Ted blogged a while back about bike shares in Brooklyn. There's a opening brief, several opposition briefs and a reply in the NYT Sunday Review today titled "Cycling in the City"; the thrust is that one writer thinks the emphasis on cycling is creating an unholy mess and most of the others think he is a dinosaur from the diesel age.
I've been surprised at the unmitigated success of the bike share racks here in DC. The bike lanes through mid-town are a little harder to gauge -- it sure is confusing when driving, but I never drive downtown, so perhaps it just takes practice.
But for a city like DC, which is prevented from taking revenue from out-of-district commuters, heavily emphasizing bikes is sensible economic policy. NYC's story is more cloudy.
As a year-round bike (and other strange human-powered vehicle) commuter, I can attest that downtown DC is a zoo of bikeshare bikes. Intellectually, I think this can only be a good thing. Having said that, I'll admit that on the many occasions when I find myself stuck behind some bikeshare goofball riding 7 miles an hour down the trail in his suit and Vibram Five-Fingers and weaving all over the place, a large part of me wants to tell them all to get the heck off of my lawn.
ReplyDeleteSo far the Chicago experience seems positive with most of the rentals on or near the Lakefront so not much change to regular commuting for either bikers or drivers.
ReplyDeleteI still haven't ponied up my $100 for unlimited access. I will report as soon as I've tried them out.
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