From delivery to data

Brooklyn artist and software developer Justin Blinder worked for Uber Eats in 2020, delivering Taco Bell burritos across neighborhoods. The job made him think viscerally about how abstracted affordability had become in public discourse.

“We're sort of confronted with that via top-down maps, and it really doesn't touch upon the lived experience.”

A bike that fights back

Blinder created a three D printed CitiBike attachment with GPS that adjusts pedal resistance based on neighborhood rent burden. In expensive areas, the device applies brakes. In affordable areas, riders glide through easily.

Making data physical

The device contains a custom rent dataset assigning each NYC block an affordability score based on median income spent on rent and percentage of households spending over half income on housing. Blinder called the project Ground Truth.

“Each pedal stroke becomes a small encounter with the data's underlying representations.”

The crisis by the numbers

An NYU Furman report found over half of renter households in NYC spent more than thirty percent of yearly income on rent in twenty twenty four. Nearly ninety percent of low income households were severely or moderately rent burdened.

CitiBike's response

Lyft, which owns CitiBike, told Business Insider the service prohibits modification of bikes. CitiBike's terms state riders may not modify, dismantle, write on, or otherwise alter or deface a bicycle in any way.

“You may not modify, dismantle, write on, or otherwise alter or deface a Bicycle or any part of a Bicycle in any way.”

The contradiction Blinder sees

Blinder earned a ten thousand dollar grant from Idle Hands, an artistic philanthropic organization, this year. He argues CitiBike embodies the affordability crisis by promising accessibility while raising prices yearly for five years, making the city less affordable.

“CitiBike felt important because it kind of embodies this contradiction that's at the center of the project.”