CitiBike Guest

I've been using CitiBike for a couple of years now, and mostly loving it; especially now that they have a bunch of stations in Jersey City!

Here's an idea: make it easier to give rides to guests. Why? I often wind up in a situation where I want to ride my bike with another person, but they don't have a CitiBike membership, so I have to convince them to try it out, and then go to the pay station, insert my credit card, and get the unlock code, all whilst my guest is getting uncomfortable and eventually changes his/her mind.

Instead, I would like it to work like so: *blip* I just got a bike; *blip* I just got a bike for my guest. The advantage? My guest isn't aware of any transactions involved, and doesn't have time to change his or her mind. Here's how it would work:

1. I use my key to unlock my own bike. The light turns green and I take the bike out.
2. I use my key to unlock my guest's bike. The light starts flashing green.
3. If I press "1", my credit card (on file) gets authorized, and the bike gets unlocked. If I press anything else, or don't press anything at all, nothing happens. This way I can never accidentally unlock an extra bike if the previous bike I docked failed to lock. This also has an extra advantage that if I'm just trying to unlock a bike for myself and the light starts flashing green, I will *know* that my previous bike failed to lock and I can inform CitiBike.

The guest's bike would get charged per hour of use, just like it does currently, and I think it would convince many to actually get a membership!