Bike Sharing

In a good sign for the deployment of Citi Bike in New York City, Chattanooga went live with its bike-share system last night. The system, called Bike Chattanooga, consists of 300 bikes at 28 stations. More importantly, as far as New York is concerned: It uses the same bikes and kiosks as Citi Bike, which has been delayed by software glitches.

Where can bike-share stations be located, according to the East Side's not-in-my-backyard crowd? Not Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, which is both too serene for bikes and too crowded with protestors. Not around the corner from the Israeli consulate, which is too fat a target for terrorists who, as Marcia Kramer could tell you, prefer to deliver explosives via bike. Not in areas that are too residential. Nor in areas with store entrances or medical offices. And if that leaves anywhere -- the sidewalk under a 42nd Street overpass was recommended as a model location -- no station should have more than ten docks.

The hold-up with NYC's bike-share launch is technical, not political. Mayor Bloomberg revealed this afternoon that Citi Bike is behind schedule because of kinks in the system's software that are still being worked out.

The city's bike-share system will launch in August, not the previously announced start date of July, according to the Citi Bike Twitter feed.

Attention Scott Stringer: The anti-bike share NIMBYs of Turtle Bay don't speak for everyone who uses Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.

Hey, remedial math teachers: the City Comptroller’s office is hiring. At least, let’s hope so. Judging from Comptroller John Liu’s innumerate broadside against the City’s Bike Share program, they badly need help in basic arithmetic, not to mention fact-checking.

When bike-share launches next month, eventually adding 10,000 public bicycles to the streets of New York City, it won’t bring new chaos and peril to city streets, contrary to recent statements from Comptroller John Liu. Even so, with the number of cyclists set to increase dramatically, the launch of bike-share is a good opportunity for the city to go even further in its successful efforts to improve street safety.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer seems to have joined up with the NIMBYs of Turtle Bay in their fight to keep the United Nations -- and more relevantly, those who live near it -- free from bike-share stations. Echoing the rhetoric of a rogues' gallery of East Midtown's most committed opponents of livable streets, Stringer wrote yesterday to Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, asking DOT to reduce the number of docks at the two stations planned for Dag Hammarskjold Plaza because of the site's "unique characteristics." (The letter can be read in full below the fold.)

A new fee imposed by NYPD could decimate free bike education programs that serve thousands of New Yorkers, and would jeopardize the education component of the city's bike-share program.