Citigroup Inc. (C) agreed to pay $41
million to sponsor New York City’s bicycle-rental program, which
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said will be the largest such system in
the U.S. when it begins in July. The “Citi Bike” program, presented by the mayor and
Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit at City Hall
today, will offer 10,000 bikes branded with the New York-based
bank’s logo at 600 docking stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and
Long Island City, Queens. New York will share any profits
from the bike rentals with Portland, Oregon-based Alta Bicycle Share,
chosen as its operator in September. The bike-share program, first advocated by the city
Transportation Department in 2009, would provide a low-cost
transit alternative in a city where almost half the workforce
lives within five miles (eight kilometers) of its place of work,
the department said in a planning document. MasterCard Inc. (MA) CEO Ajay Banga, also at City Hall, said his
company would pay $6.5 million to provide bike-share stations
with “PayPass Tap & Go” payment points and traditional
magnetic-stripe terminals as part of its “Priceless New York”
promotion of events and attractions for residents and tourists. Similar systems exist in Paris, with 20,600 bicycles;
Barcelona, which has 6,000; Hangzhou, China, which offers as
many as 60,600, and
Washington’s 1,500-bike system. Read also NYC
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