Originally Posted by
Letitride3c
Kudos ^ to NY Daily News for voting
another one of shorty's idea that's bound to not work in many of the narrow streets with high density of people and vehicle, already spilling off the sidewalks into the streets.
You can fit a lot more bikes on the street than taxis.
we have had more than a few bikers involvled in fatal accidents in recent years, including the Bowery, Delancy & Canal Street corridors.
More bikes on the street = more awareness by other vehicles to look for bikers. Also, cautious, slow moving bikeshare riders are a LOT less likely to get creamed than speeding daredevil hobbyists on roadbikes and fixies.
Is this supposed to put more New Yorkers on a bike vs. riding the S-L-O-W MTA buses going across town (oh, wait, there ain't none on Canal Street - 14th Street, yes)
Um, the M8 goes crosstown between Canal and 14th. But yeah, it's not much. And as a downtown resident, I am definitely hoping that the bikeshare program will make it a little easier to get across town.
- otherwise, can someone explain the logic behind a 30 minutes daily allowance in buying a $9.95 day pass - how far can you go in these rugged bikes while observing all traffic laws, given the road conditions all over town.
It's not a 30 minute daily allowance. You just have to check in the bike at least once every 30 minutes (but you can take it right back out).
Citibike isn't designed for someone who wants to take a day-long bike ride. It's designed for people who want to use a bike to get from one place to another instead of other forms of transportation. The $9.95 day pass should actually work pretty well for tourists with a good map (or smartphone app), as they could bike from one tourist site to the next, check in their bikes, and then take out new bikes when they're ready to move on to the next site. A self-powered alternative to the hop-on/hop-off buses.
One of the small business owner that we met outside one of these "cute" bike racks freshly installed mentioned that the narrow one way mixed-use street now lost more parking spaces, normally used during the day for truck deliveries as it's no parking except for certain permit holders (hint! hint!) and it is going to be even harder for the streets to be cleaned by DOT's sweeper as they will be forced to go around.
Maybe it'll encourage those deliveries to be made at off hours when there's less congestion? Wouldn't that be a good thing?
There are compromises inherent in any new infrastructure project. The benefits of bike sharing I hope will vastly outweigh the downsides. And if they don't, they can always cancel the program and rip out the stations easily enough.
I supposed that the NEXT NYC Mayor, after the election could override & reverse this mayor's executive order, then - again, maybe not. It is revenue sharing & a Win-Win for CitiBike ...
Revenue sharing? Citibike is costing the city nothing and making Citibank nothing. Citibank is very, very heavily subsidizing it in exchange for the marketing value of the program's visibility.