Bike Share Programs

YankeeFan · May 26, 2013

New York City's begins tomorrow:

He festooned New York City with hundreds of miles of bike lanes and dispatched chairs and picnic tables to Broadway, where cars once roamed.

He helped finance plans to send the No. 7 train to the Far West Side, and carried the banner of congestion pricing, even if in vain.

But for all of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s efforts to reimagine transportation in New York, critics and supporters seem to agree on the one that will most likely define his 12 years at the city’s controls.

And it starts on Monday.

With the introduction of a European-style bike-share system, billed by city officials as the first new wide-scale public transportation option in more than half a century, Mr. Bloomberg’s longstanding bet on cycling has reached its climactic moment.

The lofty ridership predictions presented by Mr. Bloomberg and his hard-charging transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, will no longer be theoretical. Opponents’ admonitions of overstuffed streets and perilous pedaling will prove either prescient or exaggerated.

“It is the free market, if you think about it,” Mr. Bloomberg said on Friday during his weekly radio show. “If people want to use them, they’ll use them. If people don’t, they don’t.”

The program, which is to begin with 6,000 bikes stationed across parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, will face immediate scrutiny from residents, riders and elected officials whose love or hate for the endeavor seemed to intensify over the past year of delays.

The holdup, wrought first by faulty software and then by flooding to equipment stored at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during Hurricane Sandy, has given the rollout a sharper political edge. The system, which was supposed to begin last summer, will now be introduced through the peak months of an election year. And the crop of candidates — many of whom have been lukewarm toward Mr. Bloomberg’s cycling policies in the past — will be watching closely.

“If this is a fiasco — and to me, a fiasco is mostly that the bikes just don’t get used — then, yeah, it’s going to tarnish the legacy,” said Charles Komanoff, a transportation economist and longtime cycling advocate in the city. “More important, it’s going to make it easier for the next mayor to backtrack.”

But if the program is an instant success, he added, “it’ll mean that almost anybody imaginable who is mayor is going to have to stick with whatever this mayor has already done.”

For all the administration’s legwork — which included hundreds of meetings with community groups, elected officials, property owners and other stakeholders, and an online feature that received more than 10,000 suggestions for bike station locations — precise demand for bike share is near impossible to gauge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/nyregion/on-eve-of-bike-sharing-debut-watching-for-a-fiasco-or-a-success.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Click to expand...

Will it be successful? Does your city have one? Do you wish your city had one?

old_tony · May 26, 2013

YankeeFan said:

New York City's begins tomorrow:

He festooned New York City with hundreds of miles of bike lanes and dispatched chairs and picnic tables to Broadway, where cars once roamed.

He helped finance plans to send the No. 7 train to the Far West Side, and carried the banner of congestion pricing, even if in vain.

But for all of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s efforts to reimagine transportation in New York, critics and supporters seem to agree on the one that will most likely define his 12 years at the city’s controls.

And it starts on Monday.

With the introduction of a European-style bike-share system, billed by city officials as the first new wide-scale public transportation option in more than half a century, Mr. Bloomberg’s longstanding bet on cycling has reached its climactic moment.

The lofty ridership predictions presented by Mr. Bloomberg and his hard-charging transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, will no longer be theoretical. Opponents’ admonitions of overstuffed streets and perilous pedaling will prove either prescient or exaggerated.

“It is the free market, if you think about it,” Mr. Bloomberg said on Friday during his weekly radio show. “If people want to use them, they’ll use them. If people don’t, they don’t.”

The program, which is to begin with 6,000 bikes stationed across parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, will face immediate scrutiny from residents, riders and elected officials whose love or hate for the endeavor seemed to intensify over the past year of delays.

The holdup, wrought first by faulty software and then by flooding to equipment stored at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during Hurricane Sandy, has given the rollout a sharper political edge. The system, which was supposed to begin last summer, will now be introduced through the peak months of an election year. And the crop of candidates — many of whom have been lukewarm toward Mr. Bloomberg’s cycling policies in the past — will be watching closely.

“If this is a fiasco — and to me, a fiasco is mostly that the bikes just don’t get used — then, yeah, it’s going to tarnish the legacy,” said Charles Komanoff, a transportation economist and longtime cycling advocate in the city. “More important, it’s going to make it easier for the next mayor to backtrack.”

But if the program is an instant success, he added, “it’ll mean that almost anybody imaginable who is mayor is going to have to stick with whatever this mayor has already done.”

