Citi Bike would be required to open its books to lawmakers under a bill unanimously passed on Tuesday by the City Council’s Transportation Committee.
The bill, which goes before the full council Thursday, would force the bike-share group to provide details on deficits or profits and the amount of revenue allocated to the Department of Transportation.
The DOT would have to compile the data, provide it to the council and post it online.
Transportation Committee Chairman Ydanis Rodriguez, who sponsored the bills along with Councilman Brad Lander, said the step is necessary because of the popularity of the once-struggling program and the need to make sure it stays around.
“As this continues to be a public good, it is in the interest of the public to ensure the network remains on solid financial footing,” said Rodriguez. “With this increased transparency, the public can be engaged in improving not only the system, but the city’s biking infrastructure as a whole, pointing to where cycling is most common and ensuring the infrastructure is keeping up with the demand to keep riders safe.”
Citi Bike, which opened in 2013 after a series of setbacks including Superstorm Sandy trashing much of the equipment, struggled last year because of low revenue and high costs — and nearly shut down operations.
It took a $30 million cash infusion, new sponsors and a shake-up of management to get the company back on track.
Citi Bike riders have taken 7.9 million trips on the blue bikes so far this year. Ridership during its peak season of late May to mid-October was up 21 percent over the same period last year.
The company is in the process of installing 128 new stations in Brooklyn, Queens, the Upper East Side and Upper West Side and plans to have 12,000 bikes and 700 stations throughout the city by the end of 2017.
Citi Bike officials said the company is ready to open its books.
“We are committed to open data and already provide a significant amount of both ridership and performance data on the Citi Bike Web site,” said spokeswoman Dani Simons.
“We are thrilled that Transportation Committee Chair Rodriguez and his colleagues are interested in thinking about ways to continue to expand Citi Bike beyond the 12,000 bikes we already have planned.”
City officials said they will gladly collate the numbers so the public can see the reality of Citi Bike’s financials.
“We look forward to providing data about the bike-share program’s usage and financials,” said a DOT spokesperson. “The program is close to surpassing the ridership numbers from last year, demonstrating its continued popularity.”