‘REALLY FRUSTRATING!’ Commuter Gene Chan struggles to return his two-wheeler at Broadway and 57th Street yesterday (above) on the bike-share program’s first workday. “My boss is really peeved,” he said. (R Umar Abbasi)
‘REALLY FRUSTRATING!’ Commuter Gene Chan (above) struggles to return his two-wheeler at Broadway and 57th Street yesterday (inset) on the bike-share program’s first workday. “My boss is really peeved,” he said. (
)
Maybe the DOT can write their bosses a late note.
Commuters using the city’s bike-share program on its first workday ran into a slew of technical problems — and confusion — that made them tardy for their jobs.
There were issues across the system, from Columbus Circle to Brooklyn Heights.
“My boss is really peeved!” said Gene Chan, who works for ad agency VML. “These Citi Bikes made me late to work.”
Chan, 34, hopped off the PATH train yesterday morning and planned to bike from Penn Station to his office at 58th and Broadway.
But the bike wouldn’t lock into its dock at his destination — and he was late getting in to the office.
“I spent like 20 minutes trying to get my bike back inside the station,” he told The Post. “I didn’t want to be late for work but I didn’t want to be charged over $1,000 if the bike was stolen with my account info still on it.
“It was really frustrating! This was my first time using this bike and I hoped it wouldn’t be this difficult.”
Another rider said that the docking station near his Brooklyn Heights subway wasn’t operable — and there was no sign indicating as much.
So he schlepped himself two blocks to another station.
“The first station at Montague and Clinton isn’t operating yet so I rushed over here and now I’m late,” said Justin Hugh, 27, at the station at Montague and Hicks streets.
The confusion made Hugh 15-minutes late to his Union Square tech job.
He said the program was “cool but it is not up to speed yet.”
Other exasperated riders complained that their special Citi Bike key — which allows them to pick up one of 6,000 three-speed cruisers at more than 300 locations — wouldn’t function.
“It’s not working!” an exasperated Barbara Becker, 45, said in Union Square. “I’ve tried it on about 30 bikes at 10 different kiosks and it doesn’t work. They said when I called yesterday that a lot of people are experiencing this problem.”
Two bike-share employees, Will and Carl, tried to help riders at 57th Street and Broadway — but even their master keys couldn’t lock and unlock the bikes.
Another woman couldn’t get her bike out of the locked position — and asked the attendants where she could find another station.
Neither could point her in the right direction, so one tried to look it up on the Citi Bike app.
But even the app didn’t work.
DOT officials wouldn’t respond to questions about malfunctioning racks and keys — but they did say their customer-service center was having issues taking calls due to problems with Time Warner.