Bike Share Comes to NYC



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New York City recently joined many other large cities, both in the US and Europe, in implementing a bike sharing program. In the past month, these bright blue CitiBikes (Citibank is an official sponsor) have popped up all over Manhattan and Brooklyn, and last week, the addition of a daily rental option made the program more available to tourists visiting the city. There are currently over 6000 bikes available at over 300 locations scattered around Manhattan below 59th Street and parts of Brooklyn.



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The program is intended more as an alternative transportation option to get from one point to another, rather than for recreational use. You buy a card for the length of time you want (24 hours, a week, a month or a year) and then you are able to use the bikes in 30 minute increments between check-ins at one of the CitiBike kiosks around the city.

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 My initial reaction to this program was concern - it is hard enough to navigate the city in a car or even on foot, between taxis and buses weaving in and out of traffic, potholes the size of a small cars and large groups of pedestrians crossing streets against the lights.  I realize these programs have worked well in other cities and they represent a great environmental choice of transportation, but the thought of people not familiar with New York City bicycling around Manhattan is daunting to me.

Ride the City Map

 However, I have been researching the program, reading articles and blog posts about biking in New York, and I must admit, I find it intriguing. Ride The City shows the safest routes, where the kiosks are located and whether there are bikes or open places available. Hop Stop and Google Maps also show bike routes as well. Joanna Goddard of Cup of Jo wrote an excellent post on biking in New York City and after reading about the routes available that don't have any car traffic, I started thinking that it might be fun to check out CitiBikes for an afternoon in the city.  Perhaps, I need to add it to my NYC bucket list!

West Side Greenway Bike Path via

As the program is barely a week old, the jury is out on whether it is a good idea to hand over access to a fleet of bicycles to tourists in one of the busiest traffic cities in the world...What do you think? Would you rent a bicycle in New York City?