Electric Citi Bike rides are about to get pricier, company announces

Riding an electric Citi Bike is about to get a little pricier.

In a message that greeted customers on the app this week, Lyft — the company that runs the ubiquitous bikeshare program — said the price hike is because battery swapping, insurance costs and vehicle expenses cost more than the company anticipated when the rates were set in December.

Lyft also said that in order to address those higher costs it's working with the city’s Department of Transportation and Con Edison to pilot charging stations, which will reduce some of the operation overhead.

“We'll continue to invest in more manual battery swapping to ensure you can find an e-bike that's charged and available for use,” the message read. “E-bike demand continues to grow — they now make up two-thirds of all Citi Bike rides.”

The price increases are between 2 and 6 cents more per minute depending on the kind of ride and the user’s membership status. Pedal bike fees are not changing.

Here's the breakdown of increases:

• No change in annual membership prices
• For members, per minute rates are rising from 20 to 24 cents
• Non-member day pass and single trip per minute fees are rising from 30 cents to 36 cents
• Reduced fare membership, per-minute rates are rising from 10 cents for the first 45 minutes and 20 cents per minute thereafter, to 12 cents for the first 45 minutes and 24 cents per minute beyond that.

Lyft says the new fares are still below the cap set by the city's Department of Transportation.

Mamoudou N'diaye lives in Ridgewood, Queens and said the price increase has him reconsidering the service.

"I'm annoyed. Four more cents per-minute is kind of insane of a hike," he said. "It's all about this internal stuff like insurance and stuff. Well, sometimes the e-bikes are just plentiful enough for me to continue to do this."

He added, "It's not fair that consumers have to pay for premiums that they should be doing, because people are also still getting hurt on e-bikes."

The change is set to be implemented on July 10 and will only affect New York City, not New Jersey.

This story has been updated with an additional interview.