of titanium.

I wonder if crime stats are effected by that?

It’s on the side of the tracks in Mineola I swear

I mean of course there's good and bad in every profession but with police even if the good cops tried to make a change in regards to a bad cop historically their fellow rank and file isolates and pushes them out for doing so.. the issue with police in general

Citibike is cheaper if you dont have any space to keep a bike indoors. In this city your bike will get stolen or have its parts stripped.

Police wouldn't take my report on a hospital worker copying my debit card and spending 2000 on ubers while I was stuck in the hospital for a month and they had my personal effects.

These days? It was even worse in the past - there is a whole wikipedia page on corruption in the NYPD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Police_Department_corruption_and_misconduct

Pay particular attention to the 73rd precinct, 75th precinct and the Giuliani led police riot, all happening around the same time.

It’s nyc the ownership span of a bike left outside is 5 seconds. I’ve seen guys undo scaffolding to get the locked bikes out in front of cops. Police care about weapons can’t be bothered with negligence of people.

I don't agree that they're worth $1200, but I could see some understandable claim as to why they're worth that much: technology with the locking, ease of use for every bike rider regarding adjustments and gears, and most importantly, made of the material to weather the outdoors 365/24/7.

They're bikes designed for all-weather purposes, beginners, and expected to get a complete wear down or hit on the ground multiple times.

A $300 bike isn't going to live up to that or if it does, it'll need to replaced very often

High school graduates who get six months of training.

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They get stolen all the time, gotta be more careful or they’ll end up in the hood repainted lol

Or don’t be dumb and leave a $1200 bike unattended in the biggest city in the world.

First time I rode a Citi bike, I docked it incorrectly because I didn’t push it in hard enough. Was stolen before I could realize my mistake. Got threatened with the $1200 fee. They eventually reduced it to $200, which still sucks but at least it’s not $1200. Think the $1200 is a scare tactic, but still definitely not worth playing around.

Thanks. I didnt know how easy it was to steal a citibike. /s

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The MTA is doing amazing, wdym? Are we just going to ignore it’s probably the best public transport in the USA? And North America by extension?

I used to report abandoned bikes for this very reason, knowing it might help some poor soul avoid ridiculous charges. But once Lyft took over they seemed to stop giving a shit and wouldn’t even retrieve them.

Welcome to NYC 😂😂😂

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Same thing happened to me! But I got a message saying mine wasn’t docked and I ran back to make sure it got docked. I was so scared that someone might’ve stolen it.

Bike was redocked buy citi wants 200$ from me the police said it's not my bike so no report so in all my heart fuck citi bikes 200 I hope nobody goes through this amd in true nyc fashion I'm not paying for something that i was pushed off and stolen from me

Cops are completely useless. I remember things like this everytime I hear some idiot politician crow about needing the police and it makes my blood boil.

>Had my sister's scooters stolen

Why did you have it stolen? for the insurance money?

No way those things are worth $1200. The e-bikes possibly.

Unless they are proud boys

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Bro I thought it was bad when lost and found on a college campus told me to keep some beats I found… yikes!

Believe it or not, you actually have to have at least 60 college credits to become an NYPD officer (unless you're ex-military). So most cops you see around have gotten at least halfway to a bachelor's degree.

Which probably says a lot about higher education in this country.

Found property with no listed owner will sit in a warehouse forgotten for decades. It will never get back to its true owner. Dont know why he was being such a dick about a voucher though. Its not that much work

Depending on the value of the bike it would be considered a major crime and would have to be reported and investigated at the scene. Not the type of thing that can just be banged out on the fly at a precinct in a few minutes. The delayed reporting also makes things more tedious.

Blame the cops for this guy not docking his bike... mighty white of you

probably based on the expected revenue that particular bike would bring in

it’s probably based on expected revenue the bike would bring in

Then it sounds like accounting fraud and should be illegal.

That would be a crazy line of thinking. So if I have a vacation rental that burned to the ground I should be reimbursed future income from the insurance company?

? is how many assets in general are valued

what exactly does this even have to do with accounting…lol

it’s how things are valued just in general…

and this isn’t an insurance company assessing claims, this is you making a contract with the company by using the product

So if someone accidentally burned down my vacation rental while using it as long as I have the correct verbiage in the contract they have to pay for all future income. Got it

all future income...discounted to present value at a discount rate...

yes, quite literally

So if the house generated $100,000 in rental income annually forever...and the appropriate discount rate is 10%, then yeah they would be on the hook for $1m

In the same vein that in a wrongful termination lawsuit you can receive not just the income from the period you weren't working, but to be compensated for expected future income based on a number of factors.

This isn't some crazy concept dude, its the foundation for valuing literally anything. If I burned down someones rental property I would expect to be on the hook for the present value of future cash flows. Things can be worth more than their material cost my guy. In a similar vein, say you're at a store and you break a lamp costing $10,000. It doesn't matter if the lamp's materials costed $1000...the expected future revenue from selling that lamp was $10,000 which is what you owe. You can't go into a store and break $200 headphones and tell them 'oh well, the material cost of the headphones were only $20 so I'm giving you $20 and we're even'

its literally one of the fundamentals of how you set a price for anything that generates cash flows