New York City DOT and Motivate partner to bring bikeshare to NYC, 2009

The New York City Department of Transportation chose to partner with what was the time Alta Bikeshare. Alta, which would eventually become Motivate, was chosen to provide the equipment and services while the City of New York would allow Motivate to utilize the public right of way to place the stations. No taxpayer money is used to fund the system. The majority of the operational costs are paid for by a corporate partnership with Citi Bank, hence the name Citi Bike.