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Times Square Alliance Wants People To Ride Stationary Citi Bikes To Power The NYE Ball
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 27, 2013
Modified Dec 27, 2013
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Photographs from Getty Images
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 27, 2013
Modified Dec 27, 2013
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Times Square, the most wondtacular place on Earth to ring in the New Year, is seeking volunteers to pedal stationary Citi Bikes that generate electricity to offset the power consumed by the ball. For three days, six stationary Citi Bikes will be hooked up to 12-volt "deep cycle batteries," each one capable of generating 75 Watts per hour if you really push yourself to the brink of tears.
To be sure, the whole thing is essentially free advertising for Citi Bike, but the electricity generated will in fact be used to offset that giant illuminated ball, which uses 30,000 LEDs and an unknown amount of juice. (We asked the publicist for the publicity stunt how much power the ball actually uses over the course of the night and we'll update if we hear back. UPDATE: "50,000 watts to do the whole event.") A power meter at the so-called Citi Bike Pedal Power Station, located at the Southeast corner of 7th Avenue and 42nd Street, will show how much energy has been generated throughout the three days.
The Power Station will be open on Saturday, December 28th and Sunday December 29th from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM and on Monday, December 30th from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM. For their efforts, participants will get a free Citi Bike day pass and a photo of themselves on a Citi Bike, which they're encouraged "share via social media." Everybody wins! Especially Citi Bike, which we hear also has a really cool fence you can volunteer to whitewash.
As an added bonus, if everyone pedals really fast backwards, we can reverse time and stop Miley Cyrus from performing ha ha.
Tagged
citi bike
new year's eve
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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