For all the administration’s legwork — which included hundreds of meetings with community groups, elected officials, property owners and other stakeholders, and an online feature that received more than 10,000 suggestions for bike station locations — precise demand for bike share is near impossible to gauge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/nyregion/on-eve-of-bike-sharing-debut-watching-for-a-fiasco-or-a-success.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Click to expand...

Will it be successful? Does your city have one? Do you wish your city had one?
Click to expand...

Madistan -- also known as Madison, Wis. -- has one. The Bikes look like those huge, ugly monstrosities from the Leave It To Beaver era. Can't imagine they're much good for getting you up to speed.

The reason this will fail is very simple: Anyone who wants to bike to where they're going already does so on their own much-better bike.

Armchair_QB · May 26, 2013

This will fail miserably. I hope they didn't waste any tax money on this.

That said, I'm sure some New York street entrepreneurs will make a little cash re-selling stolen bikes.

JR · May 26, 2013

Toronto has a Bixi Bike program, as does Montreal, Ottawa & London, England. Here's the site:

https://toronto.bixi.com/

Armchair_QB · May 26, 2013

That's great but we're talking about New York.

Uncle.Ruckus · May 26, 2013

Armchair_QB said:

That's great but we're talking about New York.
Click to expand...

YankeeFan said:

Does your city have one? Do you wish your city had one?
Click to expand...

Don't be a dick.

YankeeFan · May 26, 2013

Armchair_QB said:

That's great but we're talking about New York.
Click to expand...

Other cities experiences are interesting too.

Now, another city's experience might not translate to New York, but it's still interesting.

MileHigh · May 26, 2013

Denver has a hugely successful and popular bike-sharing system. Of course, it's fraught with cyclists who think they own the road and don't have to obey street signs. But people love it, but that's a given since Colorado is probably the most bike-crazed state in the union.

http://denver.bcycle.com/

Armchair_QB · May 26, 2013

MileHigh said:

Denver has a hugely successful and popular bike-sharing system. Of course, it's fraught with cyclists who think they own the road and don't have to obey street signs. But people love it, but that's a given since Colorado is probably the most bike-crazed state in the union.

http://denver.bcycle.com/
Click to expand...

That's not surprising and it makes sense there even if it's not practical to bike around for three to four months of the year.

MileHigh · May 26, 2013

Armchair_QB said:

MileHigh said:

Denver has a hugely successful and popular bike-sharing system. Of course, it's fraught with cyclists who think they own the road and don't have to obey street signs. But people love it, but that's a given since Colorado is probably the most bike-crazed state in the union.

http://denver.bcycle.com/
Click to expand...

That's not surprising and it makes sense there even if it's not practical to bike around for three to four months of the year.
Click to expand...

They do shut down the program in the winter, but the most underrated part of Denver is the weather and I've ridden my bike around the city many, many times in the winter. It's a complete misnomer that Denver (and actually the entire state) gets locked in snow/ice-wise when the first flakes fall in October (which is good because it keeps most of the riff-raf out, but that's been changing over the years). As I've said many times, I've worn shorts in February and a heavy jacket in June.

The Big Ragu · May 26, 2013

They stuck those bike racks all over my neighborhood. There is one right outside my building. In some spots, they took away parking for them -- in an area it was already impossible to park. And they already had an incident in which they were trying to get a guy on a stretcher from his building to an ambulance, and the bike rack got in the way.

I have no idea if this will be successful, but if it is, it is going to be due to tourists (there are a lot of them in my neighborhood, which is why they loaded up the area with the bike racks).

An annual membership is more than $100 with tax, and if you keep the bike for more than 45 minutes you pay extra. That seems silly expensive to me for access to crappy bikes that are ugly, billboards on wheels for Citibank. I own a bike. I can ride it wherever and whenever I want and not have to feel like I am on the clock.

ringer · May 26, 2013

If it's more expensive than the subway, you constantly have to watch the clock to make sure you're not over the allotted 1/2 hour and there aren't even racks uptown... so what's the point?

Locals would be better off on a skateboard, imo.

Log in or Sign up

Bike Share Programs

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

old_tony Well-Known Member

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

JR Well-Known Member

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

Uncle.Ruckus Guest

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

ringer Active Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Bike Share Programs

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

old_tony Well-Known Member

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

JR Well-Known Member

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

Uncle.Ruckus Guest

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

ringer Active Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches