Recently Citi Bike appears to have changed its messaging and pricing. I am an annual member and previously, when I used a Citi bike for less than sixty minutes and docked the regular bicycle I would get a push notification letting me know it was docked successfully, a helpful feature with only the relevant information.
Recently the regular Citi Bikes have changed the push notification messaging and run a $1.00 pre authorization on the attached credit card, which reads as LYFT TEMP AUTH HOLD.
Earning 0 points doesn’t need to be in the push notification. A price of $0 doesn’t need to be in the push notification. These would be useful if I did earn points or there was a price, but since neither of those occurred they make the push notification less useful with more words.
Inside the app there is also a summary of your ride, with a start and end dock, a line connecting them, and a more detailed summary of the trip. This messaging has also changed and indicate to me that Citi Bike pricing is no longer set to be competitive and pushes value into the recurring revenue subscription.
This ride was not worth $4.34 and this artificial price was not previously included in this summary page. The same trip could have been done with the subway, the bus, or walking for less. The fare for the same ride in Curb, the yellow taxi app, is $8 — after fees this is $11.30.
These prices are all for the regular, non-electric Citi Bikes. The pricing I see for Ebike rides is $0.15 per min and it looks like the non member rate is $0.23 per min. But if The six- minute ride was on an electric bike it looks like the total cost would have increased from $4.34 to $5.24.
Keeping the messaging clean and the pricing matching the value feel like a struggle at the moment. I hope they both get back to a standard they previously set as they add new features and expand. 🚲