Moped Rideshare Pits Bikes Against Cabs, Subway In Cross NYC Race

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS -- A new moped rideshare company put its motorized bikes up against every other form of transit imaginable to see which was the fastest way to get from Brooklyn to Queens.

Spoiler alert: They won.

Less than 20 minutes after the race began at Revel Transit's Bushwick headquarters Tuesday morning, the moped company's CEO Frank Reig beat out Uber, Uber Pool, cab, bus, subway and bicycle commuters to the finish line outside Court Square Diner in Long Island City.

And, no, despite his first-place finish - and all other racers being friends, family or employees of the startup - the competition was not rigged for Revel, Reig insisted.

"Everyone started at the same time, and I got here first," he told a gaggle of skeptical reporters.

Other riders, each of them tracked electronically throughout the race, filtered in anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes later before giving a full report on the travel time, cost and experience of their commute.

Revel Cofounder Paul Suhey arrived next in an Uber Pool roughly 10 minutes later, followed shortly by his brother, Kevin, in a regular Uber. Then came green cab racer Mirjam Grunenfelder, who said she had to ride a subway to hail her cab after waiting 20 minutes for one at the starting point with no luck.

Public transportation racers were next to arrive. A Revel employee who took the L and G trains showed up first, followed by another who took the B57 bus to the Q59 train and arrived in roughly 50 minutes.

"It was smooth...but I wasn't here first," Revel employee Travis Shannon said of his subway commute.

He noted the route wouldn't have even been possible if the L train was shut down as it's planned to be in the next year. The impending closure is part of the reason Reig and Suhey said it was urgent for them to create another transit alternative for commuters between Brooklyn and Queens.

The two launched a Revel pilot on July 30, bringing 68 electric bikes to stations in Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick. Riders can take the motorized bikes anywhere in Queens and Brooklyn, so long as they return them to one of those three stations.

"We're not trying to replace public transit," Reig said. "The subway is the most efficient way to get somewhere when it works...but when a subway is shutting down and you need options to get to another subway or ferry, this makes sense."

After about a year, the two plan to evaluate their results and possibly expand. Eventually, if all goes well, Reig said they hope to open Queens stations in neighborhoods such as Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside and Jackson Heights.

"This is a pilot," Reig said. "We're learning a lot of good things and doubling down on what's working. So far, people are loving it."

The cofounders also pointed to race results showing Revel to be one of the city's most economically sensible commutes.. Right now, the company charges $4 for the first 20 minutes, Suhey said. Each minute after costs 25 cents for driving or 5 cents while parked. They also provide free helmets and 15-minute training sessions for first-time moped drivers.

The total cost to drive a Revel from the start to finish lines was $4.36. Alternatively, Uber cost racers $41.79 or $16.99 for a Pool, while a green cab ride cost $12.45 plus the subway fare to get to a pickup. Bus and subway routes cost a standard $2.75 fare, while CitiBike costs $3 for every 30 minutes.

"You could call this a race, but that was just to have some fun with it," Reig said. "At the end of the day, what we're doing is just the daily rush hour commute for a lot of New Yorkers."

But at least one local who stumbled upon the transit race didn't find it "fun."

"I hate gentrification," he muttered before rolling his eyes and walking in the opposite direction.

Lead photos by Danielle Woodward/Patch