NYC launches bike share program, largest in nation

"The privately funded Citi Bike bike-share program will launch with 6,000 bikes at 330 docking stations in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. Officials hope to expand to 10,000 bikes and 600 docking stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Riders now can unlock the three-gear, cruising-style bikes from any station, take them for 45-minute rides and return them to any rack." - AP

That's huge, it will be a great help not only for the people living in those communities but it will also be great for the tourists visiting those areas.

"The nation's biggest bicycle-sharing program got rolling Monday, as thousands of New Yorkers got their first chance to ride a network billed as a new form of public transit in a city known for it.

Suraf Asgedom pedaled along a lower Manhattan street on one of the royal-blue, quick-rental bikes, headed for a gourmet supermarket that's usually a 25-minute walk from his apartment. The medical executive doesn't own a bicycle because it's a hassle to haul one downstairs, find a place to lock it up on the street and worry about it, he said."

Hell no! Suraf would rather walk for 25 minutes than to haul his own bike from his apartment down to the streets! I really can't see his logic, he should just said that I'm a "cheapskate" and I don't want to buy a bike.  

"Some residents are incensed about the bike stations, saying the racks block entrances to their buildings or take up park space for a profit-making program. The city intends to split any proceeds with NYC Bike Share LLC, a company running the program. Citigroup is paying $41 million to sponsor it. MasterCard is paying an additional $6.5 million.

"We're not against the bikes — we're against them in our park," said Lora Tenenbaum, one of the sign-carrying critics who came to Bloomberg's news conference. They want a bike station in Petrosino Square, a small park, to be shifted to a sidewalk across the street.

Some racks have been shortened or moved, including one in front of a Greenwich Village apartment house where owners sued the city over it. Some of the rack was removed last week to create a gap in front of the main door.

Still, resident Deborah Stone worries that the remaining bike rack could make it difficult for emergency vehicles to pull over near the building."

Some people will never be satisfied....

source: http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-launches-bike-share-program-largest-nation-162917845.html