Citi Bike hit by subway train in some kind of half-assed metaphor for public transit

We're not sure what the multicolored shower of sparks and smoke plumes stand for, but who doesn't like a good explosion?

By Andrew Paul  |  September 21, 2021 | 9:00pm
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Citi Bike hit by subway train in some kind of half-assed metaphor for public transit
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Late this past Sunday evening, someone rolled one of those rental Citi Bikes onto the 34th and Steinway Street station’s subway track in Queens, New York, where it proceeded to get run over by an oncoming train. The result, although perhaps initially surprising, probably will engender some variation of a “Well…I don’t know what I expected” response from our readers. Go ahead. You know you’re curious to see it yourself. We aren’t judging you.

So yeah… that’s what apparently happens when a metal-framed bicycle and its rubber tires get absolutely obliterated by a multi-ton subway train going approximately 30 mph in front of a bunch of onlookers. Thankfully, no one was injured by the shower of sparks and smoke plumes, otherwise we would have felt pretty bad muttering, “Whoa, that’s pretty badass,” before rewatching the clip two more times.

According to multiple news outlets, the bike wound up on the tracks in the first place thanks to some still-unknown jerk rolling the thing out there. It was also hit by another train coming the opposite direction a few minutes later before finally getting hauled out of the tunnel.

Upon the umpteenth rewatch, it occurs to us that the image of a stranded Citi Bike meeting its demise at the wheels of a New York City subway train is probably a pretty decent metaphor for something… we just can’t figure out what the hell it is. The state of our crumbling public transit infrastructure? The inevitability of time? Socialism eventually winning out over private corporate entities?

Any of those work, to be quite honest. Hold on, we’re gonna go rewatch the 45-second clip a few more times just to give it some more thought.

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