I thought the intent of the bike-share program was to make boat-anchor type bikes available to the part of the general public that wished to travel at a slow and stately pace, not “faster and easier.” Glad to know I was wrong! Also, does “Unlock New York City” mean that they will have City Bike available throughout all five boroughs?

“Unlock New York” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as the “Uncork New York” slogan used by NYS wine producers, but I guess any marketing for this is good marketing.

@69491335a8b74b169bfbe47c8b4929d0:disqus Actually, the CitiBike I rode moved pretty quickly. The problem was the brakes. Like Vélib in Paris, the brakes are very unresponsive. Smart riders will take ride them slowly just because they’re

@google-eef301554c27cc8ed15647362dd9f850:disqus The Citibikes are very slow by bicycle standards, but still a lot faster and easier than walking. I’m sure a person in average shape can manage to pedal a Citibike at perhaps 10 mph. This is at least three times faster than they can walk. It’s also about twice the speed of a fast walker (like me).

A good rule of thumb is a person can travel 3 to 5 times as fast by bike as they can by walking. That rule of thumb seems to hold regardless of the person’s physical condition. I walk at about 4.5 mph and typically travel at 18 to 23 mph on my Titanium Airborne (4 to 5 times my normal walking pace). The average person who walks at around 3 mph will probably do about 10 to 12 mph on a bike, maybe 15 mph on a really good bike.

Unfortunately, City Bikes will initially only be available in a small part of the city (i.e. Manhattan and the parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx closest to Manhattan. It’ll be a while, maybe never, before they come to the outermost parts of the outer boroughs.

@c3ada303f47cce9fec78f074271108eb:disqus You’ve ridden CitiBike in New York and  Vélib in Paris?

@c3ada303f47cce9fec78f074271108eb:disqus Then perhaps that’s why you have no idea what I’m talking about? I rode plenty of Paris bikes and the brakes were consistently awful. The CitiBike I rode today had similarly terrible brakes–very unresponsive. That you have “no idea what I’m talking about” does not actually change that.

Who cares about the Paris bikes?   The bikes here are a different make (in use in Washington, London, Boston, Montreal etc) and over dozens of rides I have noticed nothing special about the brakes except that they work great in the rain as well as dry conditions because they are drum brakes internal to the hubs. 

@BenFried:disqus Seems very likely. But the responsibility for keeping them in good shape is CitiBike’s. And if they’re running a tiny pilot program and they can’t keep that tiny pilot program’s bikes in good shape . . . I’m still going to recommend caution.

I’ve been in Paris for a total of about 4 months since Velib started, probably averaging 10 trips a week. The only time I ever had an issue with the brakes was once, when the brakes were physically damaged.  Every other time they worked perfectly.

I’d like some brakes like that on my bike.

For any bike share, keeping every bike in tip top shape is a daunting task. I think a lot of it relies on public feedback. Establishing smooth channels of communication between users and CitiBike will be one of their challenges, especially in a town where people are always in such a rush (sorry for the stereotype). I think they realize this and are up to the task, however.