“The Daily Show” on Citi Bike: “Doesn’t Anybody Have a Real Objection?”

Forget the ridership numbers: you know you’ve hit the big time when Jon Stewart and company spend a full nine minutes satirizing you at the top of “The Daily Show.”

The first segment, which leans heavily on the fact that European cities also have bike-share and pseudo-satirizes unfounded fears about the program’s safety, is funny while not exactly pro-bike. But the second segment, embedded above, is a needed laugh for New Yorkers who have endured nonsensical objections about bike-share from NIMBY neighbors and editorial board members alike.

Correspondent Al Madrigal traveled to the West Village to talk to people who object to bike-share in the pricey Manhattan neighborhood. “Apart from the 159 meetings, they didn’t say a word,” Madrigal said to a man who claimed the stations appeared overnight and without warning. “Even though that’s not true,” Madrigal asked, “why is it?”

Madrigal also went to Bedford-Stuyvesant to hear from a man who complained that the program wasn’t expanded further into Brooklyn. Let’s just say Bed-Stuy’s residents come off looking a lot more reasonable — and also managed to pop a wheelie for the camera.

  • Jim M.

    A manual is more than just a wheelie.

  • Anonymous

    Oh, I do adore this segment.

    My favorite quips are: “Even though that’s not true, why is it?” Why don’t journalists say that…ever?

    “You’re a potential accident no matter what you’re doing.” Ain’t it the truth. Life is risky business. Might as well go out and have some fun on a bike in the meantime.

  • Jeff

    “If only Bloomberg could think of some form of alternative transportation, that all citizens could just kind of check out on a regular basis.”

    “The only thing I can think of is tiny cars.”

  • Anonymous

    Keep that bitch in the air, that’s how you do a citibike.

  • Bolwerk

    Well, anti-bike lane people can’t say what they’re really thinking: that bikers shouldn’t exist. And I don’t mean just that they shouldn’t bike, but that people who disagree with them should actually not share the planet with them.

  • Daphna

    I wish Al Madrigal has properly cited the 400 community outreach meetings to determine docking station locations that were held instead of mistakenly mentioning only 159 meetings.

    On the fist 3 minute segment, not embedded, Jon Stewart’s humor misses the mark. At first he says how boring bikes are which is okay but then transitions to predictions of carnage of bike riders which directly contradicts his first point that bikes are common and ordinary.

  • Why, you could have fit 3 cars in there!

  • T-rod

    It is. Too bad there was no manual involved. Just a wheelie.

  • Cyclist

    The only ones DOT ‘reached out’ to was the TA/Streetsblog crowd.

    Why do you think thet started putting out that 400 meetings spiel in early April, and kept repeating it ad nauseum for a whole month before the first docks were even dropped?

    They KNEW it would take everyone by surprise, Typical JSK nonsense.

  • FixedGearHero

    He takes his feet off the pedals near the end, hes losing it but its a quick manual.

  • Anonymous

    Washington, DC has been using this same concept called Capital Bikeshare for 5 years now and very successfully I might add without anyone complaining. I don’t understand why NYC is all up in arms?

  • Miles Bader

    NYC isn’t all up in arms, a few entitled douchebags are all up in arms.

  • Ian Turner

    Are community boards the “TA/Streetsblog crowd”? Because they had multiple meetings with all the relevant community boards.

  • Rizzo

    Hmm, yes, tiny cars. Topless to enjoy good weather. With just 2
    wheels instead of four. And powered by your legs. Now you’re talking.

  • Larry Littlefield

    One real problem. Came across a couple in Prospect Park, far from the nearest docking station, who thought they had the bike for 24 hours, not for as many 45 minute trips as they want in 24 hours.

    Whoever is confused that way is going to be really upset when they are hit with extra charges.

  • Ian Turner

    Worse than that: For the 24-hour pass, you only get 30-minute trips.

  • Poma

    You can put here the youtube link that can be viewed around the world. Your video only works in the US! The link is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz14vP-vUEU

    Great post!

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