Bike Sharing

Last week, Columbia University professor David King ran a great response to the recent grousing about bike-share stations. He posted this graph depicting how public perceptions of congestion pricing programs change over time.

Kids love bikes and shiny new things, so it's not a huge surprise that this group of middle-schoolers would flock to the bike-share station at East 11th Street near First Avenue. You have to be 16 to join Citi Bike, but what we see in the video, posted by EV Grieve, are a lot of potential future members. What kid wouldn't prefer a bike ride to the crosstown bus?

Here it is: A bike-share station with bikes, and it's not a photo shoot. A reader sent this shot of Foley Square across from the courts this morning.

It took a few days, but the Post found someone to go along with its bike-scare nonsense, according to the Post.

Hats off to Matt Flegenheimer for the enlightening piece in today's Times describing the lessons from other bike-share systems that informed New York's big decisions about Citi Bike. This passage stood out, given the recent tabloid coverage about station placement:

We have a message from FDNY that should once and for all take care of fabricated concerns about bike-share docking stations getting in the way of emergency vehicles.

Manhattan Institute fellow Nicole Gelinas submitted this response to Charles Komanoff's critique of her weekend opinion piece in the New York Post about bike-share safety.

The official Citi Bike mobile application is now available to download. The app provides a map of station locations and real-time updates about bicycle and dock availability, as well as turn-by-turn directions, riding tips, and a timer to help Citi Bike users avoid charges for exceeding the limits per trip. The app also allows users to locate nearby bike shops and, of course, Citibank branches; this summer, restaurant and event recommendations will be added.

Just when you thought the bike-share detractors might have run out of steam — or at least taken a time-out — along comes an intellectually muddled piece in the NY Post warning of dead bike-share users littering Midtown streets.