An East Harlem Citi Bike station was partially destroyed Sunday and officials in charge of the blue bike sharing outfit had to take the stop out of action for repairs for most of the day.
One area cyclist found the station on 2nd Avenue at East 99th Street a wreck on Sunday morning, May 1, with several mangled bikes rammed out of their docks.
“It was definitely a battle scene,” said the resident, who gave his name as Joe.
The Harlemite came upon the debris around 9:30 a.m. and posted shots of it on Twitter alerting Citi Bike.
https://twitter.com/cosmicamericana/status/1520765125623492608
“I’ve seen other random Citi Bikes around the city defaced,” Joe said, “but I’ve never seen such wreckage.”
The Uptown resident said it looked like a driver slammed a car into the station, dislodging the docks and their bikes. Nearby workers told him they found the damage Sunday morning when they came in, suggesting the incident happened overnight.
The scene was relatively undisturbed and one of the bikes was perfectly balanced upside down with its front wheel still in the slot.
The only similar case the cyclist could recall was an outdoor dining shed that was destroyed several months ago by a driver about 20 blocks to the south on 2nd Avenue.
A representative of Lyft, which runs Citi Bike as a public-private partnership with the city, said the dock is out of service until the transportation company can clean up the mess.
“We’ve taken the station offline while our operations team investigates and cleans up the damage,” said Colin Wright in an email. “While we work to get the station back online, there are four stations available for use nearby.”
The dock was up and running again by late Sunday afternoon, and police are investigating the incident.
Four docks had to be replaced and five bikes had to be fixed or thrown away, according to the company. The two-wheelers are worth about $1,200 apiece.
The popular bike share program has been expanding around New York City and across the Hudson in New Jersey in recent years amid record ridership during the pandemic bike boom.
Lyft on Friday held a press event unveiling a new model of upgraded e-bikes that will start rolling out Thursday, May 5, joining its fleet of some 5,000 two-wheelers.
Update (Monday, May 2, 12:20 p.m.): This story has been updated to reflect that the docks are open again and that police are investigating the incident.
