NEW YORK CITY BIKE SHARE PROGRAM

                                       New York City Bike Sharing Program

It was a hot summer afternoon day in Manhattan in July 2013. Many people were enjoying their time with their respective families or friends in some cool places such as Bryant Park with its water fountain or Central Park.  Others were trying to get home by trains or buses after a long working day. I was driving alongside Fifth Avenue going south.  Two men hailed my cab at Sixtieth Street.  I stopped and picked them up. After couple blocks we hit the traffic. There were many tourists walking on the side walk, taking pictures, and admiring the beauty of the city.

 What these tourists did not know or at least did seem not to care about was my frustration. I was sitting on traffic for more than half an hour without moving even five blocks. One of my passengers started complaining about the traffic and the cab fare. Beside that he said” the train and the buses are very crowded right now”.  He added “I wish I would have taken a bike”.  He was referring to the newly Bike Share Program introduced to the city transportation system.

The New York City Bikes Share Program was introduced to make commuting easier and cheaper for many of the city residents.  Before assessing how successful the program is after operating nearly a year, I will look at the program itself and its objectives.

  Bike Share is a new phenomenon that has been gaining popularly across many big cities in Europe (Paris, London), and in the United States (Boston, Washington DC) and so on. Boston and Washington DC had introduced bike share in their transportation system long before New York City. The former Mayor of New York City and his administration was the strongest advocates for the bike share for the city. On May 21012 Mr. Bloomberg, touting some of the benefits of the program declared “Subways and buses don’t always go where you want to go, and that can mean a long walk or taxi ride. Now New Yorkers will have another option-hop on a Citi Bike” (Coscarelli).

 The Bloomberg administration was studying how to make the program work well and safer for many years. It started by allocating too many of the city streets and avenues miles and miles of bike lanes. According to Block who was a staff writer for the New York Daily News”  the bike lanes project's completion brings the city's total street bike lanes to 420 miles and its total bike lanes, including park space, to 620 miles”( Block).

The program is about sharing bikes in regular bikes stations.  We can find bike stations mostly in Manhattan neighborhoods, Downtown Brooklyn, and Williamsburg.  So far I have not seen any bike station in the Bronx.  We can have access to these bikes by purchasing a Daily, Weekly or Annual Membership.”  Annual members through August 13, 2013 were 71,395” (Flegenheimer).

 The program has been gaining popularity months and months and causing challenges to the company.” In its opening months, New York City’s bike share system has found itself locked in a perpetual race against its riders- to remove bikes from fully occupied stations, and to refill stations before the supply runs dry”(Flegnheimer). According to Emily Badger who is a former staff writer at the Atlantic Cities,”NYC bike system toppled 7 million trips, and more than 100,000 have signed for annual membership” (Badger).

Another challenge that the company has been facing off is financial difficulties due to low revenue generated by the bikes. Many issues contributed to the low revenue, including “damage to the equipment during super storm Sandy, software glitches, and the harsh winter” (Kusisto, Brown, and Tangel).

                                                              Work cited

Dorian Block,”New York City finishes 200 miles of bike lanes at Grand Concourse cermony”, nydailynews.com, July 9, 2009, nydailynews web, April 10, 2014  

Emily Badger,” Why DC bike share is flourishing while New York’s is financially struggling”, Washingtonpost.com April 1, 2014, washington post web April 5, 2014.

Joe Coscarelli,” NYC Bike share Program Is Citi Bank Blue and Pretty Pricey”, nymag.com, June 7, 2012, nymagasine web  April 5 ,2014.

Laura Kusito, Eliot Brown and Andrew Tangel,” Citi Bike Needing  Millions of Dollars Looks for Help”, wsj.com, March 20, 2014, wsj wed, April 5, 2014.

Matt Flegenheimer,” The  Balancing Act That Bike –Share Riders Just Watch”, nytimes.com, August 13, 2013. Nytimes  web, April 5, 2014.