Bike Angels in the Outfield

 Back when the weather was a bit cooler in the mornings during May, I was doing some Citibike Bike Angel Point gathering in the morning before my bike ride to commute into work. While there, I was presented with an economic dilemma of sorts. Let's do the numbers.

THE SETUP: My starting station (green dot in the image above) at the north end of Grand Army Plaza was at a neutral status ("0", meaning 0pts for pickup or dropoff) while my dropoff station at the SE end (the turnaround point in the image above) was a "-6." (meaning 0pts for pickup, 6 points for dropoff) This makes for an easy 0.2mi, 2min arbitrage on a painted two-way bike lane, great.

FOR THE UNINITIATED: here's what the bike angel map looks like. Black tiles are pickup stations (arrow pointing away) and the white tiles are drop off stations. (arrow pointing inwards) Pink is part of the Lyft sponsorship highlighting the higher value stations. The values change every 15 minutes depending on current system status, but lock into place for you once your ride has begun.

There was only 1 regular bike at my starting dock. The other 20 were the big grey bodied pedal assist bikes. But my Citibike account settings are set to "ride low assist" (free for 60min, then $0.20/min) as opposed to "ride with full assist" automatically. ($0.20/min) Thinking my ride would be free, I did the 0.2mi bike angel point shuttle with a Grey ebike, saving the regular bike for my actual commute.

NOTE: Since writing this piece in May and letting it sit in my drafts folder for weeks, Citibike announced a further price hike on eBikes. They were only $0.17/minute at the beginning of the year. They cost $0.20/minute at the time of this piece's drafting, and are now up to $0.24/minute. Streetsblog's Dave Colon has the story. Ebike rides 45 minutes or less that enter or exit Manhattan from another borough will cap at $4.80.

Note that I have not updated the math below to reflect this increased price point.

TIME (and MONEY?) FOR POINTS? I got the 6 Bike Angel points, but was charged** $0.40 (2mins) + NYC sales tax (8.875%) for a total of $0.44. (**I had an active promo for 20% off ebike time, plus existing ebike credits in my account (see note below), so I was actually charged nothing. I'm ignoring both for the purity of the math.)

Unbeknownst to me until today, the "economic option" (to forgo riding with full assist) is only applicable when "a station only has ebikes." Since there was that one regular bike there, I was charged.

THE QUESTION: Is this still an arbitrage?
THE ANSWER: Yes. Perhaps the dumbest 3.14 ROIC ever. (ROIC = "return on invested capital")

THE MATH:
> $220 annual membership is $239.52 after sales tax
> Divided by 52 weeks = $4.60/week
> $4.60 divided by 20 bike angel points to extend your membership by one week = $0.23/point.
> $0.44 spent** to earn 6 points

> 6 points are worth $1.38 in membership value

> $1.38 > $0.44, biker wins. citibike loses. (but also wins because i am trading actual money (please note, not actual money**) for points?)

IS THIS A WASTE OF MY TIME? Yeah, economically speaking, absolutely! But also, it was a nice day and I wanted to spend a bit more time outside listening to my ebook. So I did a second shuttle with an ebike, and then a third shuttle with a regular bike, before getting on my way to work.

Now I know the rules on ebike account settings when regular bikes are/are not present. I also have a way better understanding of the underlying economics. Not a worthless endeavor.

OVERALL NOTES ON THE NEW BIKE ANGEL POINT ECONOMY: You can now cash your bike angel points in for a variety of things. Their use is no longer exclusively membership extensions up to 80pts/month and gift cards for the monthly leaders.

Ebike credits can be purchased at a rate of 10 points for 10min. With ebike rates at $0.20/min, this makes for $2 in value, or $0.20/point. So, slightly less valuable than the 1 week membership extension of $0.23/point.

You can also cash your bike angel points out now for "E-gift cards" at three tiers:
> $200 for 1,000 points ($0.20/point)
> $50 for 300 points ($0.167/point)
> $10 for 100 points ($0.10/point)
Or for Lyft credit:
> $1.50 for 10 points ($0.15/point)

Final note on the way out: they still limit you to 4 weeks of membership extension per month, or 48 weeks a year. So you can't extend and avoid the annual fee in perpetuity. But you can use points from a prior month to extend in a future month, greatly enhancing your ability to avoid the annual fee.

Thanks for reading!

(dock pictured on Washington/Grand, not the GAP docks discussed above)