Named after lead sponsor Citigroup, it was operated by Motivate (formerly Alta Bicycle Share), with former Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Jay Walder as chief executive until September 30, 2018, when the company was acquired by Lyft.

[5][6] The system, which was first supposed to start in fall 2011,[4] was pushed back to summer 2012 due to uncertainties about where to place the rental stations.

[10] The problems reportedly occurred because the Public Bike System Company, a Canadian affiliate of Alta, was involved in a dispute with software supplier 8D Technologies.

[19] There has been increasing interest in further expansion across New York City;[20] for example, in June 2013 a Brooklyn politician opened a petition drive to accelerate deployment in Greenpoint.

According to the report, "Case studies suggest that active mobility could reduce emissions from urban transport by 2%- 10% depending on the setting".

[11] By May, the city government wanted Motivate to pay $1 million to compensate for the parking spaces that had been removed for the docking stations.

[33] On October 28, 2014, Alta Bicycle Share and NYCDOT announced a plan to improve and expand the Citi Bike program.

[34] Bikeshare Holdings LLC, a new entity formed by the partners at real estate developer Related Companies and gym chain Equinox Fitness, acquired Alta Bicycle Share—renamed Motivate—and named Jay Walder as the new chief executive.

[34][23][36] As part of the restructuring deal, Walder moved the company headquarters from Portland, Oregon, to New York City.

[40][41] Since then, the Citi Bike system has continued to expand its installations using the 8D Technologies as its software and station equipment supplier.

[48] In August 2016, the company started installing 139 new stations in Manhattan up to 110th Street[49][50] and in Brooklyn between Red Hook and Prospect Park.

[54] After the December 2016 announcement of a further expansion to Harlem and Astoria, some city politicians proposed expanding the system further to the Bronx and Staten Island.

[56] On May 18, 2017, Motivate presented a proposal to expand the system in all five boroughs, including adding new stations to the Bronx and Staten Island, without any public funding.

[58][59][60] By the end of August, Citi Bike started designing a dockless prototype that could lock its own wheels based on whether the customer had paid.

Before 2023, new stalls would also be installed in southwest, southeast, and eastern Brooklyn, including Brownsville, East Flatbush, Kensington, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Sunset Park, and the remaining portions of Bedford–Stuyvesant and Crown Heights.

[108] Lyft was considering selling the service by the middle of that year,[109][110] at which point there were over 1,900 stations across four boroughs, Jersey City, and Hoboken.

[111][112] Citi Bike officials announced in mid-2023 that the service would be extended by the end of that year to Jackson Heights, Queens,[113] and to the northwestern Bronx.

[120] This expansion would bring Citi Bike stalls to Bay Ridge, Brownsville, East New York, and Kensington in Brooklyn; areas west of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens;[121][122] and Norwood and Riverdale in the Bronx.

[135] In Citi Bike's first year, the majority of riders were male; women made a quarter of the trips and comprised a third of membership.

[144] In 2015, Ben Serotta helped redesign the bicycle to include a new seat, a simpler gear shifting mechanism, fewer and brighter lights, and a European-style center kickstand.

[42] In 2016, a thousand of the newly redesigned Citi Bikes were taken out of service due to a part in the front wheel degrading faster than expected.

In early 2017, as part of a pilot program with a firm named Blaze, 250 bikes received anterior laser lights that project a teal silhouette on the ground to warn drivers and pedestrians in their path.

[148] The silver bikes have a 60-mile (97 km) range, hydraulic brakes, a single gear transmission, front lights, an LCD screen, and wider seats but are still limited to 20 mph.

[155] If a bike is not returned at all within 24 hours, a maximum "late fee" of $1,200 can be charged, though the fine may be reduced based on financial circumstances.

[155] A reduced-fare pass is available to New York City Housing Authority residents who are 16 or older, members of selected credit unions, or recipients of SNAP benefits.

[163] The Lyft Pink All Access subscription, which costs $199 per year, launched in August 2021 and also allows passholders to make unlimited Citi Bike trips.

[165] Trips on electric bikes cost an additional fee per minute, though members pay discounted rates.

[168] Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal said, a few days after the system opened, that under the "autocratic" mayoralty of Michael Bloomberg, "we now look at a city whose best neighborhoods are absolutely begrimed by these blazing blue Citibank bikes.

"[169] Some people disliked the bright blue color and branding of the bicycles,[170] while others pointed out that the stations blocked fire hydrants on the street.

[171] The concrete wheel stops at the end of each kiosk also posed a hazard, acting as a sudden, sharp speed bump.