JERSEY CITY -- Downtown Jersey City loves Citi Bike.

The rest of the city? Eh, not so much.

Data about the citywide bike-sharing system, launched with much fanfare in September, show the city's 13 Downtown bike stations are nearly three times as popular as the 22 stations elsewhere in the city. Of the top 10 most popular stations, all but one are located Downtown.

Citi Bike Jersey City subscribers who live in the two largest Downtown ZIP codes make up nearly 70 percent of the 4,727 subscribers citywide, the figures show. Those subscribers live in Hamilton Park, Liberty Harbor North, Paulus Hook, Newport -- neighborhoods where the median income hovers between $100,000 and $152,000. Median income citywide is $59,000.

The data are a stark reminder that Citi Bike, a wildly popular bike-sharing service across the Hudson River with an annual subscription price of $155, is struggling to appeal to residents of the city's less affluent neighborhoods, even with a $95 discount on memberships for public-housing residents.

Philip Plotch, an assistant political science professor at Saint Peter's University who has studied urban planning, said Citi Bike "makes sense" for commuters who can use the service here and in New York City. It makes less sense for everyone else, he said.

"On Craigslist, you can pick up a bike in Jersey City for less than $100," Plotch said. "If you keep it for three years and put $100 into it, it will cost you less than $200. Over the same time, Citi Bike will cost you over $450."

Jersey City launched Citi Bike on Sept. 21. Motivate, which runs the bike-sharing system, wanted to keep bicycle stations close to mass transportation options, which would have left much of the city -- the Heights, Bergen-Lafayette, Greenville -- Citi Bike-less. The mayor said he insisted Motivate install stations citywide.

But those stations outside of Downtown are rarely used.

From the system's launch through Jan. 31 -- the last month for which data are available -- 88,518 trips originated or ended at Downtown bike stations, compared with 32,183 trips elsewhere. The Jersey Journal obtained the data through the state Open Public Records Act.

The most popular station was the one located outside the Grove Street PATH station, which saw 16,217 trips in those four months. The least popular? The bike station at the light-rail stop on Martin Luther King Drive, where Citi Bike customers took 110 total trips.

Of the top 10 most popular stations, all but one are Downtown. The Sip Avenue station, outside the Journal Square PATH station, is the fourth most popular, with 8,097 trips. The next 10 most popular stations include four Downtown; three in the Heights; one in McGinley Square, near Hudson Catholic; one near the light-rail stop just outside of Liberty State Park; and one on the West Side, outside Lincoln Park.

Of the 10 least popular stations, three are in the Heights, three on the West Side, three in Greenville and one in Bergen-Lafayette.

A Motivate spokeswoman declined to say whether the company intends to move bike stations that aren't used often. The company will soon expand the number of stations citywide by 15.

"The trend on usage is similar to the way it evolved in New York City, starting with Manhattan and moving to the outer areas," city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said. "We expect every area of Jersey City to grow."

Michael Flinck, 35, who lives in the Heights, uses Citi Bike to roll down from the Oakland Street station to Exchange Place and then gets "a workout" heading back up the hill after work. Flinck, who works in the financial services industry, told The Jersey Journal he recommends Citi Bike to users who may be wary.

"Although it can be scary to ride in traffic, you quickly get more comfortable with it," he said. "There's also safety in numbers, and I see more bikers than ever these days, especially up here in the Heights."

Mayor Steve Fulop at the Citi Bike Jersey City launch on September 21, 2015. Michael Dempsey | The Jersey Journal

Emily Berry, 31, lives in Greenville within walking distance of the Bayside Park bike station. Berry said she would love to use Citi Bike for her daily commute into the city, but she's afraid of riding a bike on Jersey City streets.

"I feel like the roads out of Greenville headed toward the PATH are terrifying to ride on," she told The Jersey Journal.

Speeding motorists, drivers veering into and parking in the Garfield Avenue bike lane and potholes on Grand Street and Ocean Avenue are among Berry's concerns. An editor who commutes daily into New York City, she hates the wait times for a light-rail train after rush hour, but until safety conditions on city streets improve, she said, she may hold off on buying a Citi Bike membership.

Jersey City's system is no comparison to the one in New York City, which has 161,143 subscribers. Even on its least used day -- Jan. 27 -- there were 6,760 trips in New York. That same day in Jersey City, there were 93 trips.

Citi Bike is privately funded, but Plotch said federal, state and local governments subsidize public transportation because doing so eases congestion and keeps cities strong. Subsidizing bike-sharing in the future should be a goal, he said.

"That will get even more people out of their cars -- which is great for our health, our city and our planet," Plotch said.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.