Gaming Lyft’s Citi Bike algos was a lucrative side hustle for a while

A New York Times article on Thursday highlighted a lucrative side hustle that’s emblematic of our times: gaming algorithms to make money. In this case, people figured out that they could maximize payouts from Lyft’s Citi Bike “Bike Angels” program by taking advantage of the company’s algorithms for matching supply and demand needs.

According to Lyft, the practice of “station flipping” — in which one or more Bike Angels take docked Citi Bikes to a nearby empty station, wait 15 minutes and then take them back — was ended over the summer. The company sent offenders an email reminding them that earning Bike Angel points through station flipping is against the spirit of the program. “Repeated instances of station flipping may result in removal from the Bike Angel program,” the email read.

However, the practice lasted so long that some Bike Angels began earning thousands of dollars each month.