Bike Sharing

This just in from NYC DOT: After bike-share equipment stored in the Brooklyn Navy Yard sustained damage in the Sandy storm surge, the city's public bike system is now set to launch in May, not March. The initial service area will also be about three-quarters as large as the plan before the storm. Instead of beginning with 7,000 bikes at 420 stations, then ramping up to 10,000 bikes, the May launch will consist of 5,500 bikes at 293 stations, expanding to 7,000 bikes by the end of 2013. The city still intends to implement a 10,000-bike system, though in 2014, a new administration will be in place.

An anonymous source informs us that, starting today, tenants and employees of the Brooklyn Navy Yard will be able to try out Citi Bike, which will help with "operational training" for the bike-share system.

Earlier this week, Denver's B-Cycle bike-share system came under fire for allegedly side-stepping low-income neighborhoods. The accuser was City Council Member Paul Lopez, and his complaint was not something that system operators necessarily deny: There aren't many stations in low-income neighborhoods.

If you haven't seen Norman Steisel's column in today's Daily News, take a gander. Presumably, News readers are to believe that a lead player in the effort to erase safety gains for his cycling neighbors in Brooklyn, the man who to this day is involved in a protracted legal battle that has had a chilling effect on safe streets projects across the city, is excited -- "in a good way" -- about bike-share. Here's a taste:

The Federal Highway Administration has come out with a handy report [PDF] for communities thinking about getting into the bike-sharing game. Based on a study of 12 planned and existing bike-sharing systems from around the U.S., the report is intended to help explain the basics of bike-share and guide cities through the choices they'll face when launching a system. While the specific advice isn't exactly groundbreaking, the mere fact that the FHWA has produced the guide indicates that bike-sharing is becoming increasingly common in America.

More complete numbers are available from the New York Times poll on bicycle lanes and bike-share, and despite what Times reporters might have you believe, they show that bicycling is very much in New York City's mainstream. (In an earlier version of the online article, reporters Michael Grynbaum and Marjorie Connolly said that "cycling remains far from mainstream in New York." The phrase has been removed from the updated version.)

Poll numbers released by the New York Times today show that 66 percent of adult New Yorkers think bike lanes are a good idea, joining a growing body of public opinion data that indicates strong local support for bike infrastructure.

Making his weekly appearance on WOR with John Gambling this morning, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the software problems affecting Citi Bike equipment won't be resolved in time to launch New York's bike-share system this year.

The latest round of angry tabloid editorials shows no signs of dampening New Yorkers' enthusiasm for bike-share. A Quinnipiac poll released today shows support for a network of public bicycles at 74 percent citywide, the highest positives yet for an idea that has consistently scored very well in public opinion.